Travel - just love it and am fortunate to have it in my life. But when I'm not traveling my art often expresses it in one way or another. 'She was often gripped with the desire to be elsewhere' came to me on a postcard from my friend Francine which she sent to me in 1982. I came across it this year, altered it with amped-up color, and it has inspired several pieces and the image and sentiment has become part of my repeated image repertoire. The black&white photo on the original postcard is credited to photographer Marcia Resnick, who I was most pleased to discover anew on the web.
This assemblage includes many of my repeated features - collage, doll heads and parts, tiny globes & compasses, alpha blocks and the usual this and that. Big Ben and a replica vintage box camera make an appearance. And the vintage travel posters and luggage stickers in the collage naturally include many places I have actually traveled to. You might note that Audrey Hepburn is traveling along on the wonderful Vespa she made famous in the 1953 film, Roman Holiday, with Gregory Peck. In this piece, Gregory makes his appearance with Audrey on the Vespa on the side.
I don't know when I actually saw Roman Holiday for the first time - probably on television - but I definitely remember coveting a Vespa thereafter. Not to mention thinking of my own trip to Rome one day. Audrey on that Vespa was truly an icon of the free spirit to me.
Gripped with the Desire To Be Elsewhere Assemblage
So the other day I was looking at the dolls I use in many of my assemblages, and thought I should photograph them and use the images as design elements in collage. These 6-7" porcelain dolls just speak to me. The seem to carry some essence of 'beingness' that says something, but I really don't know what. And I don't mind a bit that I don't really know.
Pieces involving the Girls pop up pretty regularly. After stamping the dolls in the first piece with letters, I continued that theme - trading off with numbers or letters - thus they became the Alpha & Numeral girls. The dolls in the collage sport punctuation marks instead of letters & numbers. There's always a rebel in the bunch.
Retro images just speak to me. I love old advertising and vintage commercial design. Fashion backward. So maybe it's childhood or classic movies. Maybe is brainwashing by the ad industry. Whatever it is - retro images capture something that I want to express.
Retro
We Are A We
Vintage dolls represent the many - and sometimes conflicting - aspects that make up the collective we each are.
Art Dream is a collage that emerged from just what is says - a dream about art.
The evening of the dream I had watched two television programs about artists on Halogen tv - a quirky little network on cable and online http://halogentv.com. They have programs with a contemporary flare and a line of shows about art and artists - Aperture, Art In Progress, Desination Art and more.
This particular night featured Tim Nobel and Sue Webster, 2 uber-contemporary artists. http://www.timnobleandsuewebster.com/ I was especially struck by Nobel & Webster's Dirty White Trash, an assemblage of trash arranged precisely to cast a shadow of the couple themselves.
Dirty White Trash _ Tim Nobel & Sue Webster
The other program featured Laurie Simonshttp://www.lauriesimmons.net. Laurie uses ventriloquist dummies, puppets, paper cut-outs, miniatures and more to create amazing photographs and films.
The Music of Regret stars Meryl Streep [!] with Laurie's creations and songs.
The dream began with a video scene of me saying that I was going to use everything in my studio to make an on-going assemblage. The first thing I did was create a tower of shoes - using some completed shoe art and all the shoes I had on hand for future pieces. I then spent a lot of time searching in second-hand stores for a large cabinet. Back in the studio I then began adding to it and gluing on it everything at hand. The dream then moved on to some old fantasy projects I've enjoyed musing about for years - making an ongoing assemblage out of a wooden storage building, a vintage gas station and a retro diner.
The collage itself includes mini-collages of each of the design elements. Details within the collages include some of my favorite retro images - a Nash Metropolitan, vintage toys, mannequins, a Kit Kat clock, as always, dolls & doll parts and so on.
I like to think of this collage as a sketch-book - holding the promise of future work.
Recently David Eagleman'sIncognito - the Secret Life of the Braininspired some new lingo to my vocabulary - zombies and bots [as in robots]. In my art, I often explore the patterns, reactions, old hurts and wounds that sometimes [ha- often!] get 'the keys to the car' and take me down a highway I didn't intend. Zombies and Bots refer to these unconscious things that are wired in the brain and often direct traffic when we're not looking [can't get away from those driving metaphors today]. Kids, we're just not in control the way we like to think we are.
Years ago I read a seemingly simple but profound book called The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. I later got the opportunity to meet him personally and spend some time with him. His energy was unique and aspects of his philosophy have stayed with me.
Many times one of these axioms arises to the surface to be considered again, as in something that led to my most recent collage. The theme is quite obvious and self-titled! Maybe it will speak to you as well.
I was googling the other day for images related to a personal collage. One of the ways I search is to put in key-words relevant to the collage and see what comes up. As you can imagine, I often find treasures I'm not looking for and of course, I invite the idea of 'coming across' wonders in this way. My personal 'StumbleUpon'.
The other day I found Pam Stern. Her work is complex and strong, evocative and full of mystery. It truly spoke to me and I hope it speaks to you.
Portland, Oregon is such a vibrant place and, as you know, one of our favorite cities. So naturally the Numeral Girls want to bring their unique energy to Portland, too. They're such copy-kats! All the images are from my own Portland photos. The inside of the lid is the great Portland group, All The Apparatus and they just capture that Portland vibe. The little red 'imp' on one side of the box is street art I found painted on a wall of a derelict building. There's a close-up below. And should you doubt, the 'Keep Portland Weird' slogan on the other sideis a image of an actual and very popular bumper-sticker.
One of the Art Girls brought these lovely hand-made Italian shoes to the studio. I used one before in the original white of the shoe. My friend had an idea to paint her shoe red but in the end it didn't please her, so she passed the shoe along to me. I sprayed a high glaze on the red shoe, which gave it a ceramic-like finish and changed the character of the shoe. The porcelain hand fit perfectly - in size, texture and that little off-kilter touch I like. Red roses, flowers tipped with black, black chain and the mirror base completes the hard-glaze vibe.
Sometimes the work is just introspective. These collages all use found images. When working on trying to express an emotional arena, I often find images by googling the topic I am trying to explore, like fear or anger. The synchronicity of the found images never ceases to amaze me. I love the feeling of the Multi-verse joining me through the Web.
Well, folks the only solution I found for my blog problem was to use Goggle Chrome as the browser for working on my blog. Aaargh. I do wish compatibility was the norm. Perhaps I'll come love Google Chrome but for now I'm feeling a bit manipulated by the whole thing. But hey, on to art....much more fun.
So sometimes I have to do a little customizing before I can do a piece. A couple of my continuing themes are crows and doll heads - which if you know my work at all, you have probably noticed by now. Here I am hand-painting little white plastic doves that are meant for bridal decorations and thus, transforming them in my totem crows.
Doves Into Crows
Another special technique of mine is altering dolls heads, doll arms, legs and all sorts of other items into bisque white objects, giving them a kind of plaster effect. I achieve this by dipping the item into white ceiling paint. Ceiling paint is the magic ingredient as it is designed to cling to the ceiling and drip less. I tried to add color to the ceiling paint but it effects the 'staying' quality and doesn't produce the matte bisque effect.
Dipped Heads
Supplies on-hand, here's what emerged.
Easy-Chair Crow Girl
Caged Crow Girl
No Crows here, but a 'dipped' doll arm anchors one's attention and yes, they are real boxes of candy cigarettes - a very non-PC item I found in bulk at a end-of-lot discount store.
Candy Cigarettes on TV
My friend Helen and I collaborated on this piece. The white demon faces represent one's inner judges. Although they are matte bisque white, they are not made by dipping, but by using an white air-dry clay in a rubber molds of - you got it - demon faces! Really, you can find anything you need out there on the Web.
Essence Emerging From The Judges
And to follow-up from my last post - here are some pix of the exuberant All The Apparatus from Portland. Check out their animation/music video in my sidebar and go to AllTheApparatus.com
Ah my friends, Google and Blogger are letting me down. I've been trying to share new images but for reasons I've been unable to ascertain and still without a fix, images are a no-go. A quick search on the Web shows I am not alone with the problem, but alas, answers are not yet forthcoming. But naturally, tenacious as a French Bull Dog, I'm working away at it. Stay tuned.
Had a grand time on a recent trip to the wonderful city of Portland, Oregon. Came across a fantastic group - ALL THE APPARATUS playing at the famous Portland Saturday Market. And that is a very appropos band name since they include trumpets, violins, chimes and an accordian!!
Would love to show you a pix, but for now you can check them out through live performance video at this link: http://youtu.be/d77WHWAVhNg.
I received a wonderful surprise in my inbox the other day - notice that I'm a featured artist on ArtsyShark - the website showcasing emerging artists! I'm happy to join my dear friend Deb Booth [see post of March 21, 2011] as part of the ArtsyShark collection.
ArtsyShark is the creation of Carolyn Edlund. She's spent 20 years running her own production studio, designing and making handmade ceramic jewelry and later worked as an artist rep. ArtsyShark includes hundreds of interviews in all fields of arts and crafts, now including. my art.
Follow this link to my 'Featured Artist' page and then explore and enjoy the rest of ArtsyShark.com and subscribe to keep interesting people and art coming into your inbox.
I recently had a great conversation with my son, Alexander. In the course of it, he said, 'Mom, sometimes you just have to remember to change the furniture of your mind.' This was so germane to what we were discussing that it just broke open the inner wall I was struggling with. This digital collage just flowed from that experience.
I was bouncing around the Web the other day and came across some clever images with art/inspirationquotes included. I enjoyed them so much, I then went searching for more. Now it's time to share. If you have a favorite you'd like to pass one, please do so!
Looking for another image, I discovered the wonderfulness of FreekOutVilleXpress... a fantastic art blog, combing art, music and quotes. The intro description sets the tone as well as this zippy freeky cat logo.
I make art. You look at it. ‘Kay? Hey Everybody! Or those of you who have somehow accidentally stumbled upon this page. Welcome to Freakoutville Xpress. What’s happening here is a whole lot of art work and occasional short compositions about stuff. It’s not like I have a master plan… yet
Found images. Googled images.Created & altered images. Juxtapositions & incongruencies.
If anything I've shared here speaks to you, do let me know. I'd love to hear from you.
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