We Be A'Dancing

So it's Christmas morning and I find this delight on Facebook posted by my dear friend, digital artist Deb Booth. Just the space I want to be in today.   Deb's intro says it all.   Enjoy!

'This is one of the most delightful things I've seen in ages! What is it about people dancing/singing/creating together that makes me cry??? Anyway - do yourself a favor and watch this - it's funny, heartwarming and just what's called for.'

Merry Merry to All

Old School Collage

Recently a friend sent me a copy of a collage he had done years ago.  We had a great conversation of the days before digital collage.  In our era, we had the wonderful Xerox machine - and at that time, most or perhaps all,  'copiers' were, in fact, Xerox machines.  At first there was only black and white images and then, eventually, color.  And after a time, one could enlarge or reduce an image directly on the machines. I remember being very excited about that capacity.  Earlier eras used tracing and carbon paper and multiple copies of the same image source, say, a newspaper or magazine, for repeated images. 

 

In the mid-70's another friend of mine  lived in New York City and came across a color Xerox in a print shop.  The owner of the print shop had a stash of xeroxable iron-on transfer papers someone had left behind.  He sold it to my friend and allowed him to make color copies for the same price as b&w, which was fantastic, because typically color copies cost about $1.00 a piece.  I was living in rural Virginia and color xerox machines had not arrived. 

 

I was working with a lot of vintage images then [yep, still at it] using old postcards and ephemera and hand colored photos.  I would paste-up these images on cardstock and mail them to my friend, who would then color xerox them on the transfer paper and return them to me.  I transfered the images to fabric and made them into quilts, hangings and boxes. 

 

My favorite was a quilt made of those old-school lurid National Enquirer covers - which required double-xeroxing to get the text correct [the first xerox would create a mirror-image of the text]. Alas, I no longer have any of this work except for one box, which I made of hand-colored photos from my childhood, which I made into little stuffed 3-dimensional figures. 

 

Awhile back my former husband, while rooting about in his storage unit, found a box containing a supply of unused iron-on transfers from that time.  I was as excited by the images as I was then.  I haven't tried them yet, and am not sure that they will transfer after all this time, but it was a fun moment just seeing them.

 

My collage friend also shared some interesting facts about Chet Carlson, they inventor of the Xerox. He and his wife were Zen Buddhists.  They donated the money that funded Ian Stevenson's research at the University of Virginia  on children who recall past lives, and that work continues with his successor, Bruce Greyson, M.D., who is the Carlson Chair.  Greyson is an authority on near-death experiences.  The Xerox was a novel and nonintuitive combination of physical phenomena which had, until Carlson, no know applications.  Thank you Chet!

 

 

 

Flag Ceremony collage by Sarkesian

 

 



Milne Street box



 

 

 

 

 

 

This sad time

This was sent to me in an art newletter by Stephanie Lynn and it shared my own feelings so perfectly, I am passing it along.

 My heart has been filled with tremendous sadness throughout the weekend. 

My thoughts and prayers go out to all...

the losses can not be compared.

Charlotte Bacon, 6 - Daniel Barden, 7 - Olivia Engel, 6 - Josephine Gay, 7 -

Ana Marquez-Green, 6 - Dylan Hockley, 6 - Madeleine Hsu, 6 -

Catherine Hubbard, 6 - Chase Kowalski, 7 - Jesse Lewis, 6 -

James Mattiolo, 6 - Grace McDonnel, 7 - Emilie Parker, 6 -

Jack Pinto, 6 - Noah Pozner, 6 - Caroline Previdi, 6 -

Jessica Rekos, 6 - Avielle Richman, 6 - Benjamin Wheeler, 6 - Allison Wyatt, 6 

Rachel Davino, 29, school staff - Dawn Hochsprung, 46, teacher -

Anne Marie Murphy, 52, school staff - Mary Sherlach, 56, psychologist -

Victoria Soto, 27, teacher - Lauren Russeau, 30, teacher

Nancy Lanza, 52, mother

Ebb and Flow

This collage grew out of a conversation with my dear friend, Ellyn Dye.    We were commiserating with each other about finding the patience to 'go with the flow', the awareness to not 'push the river' and the permission to feel grumpy when things just are not moving as we wish.  Oh we all do lament the truth that we are just not in control!  In any event, we both came to the point of remembering that reality is always ebb and flow.   Ellyn is out there 'celebrating the magic of life' at LionMagic.com

It took me a bit to get around to bringing this collage to life as I just couldn't find the right images that resonated with 'ebb and flow' to me.  I knew I had the right 'flow' when I found the  red-dressed woman  and she also echoed the energy of  fiery red Ellyn.  

When I came across the reclining woman in my photo stash, I was drawn to her and then resistant to the fact that she seemed asleep, so I kept looking for the 'ebb'.  In a dream it came to me that she was in the ebb and comfortable enough to sleep, while awaiting the flow to move her into action.     This image, by the way, is from the cover art for a wonderful book - The Mystery of Grace - an urban fantasy by a favorite author of mine, Charles DeLint.

The black & white figures are the yin and yang of ebb and flow and the spirals the movement.  The ocean is the essence of ebb and flow.  But all these descriptions are what I can say after I compose the image.  The process itself is much more organic and, pun most intended, in the flow.

Electra!

While watching an antiquing show, I saw this wonderful 50's sideshow banner for Electra - the electrified woman.  I just loved her and knew I had to make a piece.  She's quite popular as I could find many colorful posters, postcards and buttons with her image on it.  I created this box, using a high glaze, embellishments of the some of the key images with additions of my own, and magical crystal balls for dimension.  She's happily ensconced in my studio and I smile whenever I see her.

Electra - sideshow banner by Snap Wyatt ca. 1950's

Electra! assemblage 12x9x1.75"

Electra! back panel

And why do I just love this kind of thing???

Quote of the Moment

I love quotes.  I collect them.  I capture quotes in text, love to find them as an image and so on.  I enjoy them, laugh at them, get inspired by them and yep, like to share them too.

The other day I came across this lovely girl holding a sign - A Day Without Laughter Is A Day Wasted - which is a pretty good quote to share. It looks as if the original image was street art on a wall and photographed.  I was captured by her and felt a kind of kinship with her.  So with a little PhotoElements I'm asking her to share some of my favorite quotes.

I found the original image on TheZooom.com but have been unable to find it again or the artists or photographers name.  So with a tip of the hat  and an appreciative thank you to the original creator, I'll let little Libby share my thoughts of the day.

Quote heard  as dialogue from CSI:NY!!

Retro Rose

I can get pretty involved with digital - images, searching, noodling around - in my cozy office with the big screen,  but one of the things I have come to value about our monthly Art Day - is that no matter what I've been doing, the Art Girls get me back in the studio for some 3-D, hands-on time. It's such a different energy and working with 'things' always refreshes me in its own unique way.  

The core of Retro Rose has been living in the studio for some time.  I believe she was designed as a jewelry hanger. Her lovely pink torso is glossy ceramic and her stand is some metal that looks like brushed aluminium.  The overly large plaster rose teapot [found on a Dollar Tree sojourn some time ago] called to me as the perfect 'head'.  I was drawn to the texture, the overblown, out-of-proportion nature, which added just the right amount of 'offness' I am always responding to.  I glossed some of the green trim to engage with the gloss of the torso.  A little hand on top was just right for another signature element that I like.  

Bits and pieces of jeweled drops and hanging wired pieces, pearls and chains found their way here and there. I high-glossed the main rose and the smaller rose is made from natural seashells with their own gloss - deconstructed from an odd centerpiece I found at Goodwill.  

But she wasn't done and I searched for the element that completed her.  I  found [or they found me], tucked away with some images, the cardboard figures of classic film stars. I've had these for years and am pretty sure they were a gift from my dear friend, Michael.  If not, he surely would have given them to me.  I sprayed a ceramic-like high gloss on the figures to, again, match the gloss of the torso.  We have Betty Grable [I think!] in blue, Bette Davis and Sonja Henie.   Retro Rose has happy energy for me.  Fun.

Retro Rose Assemblage 21" high

Detail - Betty Grable, Bette Davis, Sonja Henie

Thanks Candy Chang for sharing your vision

A trip through Art History!

All that and a catchy tune!  Fun.