Out On A Limb: 16

© Out On A Limb: 16 (2012)
mixed media collage: recycled print &  catalog cover,
vintage illustrations, India ink, watercolor, gouache,
acrylic sealer. 5"x5" on wood panel
Price: $65 (SOLD)  

Just the other day, I was debating whether to use the beautiful images by artist Arthur Singer from Golden Press' 1961 edition of Birds of the World. Well, the die was cast when I paired a trio of Singer's vivid parakeets with a vintage, black-and-white illustration.

The latter's from Vol. I of the Encyclopedia of Source Illustrations: A Portable Picture Library of 5,000 Steel Engravings (Morgan & Morgan, Inc., 1972). The 2-volume book reprints the amazingly detailed engravings created for the multi-volume Iconographic Encyclopedia of Science, Literature and Art (1851). Expect to see more of the engravings cropping up in coming months, because they're my new obsession.

Flashy album cover pages

I've been mining a stack of Victorian photograph albums for a series of collages I hope to start in the spring and just had to stop and scan in the ornate cover pages. They remind me of how special photographs once were. It's difficult to see it in the scans, but each page is embellished with glowing gold ink.

I hesitate each time I pick up an album at a flea market, antique shop, etc. I feel as though I'm stealing someone's history and wonder how the album ended up there, who it belonged to, who the people are and what their stories are. More often than not, people are not identified or there isn't enough information to track them down (reminder to self: go through family photos and add captions).

As much as I'd love to know the true stories, I'm content to start creating my own narrative. I'll post some of the photographs from these four albums in the future.