She was often gripped with the desire to be elsewhere

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

Inside View

Back View

Audrey & Gregory zip on the Vespa

Address Is Approximate

I hope you as enchanted as I was by this tender, lovely very short stop-motion animated film by director Tom Jenkins - Robots!  Cars!  Google maps!

Address Is Approximate from The Theory on Vimeo.



The video arrived in my inbox today from one of my favorite blogs - Freakoutville Xpress  - accompanied by  this most appropos quote -

FreakoutVille Xpress

'I think that the ideal space must contain elements of magic, serenity,sorcery and mystery.'    - Luis Barragan, Architect

Thanksgiving - happy & grateful

I'm grateful that this is in the world and equally grateful that it's not directly in my world.  Enjoy life, kiddos.

Chinese Oldster Chorus covers Lady Gaga's 'Bad Romance'.   Maybe they'll be special guests on her Thanksgiving TV special tonight.

Those Girls Again

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.

The Alpha & Numeral Girls

Retro

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

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 Simons http://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.

Art Dream

To Thine Own Self Be True

And why not??  'Be yourself as everyone else is taken'.  Oscar Wilde

Be True Shoes

Zombies & Bots

Recently David Eagleman's Incognito - the Secret Life of the Brain inspired 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.

 Zombies & Bots

Don't Take Anything Personally

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.

The Ceramic Wonders of Pam Stern

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.


All about Pam at http://www.pamsternart.com/

Seeker by Pam Stern