Out On A Limb: 29

© Out On A Limb: 29 (2012)

mixed-media collage: antique postcard (PFB, printed in Germany)

 and trade card (Lion Coffee, Woolson Spice Co., Toledo, OH);

 vintage illustration (Audubon coloring book, circa 1930s);

 hand-marbled paper; recycled catalog; ink, watercolor, marker, fluid chalk,
acrylic sealer & varnish. 5"x5" on cradled hardwood panel. 
Price: $75.

I thought I'd whip up a companion to complement the two Out On A Limb collages created last month and, well, here it is. I wanted to pick up on the yellow color scheme and spring-like feel of the earlier pieces - happily, the beautiful trade card on the left did just that. It's one of the gorgeous, late 19th century chromolithographs promoting The Woolson Spice Company's Lion Coffee brand.

In keeping with the idea of pairing color and black & white bird images, two birds from a 1930s Audubon coloring book were added. I liked that one is hanging upside down. Next: some papers in the middle to provide a transition between the two. Chalk on the edges added more texture.

I wasn't satisfied. It needed more. The pink flowers - from an antique postcard - were next. Hmm. Okay, but still not there. I rifled through the file and found another bird from the coloring book. Eureka! This is one of those collages that it helps to see in person to really get the effect of the layering.

I haven't been slacking off, honest

Hmm. Given the lack of blog posts this week, it may look like I've been taking it easy. Not so. I've been working on a series of entirely new three-dimensional pieces for Flora and Fauna, an exhibit that opens May 5 at Bromwell's Gallery, downtown. It will be hung Monday night, so you can understand why I haven't been sitting at the computer.

Here's a peek. Oh, wait. I should note that the boxes with women and girls sporting butterfly wings are part of my new Social Butterflies series and, of course, they are not frivolous females. You'll find out more when I title the pieces - for the moment, let's just say that the images are from the early 1920s, on the heels of women in America getting the right to vote ...

 

It's a surreal world, after all

Sometimes, I buy a book for one image. That's the case here. I was in an antique shop in South Jersey last month and spotted a small book with beautiful, gilded lettering on its dark green cover. "Little Stay-at-home and her friends." I was thinking that the book cover might be something I could work with. Then, I opened it to the page with the lithograph above - "The Baby On the Beach." Sold.

The book - a series of poems about animals, fairies and flowers that, I think, was intended for preschoolers, that is, little stay-at-homes - was written and illustrated by L. Clarkson and published by Philadelphia's F.W. Robinson & Co. in 1879. Clarkson is touted on the title page as the author of "Gathering of the Lilies" and "Violet, with Eyes of Blue." I'm on the hunt for those, because if the illustrations are as surreal as these, well, I'll be snapping them up.

The two illustrations below are already being put to use in a new series of collages. I have high-resolution scans of all the prints, just in case I come up with some other idea for them.

Finally, a look at the new studio

Yes, I got around to uploading photos of my new studio on the first floor at Brazee Street Studios ... which is officially open whenever I'm there. That's just about every weekday. Generally after 11 a.m. So, feel free to drop by if you're in the Oakley neighborhood or nearby.

One collage becomes two

BEFORE: Summer 2

Yep. I've been revisiting more "old" collages and transforming them. In this case, the wrapped canvas piece above was cut down and used for new pieces in the Out On A Limb series. I liked the piece when it was created but looking back at it, well, it was too static and without a real focal point.

When I spotted the beautiful birds below perched on branches of bright spring flowers, I knew the old summer collage would make a perfect background for them ...  

AFTER: Out On a Limb: 25 
mixed-media collage: antique postcards, trade card,
& illustration (Peterson's Magazine 1886); vintage illustration
(The Butterfly Book, Doubleday, 1902) & postage; handmade
paper; ink, watercolor, gesso, acrylic sealer and varnish; canvas.
5"x5" on cradled hardwood panel. 
(SOLD) 

AFTER: Out On a Limb: 26
mixed media collage: antique trade card, sheet music
(Chatterbox magazine) & postcard (postmarked
Wamsley, Ohio, Feb. 24, 1913); vintage illustrations
(The Butterfly Book, Doubleday, 1902); handmade paper;
ink, watercolor, gesso, acrylic sealer and varnish;
canvas. 5"x5" on cradled hardwood panel.
(SOLD)

Julia and Hope: done

© Julia Had a Certain Spring in Her Step (2012)
mixed-media collage: antique engraving, illustration and scrap;
watercolor, marker, ink, acrylic sealer. 5"x7" on archival mat board.
Price: $75 (SOLD)

Hope (2012)
mixed-media collage: antique engraving; recycled book proof
 and greeting cards; watercolor, marker, ink, acrylic sealer.
5" x 7" on archival mat board
Price: $75 (SOLD)

Here are the finished collages I wrote about a few weeks ago. To be honest, not much changed. A Victorian pansy scrap was added to the bottom of Julia to echo the color in her hat ribbon and her dress color was punched up with marker. There's more gold in Hope's her hair and on the sun, and a bit more shading all over.

The pieces will be for sale at the 4th annual Jamie Osher Memorial Fund Gala, 6-9 p.m. Thursday April 26 at Art Design Consultants, 310 Culvert St., downtown (behind the Taft Museum of Art). The fund was created by Jamie's wife, artist Paula Wiggins, to raise money for esophageal cancer research, education and outreach. It's the disease that Jamie died from in 2008.

Admission is $50. A few dozen Cincinnati artists have donated small works of art for the "Wall of Hope." Each piece will sell for $75.     

The artful calling card

This stunning salesman's sample booklet was part of a new trove of Victorian treasures sent to me by my friend Shirley Tenhover, who I've mentioned before. She's an inveterate collector of all kinds of cool stuff - heavy on Victoriana - and is sifting through it all now.

As she jettisons some of it, she's been generous in sending bits along to me. And, boy, am I grateful. Not only because it provides paper for my collages but because it also opens my eyes to materials I've never seen before. Like this folding sampler. Isn't it a beaut?

It's amazing that it's intact given how thin the paper is. And look at those cards - they're in mint condition with glossy finishes and vibrant colors on the scraps and crisp edges on the cards. On this style, the name is printed below the scrap, which is flipped open for the reveal.

The back of the sampler is just as fascinating as the front even though it's not in color. As always, I'm on the fence about the future of the sampler - use it or frame it?

Please drop by my new studio 6-9 p.m. Friday when Brazee Street Studios kicks off monthly Open Studios

Flights of fancy

It was 1907 - just a few years after the Wright brothers took to the skies - and the world was entranced by the idea of flight. So, how would an illustrator imagine the future port of New York as anything other than a fantastic Sky Harbor? That's where artist Arthur T. Merrick's imagination took him in the November 1907 issue of Saint Nicholas Magazine. The popular children's monthly included many whimsical spot illustrations. Here's another one from the December 1907 issue featuring artist E.B. Bird's musing on Santa's chosen mode of transport 100 years in the future ...

Even more deconstruction and reconstruction

Last May, I wrote about the collage above and my struggle with whether it should be vertical or horizontal. Well, it doesn't matter any more. Why? It's been cut up and reworked it into two new collages - below - in the Out On A Limb series.

An interesting thing happened with the top section of the collage, the pressed leaf from an early 20th century school notebook crumbled. I had hoped to keep bits of it, along with the tape strips that held it, but the whole thing fell apart. Then, when lifting the collage off its mat board substrate, the notebook page started to wrinkle. I liked the grungy look and decided not to even try to flatten it.

Yes, these are very autumnal. Spring images coming soon! Honest.  

© Out on A Limb: 27
mixed-media collage: antique endpaper, vintage notebook page
(1918 notebook of Lillian Mary Shackett) and illustration (Birds of New York: Part 2,
State Museum of New York), recycled catalog cover, watercolor, ink,
 acrylic sealer, acrylic varnish. 5"x5" on cradled, hardwood panel. 
Price: $75.

© Out On A Limb: 28
mixed-media collage: antique endpapers; vintage library date due card
and teletype operator manual and illustration (1990 Audubon calendar);
recycled catalog covers; watercolor, ink, acrylic sealer, acrylic varnish.
5"x5" on cradled, hardwood panel.
Price: $75.

Chicks with attitude

It's no secret in my family that I'm smitten with antique Easter postcards depicting sweet little chicks - especially those acting in very human ways. So, in time for the holiday, here are some of the favorites from my collection ...

And still more ...

Only two more days to see my 5th Street Gallery show

© Out On A Limb: 14 (2012)
mixed-media collage: vintage illustrations (A Field Guide to the Birds,
 Houghton Mifflin, 1934; Birds of the World, Golden Press, 1961),
ink, watercolor, acrylic sealer & varnish. 6" x 6" on cradled, hardwood panel.
Price: $85. (SOLD) 

Just a reminder that "Expecting to Fly," my exhibition at downtown's 5th Street Gallery, is open for two more days: 10 a.m.-9 p.m. today and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday. It's a gorgeous day for a stroll around downtown! So, please stop in if you are out and about.

Mad Women: Jean Drops Out and Joins A Cult

Mad Women: Jean Drops Out and Joins A Cult (2012)
mixed-media collage: vintage illustrations (Esquire, Dec. 1939;
 McCall's Pattern Book, spring 1946);  recycled Turner Classic Movies
trading card ("Casablanca") & Monet exhibition catalog illustration;
ink; watercolor. 7.5" x 9.5" on archival mat board. Framed with conservation glass.
Price: $125.

I was so excited to - finally - use something from the December 1939 issue of Esquire, which my friend Marsie Newbold gave to me a few years back. It's the background image of the lithe women with a horse and came from an illustrated feature titled "If Women Rules the World and Men and Horses Were Slaves." Yeah, real male fantasy stuff that I couldn't resist turning into female fantasy stuff.

Adding to the romantic air: a quote from "Casablanca" from a set of classic movie trading cards that came in the mail back in my newspaper features editor days. At that time, I was saving promotional card decks. Well, let's be honest, I was also saving tons of other paper!

In any case, what was funniest to me about the quote is that my daughter recognized it as being from "Casablanca" almost immediately. Guess we raised her right.