The roots of creativity

Gulp. It wasn't until I logged onto the blog this morning that I realized how long it's been between posts. All I can say is that it's been a busy few weeks at the studio given the extra holiday open studio hours, my last-minute decision to produce a calendar and a scramble to finish pieces begun before the holiday crush. It's also been hectic at home and I have to admit that I've spent more time away from the studio than I thought I would this month.

You know, decorating the house; shopping, wrapping and mailing gifts; going out to lunch, meeting people for drinks and heading to parties; and baking, baking, baking. I've made Christmas cookies since I was able to use my mom's Sunbeam mixer on my own. And I have never stopped. There was even a time when I saved up vacation so that I could take off the first  or second week of December in order to bake - just bake - and made dozens of kinds of cookies.

The list always included elaborately iced gingerbread made from my late mother's top-secret recipe. She taught all of us how to make soft, fragrant and delicious cookies that are as far from most people's experience with gingerbread as you can imagine. We rolled and cut them them out by the hundreds, creating a factory-style line for decorating them with vanilla-scented buttercream frosting, colored sugar and a wide range of candy.

Our family was large - seven children - and didn't have much money, so my mom focused on making things and teaching us how to make them, too. We crafted snazzy, sequined ornaments; learned how to knit and crochet; did our first drawings on seemingly endless rolls of newsprint my dad lugged home on the bus from his job as a newspaper pressman; painted tons of dry macaroni and strung it on miles of thread to make jewelry; built wooden fort after wooden fort after wooden fort; put on plays and hosted summer craft fairs; and - well - you get the picture.

I like to think that much of my art has its roots in those childhood experiences and in my mom's ceaseless creativity. She was restless, inquisitive and talented in ways that were often underrated in those days. I think she'd appreciate where life has taken me and knowing - wherever in the universe she may be - that she still plays a role in my creative life - whether I'm at home baking cookies or in the studio making art.
 

Mad Women: Iron-Willed

These 1950s-era women appear so confident, determined and modern (for the time) that I couldn't resist pairing them with images of antique and vintage irons. The working title was "Unlike their grandmothers and mothers, Sue and Joan never ironed." But I wanted to imbue them with more power than that.

Of course, the irony is that every item of clothing required ironing in the 1950s - or at least seemed to - and a woman dare not step out in a wrinkled ensemble - or allow her children to. I spent enough time standing at the ironing board to know how lucky I am not to have to do that these days. 5"x5" on archival mat board. [SOLD]

Winging it: birds are always in style

Until recently I hadn't used an image cut from an antique postcard in my collages. I sometimes use the backs and often use fronts with tourist scenes - especially those with writing and postage stamps on that side. But for the Out on a Limb series of bird collages I had started combining color images of birds with black-and-white ones and came across a vivid pair of robins on a Christmas postcard that were perfect for a new piece. Birds were a popular holiday motif throughout the Victorian era and into the Edwardian years.

Then, I went back to the archive and began rifling through the Christmas and animal notebooks, looking for more birds. These are a few of the ones I found. I couldn't bear to use them before scanning in the front and back of each. The two above are from 1908 and 1909. The publisher is sometimes stated but more often than not, it has to be identified by a symbol/logo or the design/typography of the words "post card." I need to check my reference books for these publisher and when I do, I'll add the info.

I couldn't resist adding the two plump pairs of birds below here. They are a colorful and joyful reminder of what's to come after making it through winter.

Ten little Santas ...

Ho! Ho! Ho! 9 
(SOLD)

Ho! Ho! Ho! 10
Price: $75.

Here they are, the final Santas in the "Ho! Ho! Ho!" series. That's it - at least for this year. I'm moving past the holiday to new series and extensions of some past ones - Out on a Limb, False Sense of Security - for exhibits in the spring.

Ho! Ho! Ho! 9 features an engraving of a DIY pinecone Santa from Godey's Lady's Book that I scanned to use on a postcard promoting last week's open studio and this month's extended studio hours. Isn't he splendid! Behind him: 1950s greeting cards, a sliver of a map of Ohio (yeah, the same Harper's map from 1877 that I've been using every last inch of during the past month) and a strip of wood veneer. 5" x 5" on claybord/hardwood panel ready to hang.

Ho! Ho! Ho! 10 is strictly '50s/'60s via recycled cards from the era and, yes, authentic Christmas seals. I lucked into sheets and sheets of vintage Christmas seals last year.  5" x 5" on claybord/hardwood panel ready to hang.

It's here: the first Collage 365 calendar!

The Collage 365 calendar caps my first year as a full-time artist and is my way of celebrating. At the suggestion of my baby sister, I super sized the image so you can see the images more clearly. It features a selection of the many collages made during 2011. It is a signed, limited edition of 50 that was printed and hand assembled by me. 5.5" x 8.5," punched at the top, with a silver ball chain for hanging. The chain can be snapped open to remove - or save - pages. It's packaged in a clear box and ready for gift giving. You could wrap it but I think it looks too good to cover up. I would think that, wouldn't I? $12 + $2.50 shipping & handling. [SOLD OUT]

* Still available: original artwork for October (Jane and Isabella Shed Their Inhibitions on All Hallows' Eve") and November ("Autumn's Arrival Gave Venus the Perfect Excuse to Cover Up").

 

   

Beatrice and Amy Were Seasonal Milliners Extraordinaire

I thought I ought to get this fashionable pair posted before autumn slips away. Bea and Amy were part of a trio found in Godey's Lady's Book. The paper is so thin and the letterpress printing so heavy that the music on the page behind them shows through - instantly creating another layer. The hats are composed of flowers from recycled greeting cards and wallpaper. The cameos and hat pin are from a vintage bead catalog. 5" x 5" on archival mat board. [Not for sale]

1871: a very good year for The Chatterbox

When I began making collages I was hesitant to tear up the books I had collected just for that purpose. Then, I found a bound 1871 edition of the weekly British children's magazine, The Chatterbox. It was in poor condition, at best. Even then, I waffled.

But I was working on honing image transfer techniques at the time and loved the exquisite engravings of birds and insects that were published in the magazine that year. I have an ink jet printer and ink jet prints run when they are wet, making them a mess when working on a transfer. So, I headed to the nearest photocopy shop. It was too hard to copy them with the book intact, which led to removing pages. The floodgates were opened!

I wrote about the illustrations the other day on Collage365, because I used the robin (shown below) in one of the new pieces in my Out On a Limb series. I thought I'd show some of the other illustrations here. They've been scanned and had some work done on them to make them cleaner transfers. I've ended up using a number of the illustrations and find myself returning to them again and again.

Well, if you REALLY need an excuse to visit The Bonbonerie ...

... I'm here to offer one: Paper With A Past is participating in the Cincinnati bakery's Annual Holiday Art Show 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. Saturday. Yes, this Saturday, Dec. 3. There will be 14 artists in the space between the bakery and the cafe.

My daughter, Laura, will be there selling wreaths (three sizes, $15, $18 & $22) and ornaments (3 sizes, $5 each) from our new Punch Drunk line, above. They're made from recycled greeting cards, file folders, gift bags and anything else in my stash that I'm not using in collages. She'll also have holiday collage gift tags ($5 each), some of the new collage ornaments ($18 each) and the last of the postcard ornaments I've been making for the past seven years ($4 and $6 each).

Me? Well, as promised, I'll have my studio at Brazee open 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Then, I'll zip over to O'Bryonville, providing my own excuse for checking out the baked goods.

Click here for more details on the sale, and the bakery.

Welcome December!

I've been working on collage tags for the Fit To Be Tied® line and thought I'd post a pair to usher in December. These screen-printed '20s cuties were together on a cardboard cutout found in a used bookstore. Wish I could tell you who the publisher and artist are, but there wasn't any info on it. I was attracted to them by the unconventional, yet seasonal, colors.

I cut the card in half to make a matching pair. Behind the girl on the left: antique endpaper and an illustration from Christmas: An American Annual of Christmas Literature and Art, which was published by Augsburg Fortress from 1931 to 1997. Behind the girl on the right: vintage sheet music and recycled wrapping paper. By the way, see the reinforcements at the top of them? Well, I hand color each one. Not kidding.

I'm thinking about how to show - and sell - tags online. It's cumbersome for the blog - there are just too many at a given time - so, it may be time to open my Paper With a Past® Etsy shop. Time to wake up that post-undergraduate studio assistant who's working for me 10 hours a week to pay her room & board while she applies to grad school ...