Gypsum Mixed-Media Work-In-Progress

Years ago, as a friend started blogging poetry that tended to settle deep into my soul, I asked if he would mind if any of it ended up in my crafting. He did not mind, and every once in a while his words still inspire me. Unfortunately, those "once in a whiles" that inspiration hits rarely correspond with when I have time to sit and craft. This year, though, I have slowly been working on a piece that will incorporate several lines of his poetry.

The background of this piece is a panel from an used USPS Priority Mail box, "stamped" in dark grey acrylic paint using wadded up packing paper, then layered with some green acrylic paint, then gel medium mixed with white and pearl acrylic paint. This background piece sat near my desk for months, until this evening, when many instances of mental contemplation met with crafting time and some final decisions. The major downside of having used the gel medium on the background is that I now cannot use the spray inks I had planned on using to ink over most all of this background. They wipe right off! Clear gesso would be the solution to this dilemma, but I only have white gesso on hand at the moment.
This post is just the layers I added tonight. I will post again when I add the final layers, embellishments, and poetry to this project. *crossing my fingers that it turns out well!*

{crafted while listening to Pedro the Lion's "It's Hard to Find a Friend"}