Dusk

I was putting the new studio back together after painting two walls and, of course, that called for a major reorganization. While sorting things, I took a look at pieces in a box labeled "finished collages." Well, they seemed finished when I made them but soon afterward, I became less enthusiastic about many of them. That's why they were in the box.

But looking at this one with fresh eyes, I decided it is finished. It began as an exercise in composition and use of a color I'm not fond of - yeah, pink. Once the gel transfer of the tree was added, the piece took on new life as a landscape with a rosy glow reminiscent of dusk. 4.4" x 4.4" on acid-free watercolor paper. {SOLD}

False Sense of Security: 3

There may be hell to pay with a certain investment firm and a certain credit card company if they get a look at this. The top lizard's camouflage is the inside of a Charles Schwab envelope; the bottom one is shielded by an AmEx promo. I confess to feeling mighty insecure when making this. Someone got my AmEx card number and charged a gazillion airline tickets. Okay, only 7. None were in my name and none originated or ended in Ohio. Mighty suspicious. Even so, the activity wasn't flagged 'til half the tickets were bought and, then, it was via an e-mail sent on a weekend. Suffice it to say the card is history. Was kinda sad; it was my first credit card and made me feel like I'd made it, because back then you had to have a certain income to qualify. 6" x 4.5" on acid-free watercolor paper.

Mad Women: Margie Considers Her Options

When I spotted the ad for revolvers in an early 20th century woman's magazine I was taken aback by its placement in the magazine and by its strident message that not only should "ladies learn to shoot" but that their daughters should, too. I knew I had to use it in a piece and once the Mad Women series began developing, well, it was a natural. What I like best about "Margie" is how happy she looks as she mulls over ways to stick it to the man rather than ways to stick savings stamps into books. 6.5" x 4.5" on acid-free watercolor paper. [SOLD]

The Grand Tour: 11

Given the seaside setting of this fashion plate from the July 1868 Peterson's Magazine, I couldn't resist a nautical theme. So, ships decorate two of the dresses via illustrations from a Hamburg-Amerika Line lunch menu and brochure in the family archive. I wanted to keep the originals since relatives took the trips, but the paper was in such poor condition that it was better to scan them into the computer for permanent archiving and let go of the paper. Continuing the watery imagery: a map of Venice on the jacket of the woman in the middle of the group and a snippet of another map of the English Channel on her hat. 9.5" x 7.5" on archival mat board. Matted to fit a standard 14"x11" frame.

Horace Lytle's Book

In the previous post, I wrote about the lure of found writing and this collage features a prime example in the middle panel. I've turned this piece in every direction and still am undecided about which way it should go. Take a look and see what you think ...

        

Migration

Look closely and you'll notice erased writing to the left of the date that was penciled onto an endpaper long ago. Found writing from notes in margins and doodles on inside book covers to inscriptions on title pages and messages on envelopes, intrigues me. It adds a tangible bit of history yet is so often out of context that it also adds mystery.

The background is a mash-up of vintage and recycled papers: a ledger sheet, the inside of a security envelope, tissue paper, a vintage map, a section of a flower illustration and endpaper - topped by the birds (one, a gel transfer) that give the piece its name. 5" x 5" inches on acid-free board. {SOLD}

NoMatter How Mother Dressed ThemThe Kennedy Sisters Refused To Be Typecast

This started as a stencil. But once the girls were cut from photo I opted to use the image for a collage rather than as a stencil. After the background was pasted behind the cut-outs I just had to add the girls back into the picture. Luckily, I had cut them out carefully enough to re-use them. The embroidery thread was another way to tie them together and to introduce a bit more color. 7.25" x 6" on archival mat board {SOLD}

Plate 25

This is a companion piece to Plate 37 and part of the longer format I am exploring. Half the pieces are nature-inspired while the other half, are more - hmm - scientific is the best word I can think of at the moment. The hand is writing on a vintage Cincinnati public school report card found at a flea market. (Note to family: destroy my reports cards if you're not going to keep them!) Other elements are antique marbled endpaper, antique engineering engravings, title page of an antique French book, lining of a book spine and antique map. 4.5" x 11.5" on canvas.

False Sense of Security 5

Sometimes, a collage - even one that I think is done - needs one more thing to make it complete. In this case, it was the blue game piece. It was added after I made a mistake on another collage in the series and covered it with a vintage Dennison mailing label. It looked cool and made me wonder if anything should be added to the other collages in the series - and - voila! The game piece was a great find in a shop in Zanesville, Ohio. Got an entire box of them in myriad colors for $2. {Sold}

The Grand Tour 9

One thing I find appealing about using antique engravings that were printed on lightweight paper is the show through from the other side when they are glued down. In this case, the text on the page behind this illustration from Godey's Lady's Book peeks through as does a slight shadow behind her from the fashion illustration on the other page.

Her Walking-Dress is layered with maps from “Guyot's Physical Geography” (Scribner, 1872), “Harper's School Geography” (Harper & Brothers, 1882) and a 1957 U.S. Geological Survey of Idaho; as well as a sliver of a mosaic illustration from an art book. Off to the sides are vintage postage stamps and a vintage label from an Italian tarot card deck I picked up at a small print shop in Florence in 1989. Mixed-media, 3.75” x 5.75” on archival mat board. {Sold}

Olivia Sat Mesmerized as Jonathan's Libido Bubbled Over

When I came across this illustration in an antique children's book, I wondered what the girl was thinking as she watched the boy blowing bubbles, then, what he was thinking. They each appear so proper and straight-laced that I couldn't resist the temptation to nudge them into naughtiness. The bubbles are painted with acrylic and hand-punched from a range of sources that include vintage postcards, antique ads and Andy Warhol fashion illustrations. The headline, from an issue of The Chatterbox magazine, was a serendipitous find. 5.5" x 7.5" on acid-free watercolor paper. {SOLD}

Whatever the Occasion, Susie and Marie Had Each Other's Back

Something clicked when I found the 1953 sewing pattern illustration at the bottom and the dual-personality woman at the top (the top section of the cover of a 1950s-era "Nesco Modern Way of Electric Cooking" booklet).  But it wasn't until I saw the wording in a woman's farm journal ad for baby chicks that the piece came together. 3.75" x 5.75" on archival mat board.

The Grand Tour: 8

This is the first of The Grand Tour collages to take a different approach. It juxtaposes the carefree, fashionable women of a Peterson's Magazine fashion plate with images of (from left) Russian, Swedish, Chinese and Tibetan women whose lives are markedly different. The engravings - from "Circling The Globe In Stories of Travel" - are contemporary to the fashion plate, heightening the disparity. There also is a voyeuristic quality - as in almost all travel - to the women gazing from behind a fence. 11.5 " x 8.25 on cloth-covered art text book cover, hung with a velvet ribbon.

On the Wings of Summer

This is another of the seasonal collages in the long-format series (to view the other one: click here) and it includes antique endpaper, the faded cover of a vintage Little Blue Book, an embroidery pattern courtesy of Godey's Lady's Book, an illustration from the 1905 Prang art education manual for children I'm so fond of and butterflies cut from "The Butterfly Book" by W.J. Holland (Doubleday, Page & Co., 1902), which I nabbed at the public library's annual used book sale.

The series is at the framer's being matting. After finishing, I realized they wouldn't fit pre-cut mats. Yep, another lesson learned. They will float on the backing board with space between the collage and the mat opening. This way, they can be viewed to the edge, which is critical on these. 4.5" x 11.5" on canvas. (Sold)

The Grand Tour: 12

This is among my favorites in The Grand Tour series, because it led to the rediscovery of a magnificent 1896 book in my archive: "Circling The Globe In Stories of Travel." It is full of terrific engravings of sites and people, and is the source of the Egypt and Venice illustrations here. The women are from an October issue of Peterson's Magazine but not sure what year (it was a torn engraving). The lithographed flags behind the trio came via a beautiful 1880s guide to world flags published in the Netherlands by Tresling & Co.  5.5" x 8.5" on archival mat board. {Sold}

A Child's Garden of Verses

I've been scanning in images from Robert Louis Stevenson's timeless "A Child's Garden of Verses" and these two struck me as relevant, given the big, late winter rainstorms we've been experiencing. The delightful illustrations are by Margaret Campbell Hoopes and are from a 1921 edition of the book published by the Henry Altemus Co. of Philadelphia. The poems were written by Stevenson for his children and are a favorite in our family. This edition belonged to my late mother-in-law but we have plenty of others. I'm trying to find a good source to link to for more info on the illustrator and publisher, and will add them when I do. So far, it's been passing mentions of them.

California Dreamin'

Is it just me or do the woman and children in the engraving appear not too thrilled? Their facial expressions are what launched me on a path of altering Victorian illustrations. "Bet they wish they were at the beach," was my first thought when I came across the illustration. So, why not add the beach? In this case, it came in the form of a recycled book publisher catalog cover. I colored their cheeks a rosy hue and added snow as scattered dots and large circles of acrylic paint.

I learned a valuable lesson after finishing: a map should be relevant to a narrative piece, not added for the sake of composition. Found that out when I made this into a card for friends Jon & Carol Falk, who took my husband and me on a fantastic trip to Napa Valley last fall. Carol, a former teacher, just happened to mention that she looked closely at the map, expecting to see California. Ouch. Lesson learned. 5" x 5" on acid-free watercolor paper.

The Lass With The Delicate Air

I matted this collage the other day, so thought I'd post it. It began as a test in adding a mitered border, something picked up in a bookmaking workshop. The border is made from antique endpapers, which I clip from books soon after buying them and now put in an archival sleeve with the name, date & publisher of the book attached. Now being the operative word there! The butterflies were cut from a recycled wrapping paper sample square and the flower is an antique print.

The girl is an illustration from the Chatterbox, which along with St. Nicholas, is among my favorite 19th/early 20th century children's magazines. I blew the image up a few of times on a photocopier, because I was thinking of turning her into a rubber stamp. Still might. After that was done, I painted her with watercolors. Oh, almost forgot to mention the sheet music that gives the piece the title: yes, it's a vintage page. {SOLD}

Note: just found a Time magazine feature about the cherished Christmas annuals that British magazines published that also touches on the history of the Chatterbox.

Art Foundations: 101

The minute I spotted this editorial feature in the November 1939 Ladies' Home Journal, I knew I'd pair it with an engineering engraving from a 19th century book nabbed at a library sale. Little did I know, though, it would be the perfect engraving; turn it on its side, and it looks like a plan for any one one of these bras. Yet once the two pieces came together, inspiration fled.

So, they sat on a work table for about two weeks. Then, the idea to paint the engraving pink came along and the rest went quickly from the addition of the Sears & Roebuck measuring tape (for measuring at home to mail order) to the image of the woman, er, sculpture. Thin paper washers were placed on strategic spots but they seemed forced and were replaced by inked circles that almost appear part of the originals.  9.5" x 7.5" on archival mat board.

The Grand Tour: 13

I'm winding down The Grand Tour series for a bit. One more is in progress on a work table and it will be No. 14. I've made 11 since moving into my new studio just eight weeks ago and need a break from them. I loved the voluminous skirt of the dress, which was shown in the June 1865 issue of Godey's Lady's Book, and the wistful appearance of the woman. Behind her is a German postcard with its original stamps. The city scene is softened by a vellum overlay under the railing that came from a travel brochure. To show the range of The Grand Tour, which hit all the European Continent's hot spots, Venetian gondoliers glide by her hem.  4.5" x 7" on the inside of a varnished, leather antique book cover; hangs from a brass chain. $75 + $5 shipping & handling

Of note: the dress is described as "cuir-colored* poplin Imperatrice, trimmed with narrow black velvet, and fancy jet and gilt buttons" with a corsage (bodice) of "very long coat tails, trimmed with velvet and buttons, and finished with black chenille tassels." *dark brown

What's Wrong?

I thought I'd follow up in the previous post with this one since it also incorporates the medical student class notes from 1909. This time, they are paired with a cool brain illustration from an ad that I liked, because the text and red dot are not where they should. The used parking garage tag appealed to me because its numbers are so left brain. Unlike the previous collage, this one's a done deal. 5" x 5" on acid-free watercolor paper. {SOLD}

Fragile: two views

I've been debating whether this collage should have a vertical orientation (above) or a horizontal one (below) - and am still up in the air. It started with the handwritten text, which is from a series of three 1909 classroom notebooks kept by a medical student that I found at a flea market. To the left of the notes, is a piece of a leather book spine with a shattered surface that reminded me of a fracture. To the right is a thigh bone and text from "Young People's Physiology" (American Book Co., 1888).

Looking at this piece now, I'm also tempted to crop it a quarter-to-a-half inch on all sides, especially if it ends up in the horizontal position. I'll post the outcome when I make up my mind about the final look. 5" x 5" on acid-free paper.   {SOLD}

Update: the vertical orientation won out ... and I didn't crop it.

Eye Contact

There's a company called Papaya, whose graphics I've long admired. They are dreamy, neo-hippie, exotic, cross-cultural - think Anthropologie aesthetic and you have the idea. Well, I was looking at a Papaya ad and admiring the complexity of the artwork when it occurred to me that I ought to try something similar.

There was a catch: digital layering and imagery is integral to Papaya's look but I was determined to stay old-school. In the end, I think I could have achieved more of the style by softening the flowers with an acrylic wash but I did get 10 layers into the piece, and that's not counting the painted and inked rings or the watercolors on her face. I'm sure to try this again. 5" x 5" on acid-free watercolor paper

Wills's cigarette cards

The graphic wallop that can be created in a 2.6" x 1.4" is amazing. That's what I thought when I spied the card above in a case at a Michigan antiques mall. I HAD to have it, and got it for a mere $1.

It's No. 29 in a set of 50 First Aid cards that were tucked into packages of Wills's cigarettes in 1913. I was familiar with sports cigarette cards but not with DIY ones. Of course, the minute I got home I started researching them and discovered that dozens of series were published from Household Hints (in 1927 and 1936) and Flower Culture in Pots (1925) to Engineering Wonders (1927) and English Period Costumes (1929). Oh, and the requisite sports cards of footballers and cricketers, these were British cigarettes, after all. 

I became obsessed with obtaining the entire First Aid set, which I did much later at an outdoor antiques show in New Harmony, Ind. On the back of each card: detailed first aid instructions. I cannot explain it - other than my odd sensibilities - but the images of bandaged body parts on cards, from left, 48, 47,  40 & 39 are among my favorites.

At that same New Harmony event, I also scored a 50-card set of Gardening Hints, from left, cards 5, 6, 7 & 8.  Find out more about cigarette cards at this terrific UK site.

Night Terrors

I've changed the name of this collage about a dozen times and think the title is "Adele Never Left the Dolls Alone at Night" on the actual piece, which is not at hand, so I can't check. It's part of an informal series that starts with innocent Victorian illustrations and turns them into something a bit sinister or weird or unsettling or sexy. I have a stack of illustrations awaiting that light bulb "aha" moment.

Hate to admit it but I can't trace where the main image is from in my archive. Ditto most of the scary stuff in the doll house. I now make a note on images as habit, but didn't when I started some of these. That said, I do know that the arm is from "Morris' Human Anatomy: A Complete Systematic Treatise" (Blakiston Co., Philadelphia, 1893). It's a fat book filled with detailed, spot-color illustrations.

My one surprise - and disappointment - after hitting on the idea was the lack of monstrous images in my stash.Will do something about that when the outdoor antique/flea markets get underway. 5.5" x 7.5" on acid-free watercolor paper {SOLD}

Fresh from my drawing table ... The Grand Tour: 4

I've been working on The Grand Tour series for the past few weeks in anticipation of my first show (see blurb at top right) and just wrapped up 10 new collages. The one here is bit different from the rest, because it incorporates a black & white 19th century engraving from Godey's Lady's Book while all but one other collage use hand-painted, color fashion plates from Peterson's Magazine as a jumping off point.

The maps are from 1872 and 1901 geography books. My favorite part is the background "fabric," which is Christmas wrapping paper designed by post-mod architect Michael Graves. It arrived as a folded sheet tucked inside a greeting card and is based on drawings he made in Tuscany. Perfect for The Grand Tour. 3.75" x 5.75" on archival mat board. {Sold}

Plate 37

I am obsessed with phrenology images and have a collection of dozens of engravings from antique magazines, dictionaries, anatomy texts and encyclopedias. I found the detailed head above in the Peoples Cyclopedia of Universal Knowledge (Hunt & Eaton, 1881) and cleaned it up to make an image I could transfer for this quirky, pseudo-scientific piece.

It's part of the long-format series mentioned last week and which I hope to get back to soon. It's a mix of materials from a vintage postcard back and an almanac calendar to notations scrawled on a book binding to the engineering plate the collage gets its title from. The complex transfer turned out so well that I'm tempted to hang it in the studio to remind me they can work, which hasn't been my experience with the last few I have tried. 4.5" x 11.5" on canvas {SOLD)

Mad Women: Yvette Knew Exactly What She Wanted

Yvette is an alter ego for Mad Men's Don Draper. Minus the angst, that is. The patterns are Butterick and McCalls from the 1940s and '50s, and the jewels are - who else? - Tiffany's. The illustration was one of many scattered through a catalog from about five years ago and is on vellum, so there's some transparency as well as a wonderful softness to the lines. I figured I'd use them one way or another, and saved all the pages.

It's difficult to see onscreen, but those are Swarovski crystals on her hat and dress - as well as one as a tie pin for the guy in the suit. Trust me, they almost have that Tiffany-cut gleam. 5.25" x 9" on archival mat board. Framed with conservation glass. Price: $100. (SOLD)

Arnold Guyot: Putting it on the map

While searching the archive for images for a collage series called "The Grand Tour" I came across three books I had forgotten about. You'll read about two of them sometime later; the one that has me captivated now is "Physical Geography" by Arnold Guyot, published in 1872 by Charles Scribner's Sons as part of Guyot's Geographical Series. I'm unsure whether I knew the extent of the maps when I bought this - that seems unlikely given how wonderful they are. Six are double-pagers hinged in so that they can be removed intact.

For collages, I use materials in not-so-great shape. Even then, I feel guilty deconstructing, okay, ripping up, books (in my past: a masters degree in library science). But I took this apart, because damaged pages needed to be removed before they impacted others. It was hard labor; the volume was meant to stand up to classroom wear and tear. It was glued, stapled and had tapes running from the spine through the pages. I try to be careful, so I end up looking at each page closely, the upshot: it became obvious the maps were not headed for dissection. At least not by me. So, they were cleaned, scanned and tucked into archival sleeves.

I'm unsure what's next. Conservation and framing? A sale? Give away? Donation? But I do know that now that I've rediscovered them, I want to ogle them a bit longer. As Guyot wrote in the preface "the numerous maps constitute in themselves a work as laborious as it is indispensable. They have been prepared with great care, and are thought to embody the results obtained to the present day in this domain of scientific inquiry." They are colorful and handsome, especially the pulsating maps charting Temperature of the Air; the Course of the Annual Isothermal Lines (detail, below); Rain Over the Globe; and The Course of The Tidal Wave In the Three Great Oceans and the Great River Basins (at top).

I try to step back in time and imagine the thrill of looking over the maps, and the beautifully engraved illustrations of natural phenomena, exotic animals and foreign lands. It must've been something to have one of these in a classroom.

Amelia Was Determined To Not Fade Into the Wallpaper

Like the previous collage, this piece was a struggle. I set it aside, came back to it, set it aside - you get the idea. The cut-out had the original image of the woman hinged to the background, allowing her to be slightly lifted from the surface and for the pattern behind her to be revealed. I had done that with another piece and liked the effect, but it wasn't working for me here.

So, she was clipped off and then I went to town, adding the poem, vintage postage stamp, more layers of recycled tissue paper (yeah, saved from holiday gifts, etc.), and spattered and sponged ink. 6" x 6" on acid-free watercolor paper. {Sold}

Out On A Limb: 2

This is a departure for me and it was prompted by a similar collage in a mail-order catalog. It was priced at $75 and I figured, "Heck, I can do that." So, I did using an Audubon birds coloring book published in the 1930s to create templates for the bird and branch.

By the time it was done, I wasn't happy with the piece or the process. It felt like production work; that is, it wasn't fun. So, I set this one and the first one - yet to be scanned - aside.  Coming across them again a few weeks ago, I felt they needed more. Leaves - here, cut from a vintage children's songbook - and additional wing feathers were added. Both are framed and look better than expected. Even so, I'm not sure I'll make others. 5" x 5" on archival mat board. {Sold}

Her eyes betrayed nothing

For me, the history of the paper used in a collage is as interesting as the finished piece. But, again, that's probably my Inner Librarian talking. The combo here is the cover of a damaged early 20th century book "The Language and Poetry of Flowers" (DeWolfe, Fiske & Co., Boston) that belonged to my late mother-in-law; a page of a sooty dictionary for teletype operators; and recycled images from book publisher catalogs (from the era before most of the catalogs went online, in other words, just a few years ago). Paper, cloth, wax. 5" x 7" on acid-free paper. {Sold}

Untitled

This is one of three digital collages created for the front of my business card. It's the most popular design, but that's not saying much since the cards are new. I'm a fan of digital art but am a reluctant digital artist; I prefer the challenge of seeing how many layers and effects can be achieved using scissors, paper, glue, paint, ink, etc. But I needed the cards fast and wanted to showcase a variety of images. In the end, it was a lot of fun making the pieces.

If the girl looks familiar, it's because she in the Dream house collage. But there's more of her here, she's been flipped and she's from a scan. I'm a scanning fiend. The thought of using, then, losing images is hard on me. Call it my Inner Librarian. I've turned dozens of the scans into simple black & white illustrations for transfers; some are being tweaked so they can be made into rubber stamps; and some pop up on greeting cards to friends and family. Hmm. Maybe I'm more of a digital artist than I thought?

False Sense of Security: 1

Since False Sense of Security: 2 was posted the other day, I thought I'd come back with the collage and fantastic 19th century engraving that triggered the series. 5" x 5" on acid-free paper. {Sold}