Be tender with yourself

One of the fun things with collage is how images just appear in your sphere.  You're always on the lookout for them and they always find you.  It makes a nice alive element in life.

Lately an array of images of particularly interesting people have come into my world and I'm populating my collages with them.  Sometimes it is challenging to be different and I thought this message was timely. 

 

Be Tender collage

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Anonymous Content collage series always begin with images that just grabbed my attention that day.  It's a free vibe of what may enter the space.  Sometimes themes emerge and a title with it.  This Anonymous collage ended up with a preponderance of blue.

Anonymous Content Blue collage

 

 

A vintage photo of classic Main Street where I live showed up, complete with retro cars and people. Alterations were required! The 5&10 and CocaCola soda fountain are long gone.

Retro Main Street collage

 

I was so taken by this vibrant woman in yellow that I had to make this collage just for me.  It is derived from Counterpoint, a painting I saw on Antiques Road Show.  The artist is Bernard Goss and the owner's mother knew him.  The appraiser said the 1954  painting had some controversy in the title and subject, as it showed an African-American pianist and Caucasian dancer performing together. Goss was a Chicago-area artist who was active during the WPA. He was a member of the important South Side Community Art Center.

Interestingly, this painting does not appear on any sites I found that included Goss' paintings.  I assume the owner has kept it in private hands.  I did a screen-shot to capture the image.  I have my own Chicago connection, having lived there for seven years when I was young.  The background is an edited vintage postcard of the Wrigley Building.

Counterpoint collage - Homage to Bernard Goss

 

Till next time.

Anonymous Content - Free Form Collages

It's been a very stressful couple of months.  A dear Elder friend had a emergency hospitalization, which turned her life upside-down, ending up with her moving into assisted living.   My husband and I have had to step in and manage all the changes.  In all this, down-time was devoted to just 'chilling' and energy for creativity waned.

But through the stress, I collected images.  I liked to sit with my tablet in various waiting rooms and in the evening and check out Pinterest, FaceBook and other sources for images, saving them to my tablet gallery.  After awhile I occurred to me that I had all these images and I could do a focused free-form collage.

In the past, when I was creatively stuck or without a definite theme, I would use the creative device of taking magazines and using images only from that source to make a collage.  It is a freeing way to work, although different from an inner-theme driven piece.

So I proceeded to use only the collected Gallery photos for these collages.  I was inspired to call them 'Anonymous Content ' collages by the oddling tv show, Mr Robot.  'Anonymous Content' is their production company and one night the title just caught my eye and felt so apropos for this type of collage work.  

Creativity finds a way.

Anonymous Content

Anonymous Content 2

Anonymous Content 3

Anonymous Content 4