To the rescue ...

I find that the final piece for a show can be the most problematic. Maybe it's burn out. My mind gets kind of fuzzy, and I can't make decisions. I was determined to include a ballooning piece in the RolePlay exhibit that opens later this month. It's a nod to my late brother, David, who was a balloonist. (Though I should add that he never had to be rescued.) It was coming together fairly well, but didn't feel right.

Sometimes, a stroll around the work table pays off. Looking at a piece sideways or upside down can help me see it more clearly. If that makes sense?! Earlier, it lead to moving the watercolor sections from the top of the collage to the bottom as a way of grounding it, and providing a horizon.

Another stroll, and the collage became a vertical. Aha! Even though I liked, liked, liked it, I let it sit overnight. 

When I returned to the studio Thursday morning, I changed my mind again. Back came the original horizontal version. There are many other changes, too. It's so much fun when it reaches the point of embellishment. It's similar to when the prep work for a meal is complete and you can - finally - get to cooking and playing around. 

The woman in front was added - she pops out courtesy of black foam core board behind her. More rescue tools were glued down, including some ridiculous ones. And the misguided mister is now losing his hat, too.

One thing left to do: name it! 

  

Playing through ...

© Foreplay

mixed-media collage by Sara Pearce

vintage print, map (U.S. Geological Survey), illustrations (Woman's World, 1922; Architectural Forum, 1960); ink, watercolor, marker; archival mat board.

Framed with conservation glass for UV protection. 17.5" x 8.75"

Yes, another sporting woman collage for the RolePlay show, which opens at Cincinnati's 1305 Gallery next Friday (3.29). Gulp! She's much more modern - from the cover of a 1922 issue of Woman's World magazine, to be exact - than the women in the other pieces.

I wanted to make a golf collage and had a half dozen or so Victorian golfers, but the women were too tiny. I knew she was around and wrestled with her size. But I love the image - so full of vim and vigor. Lord knows where that ball went!?

In a nod to the lean '20s aesthetic, the collage is less cluttered than the others in the series. But like all the others, it includes a map and layering. The numbers were a last-minute addition. I wanted to add numbers in some way. Maybe as a bib on her (like a marathon contestant)? Or a measurement of the green (there is more to the collage, by the way; I couldn't scan the entire image).

Then, I found the numbers in a 1960 issue of Architectural Forum. They were on a series of tissue-thin pages introducing new sections in a special feature on American architecture. On each page, a different number was darkened. Luckily, this one was still around. I had to cut each out and position them, before deciding. Somehow, I don't have the ability to visualize an element in a collage unless the entire thing is cut out, and placed.

Well, still one more to wrap up. Women balloonists out for a ride that turns into a rescue mission.