Dream on ...

© Maria And Osgood Aspired To Be Among The 1% (2012)
mixed-media collage: vintage illustration and cookbooklet
cover;  recycled paint chip sample, greeting card text and
champagne ad; watercolor; ink; acrylic sealer.
5" x 5" on archival mat board. Matted & framed. (SOLD)

People wonder where my ideas come from. Generally, the best ones are not over thought; they POP into my head while I'm looking through my stash. The illustration of the couple here is a good example. The moment I saw it, I hit on the idea of a collage about aspirations.

I knew color champagne bottles were somewhere in the "drinking" bin - yes, my stash is that organized. Then, in the "cooking booklets" bin, I found the caviar cook-booklet, a 1984 leftover from my food writing days. I was already using the paint chip samples for the entire series -  I love the names of paint colors and was waiting and waiting to use the growing pile of samples - and found one with "Champagne Ice."

Most of my pieces are about empowering women and the working title for this was "Maria Felt It was Time to Introduce Osgood to The Finer Things In Life." At that point, it didn't have the text bubble. Then, a funny thing happened: I got into a political discussion with my studio neighbor, painter Frank Satogata. Afterward, I saw the collage with new eyes and a new title POPPED into my head.

That change spurred a search for words, which I thought would bolster the commentary - and add movement to a somewhat static piece. I still can't believe I found just-the-right text bubble. It's from an early 1980s set of satirical British postcards called "Life in the Fast Lane."

As to whether this is a Republican or Democratic statement, well, that depends on the point of view of the person looking at it, doesn't it?

Deconstructing to reconstruct

A few collages have been sitting around the studio for a little over a year and, to be honest, I'm tired of them. Unlike many other artists, I don't like to stockpile work. So, little by little, many of the pieces are being reworked. "Spring," above, which I blogged about last February, is the latest collage to be given a new life.

I cut it in half, added paper to the left side, then a Victorian scrap butterfly that happened to be on my work table at that moment, and - voila! - "Out on A Limb: 17," below. The bottom half of the original will find its way into another piece, while the new collage finds its way into my "Expecting to Fly" exhibit at 5th Street Gallery next month.

© Out On A Limb: 17 (2012)
mixed-media collage: antique French postcard & text,
vintage print, recycled catalogs, acrylic gel transfer,
watercolor, acrylic sealer, acrylic varnish.
 5" x5" on Claybord/hardwood panel. Price: $75. (SOLD)

Flip-the-flap anatomy

I'm building up quite a collection of anatomical images from 19th century and early 20th century medical books. They fascinate me to no end, especially those that are interactive. Anatomy, by its very nature, requires cutting the body open - offering a multitude of illustrative opportunities. My favorites are the flip-the-flap charts in early 20th century medical encyclopedias, which brought home the inner workings of the body in a simplified - and fun - format.

I'm not the only one enthralled. The face plate, above, has been reproduced on modern book catalog covers, t-shirts, posters, etc. and in altered phrenological versions. Mine is from the massive Medicology: Home Encyclopedia of Health: 10 Books in One Volume (University Medical Society, 1905) - an estate sale find chock full of great illustrations in addition to the series of flip-the-flaps. I was lucky, all were intact and the book cost a mere $25.

Since finding it, I've come across other charts, most of them falling apart. A few weeks ago, I bought a huge world atlas and when I got it to the studio and opened it, out fell pieces of two other charts. Since those are already a mess, they'll be used in collages. As for this one and the others at home, well, they're staying intact ... for the moment. Meanwhile, here's the sequence of flaps behind the face ...

             

Food, glorious food!

© For the Twins, Cocoa Was More Than a Beverage,
It Was a Lifestyle (2012)

mixed-media collage: recycled tissue paper,

vintage illustrations, antique ads, ink,

 watercolor. 5.5"x11.5" on archival mat board.
Matted & framed. Price: $150. (SOLD)

You know you're having fun in the studio when you find yourself laughing out loud. That's been the case during the past two weeks as I've worked on new collages for The Art of Food, an annual exhibition at the Carnegie Visual And Performing Arts Center in Covington, Ky.

You would've thought that as a trained chef, and former restaurant critic/food editor & reporter, this would have been, well, a piece of cake. No. I struggled with ideas for weeks and weeks after I was invited to show. I've loved this exhibition from the get go and wanted to make striking pieces that equaled my strong feelings.

I landed on an elaborate, decoupaged glass idea that would combine anatomy and food. Problem? I'd never done decoupage on glass. I researched, read, tested and retested before coming to the conclusion that I wasn't going to master it in time for the exhibit, which opens March 2 but is being hung a week or two earlier.

So, back to my original idea for a series of narrative "Food for Thought" pieces. This is the first one and it's part of my effort to scale up. I'm not sure that I'll post every piece in the series, after all, there should be some surprises left for exhibit goers - as well as an enticement to get you there. [SOLD]

Out On A Limb: 12

© Out On A Limb: 12
mixed-media collage, recycled catalog cover
& wrapping paper, vintage illustrations, watercolor,
colored pencil, acrylic sealer. 6"x6" on wood panel (2012)
Price: $85 (contact me - e-mail's at the top of the page) 

Yesterday was gray, cold and wet, wet, wet. I thought I'd cheer myself up by posting colorful parakeets. This morning is equally drab, so here's another one of the bright bird collages I'm working on for March's Expecting to Fly exhibit at 5th Street Gallery.

I was determined to use this peacock - and following along with the black & white/color bird pairings of earlier collages in the series, it was paired with a black & white engraving. A partridge was also in the print, and it was echoed via a gorgeous, colored partridge.

So where are those birds? Well, the black & white ones are the backside of the parakeet print and the colored partridge is back in the files. Why? I goofed. It seemed that the b&w print needed to be toned down in order not to compete with the beautiful plumage of the colored birds. I wanted to use paper to achieve a muted effect and chose a golden-hued piece of vintage tissue. Well, it was a too opaque and obscured the background.

Onto Plan B, which turned into a challenge. Since the series title is Out On A Limb, I wanted the peacock on a limb. I hit on the idea of using a peacock feather as a branch. Piece of cake, right? Wrong it took hours to cut out the feather from a recycled piece of wrapping paper. Then, once it was done, gulp, I decided the collage needed another one. After cutting out another entire feather, only part of it was used. So it goes.