F Bomb

F Bomb (2012)
mixed-media collage: antique and vintage text, recycled book proof,
vintage game piece, ink, acrylic paint, glue. 6" x 9" on acid-free mat board.
Not priced yet.

I've been going back and forth about posting more of the bomb series being made for a solo show in November at the Thompson House's Shooting Gallery.

Part of me thinks that showing them now takes away any element of surprise - even if looking at art on a computer screen is a far different experience than looking at it in person. Another part of me thinks that by the time the show opens viewers might think that what's actually new work has been shown before. And yet another part of me thinks that, um, I'm thinking too much.

Enough already. I'm posting them.

F Bomb had an antique engineering diagram as its original background with the bomb placed just about where it is now. Nothing else. That was it. Until I came across the current background - two pages of an old book proof. Once that was selected, the piece cried out for more.

Red paint was splattered around. Then, the background was masked and more paint was splattered to form a fiery/smoky path. A day or two later, the idea hit me to stamp fs on it, at first, to form a fuse, then, to add more texture. The game piece that highlights a Braille f was the final touch.

It's not sealed yet so there could be a few small changes.        

Christmas in July

Ho! Ho! Ho! 5
mixed media collage: antique postcard and illustration (St. Nicholas magazine);
vintage sheet music and embossed scrap (printed in Germany); recycled greeting card
and wrapping paper; acrylic paint, ink, acrylic sealer, acrylic varnish.
5" x 5" on cradled hardwood panel. (2011)
(SOLD)

Ho! Ho! Ho! 2
mixed media collage: antique endpaper; vintage embossed scrap (printed in Germany),
sheet music and book page (Book of Intertype Faces, 1928); acrylic gel transfer; ink,
acrylic sealer, acrylic varnish. 5" x 5" on cradled hardwood panel. (2011)
(SOLD)

Wow. You never know WHEN a piece might sell. Like when it is 95 degrees and winter seems light years away.

A woman who was picking up her children from a class, dropped into the studio last week. As she browsed, she mentioned liking the cradled birch boxes that the Out On a Limb series is made on. We talked a bit and I happened to say that the only other series created in that format was one with Santas.

Her eyes lit up. It turned out that she and her children gave her mother a Santa every year, and that she was looking for ones that were not mass-produced. I told her that there were a few Santas left in the series.

She didn't have time to look at them, but gave me her e-mail address, took one of my cards and said she'd be back. The next morning, I had a note from her in my in box. She did return, and ended up buying the two Santas above - she brought her children with her to make the selection and they were evenly split, so she got both - as well as Out On a Limb: 26 and Out On a Limb: 30.

She had spotted the latter on the web site. Or maybe it was the blog? No matter, because it ended up being Christmas in July for me, as well as for her.

Body language

I'm scouring shops, flea markets, etc. for new anatomical images all the time. Yes, I'm obsessed with them. So obsessed that I created a line of greeting cards called "Body Language." My latest find? Beautiful, mint-condition illustrations from Wark's Modern Educator (Henry Wark, 1904). Each is 8" x 10."

You gotta love the 19th and early 20th century preoccupation with creating encyclopedic books. Wark's covers etiquette, economics, litigation, medicine, handwriting and lots more. It's chock full of maps, photographs, illustrations and charts. My copy, which cost $8, is missing a slew of maps but even so, I ended up with 25 fabulous ones. Now, the hunt is on for a complete edition!

Rethinking the book

Uncle Melvin Looks Back by Janice Kagermeier
Outside (top) includes an aerial photo of the Cincinnati neighborhood
that Janice's uncle grew up in, while the inside (bottom) tells his story.

Tearing books apart is essential to my art, but that doesn't mean that I don't appreciate books in all their many forms. That appreciation led me to join the Cincinnati Book Arts Society a few years ago. Now, I'm in the study group, which meets monthly to explore new techniques in bookmaking, and I'm a new member of the board.

I keep thinking that books will make their way into my art, although I haven't brought the two together yet. Meanwhile, plenty of other members have done just that and there are some riveting examples in Bookworks 13 at the public library's main branch downtown. They are at turns funny, poignant, whimsical and serious, and the forms range from cascading pages to a 9-yard scroll.

The library has been a major supporter of the annual exhibit and even buys a couple of books each year for its artists' books collection. This year, CBAS also will purchase a book to donate to the library. Some of the books in the collection are on display through Aug. 12 on the 2nd and 3rd floors of the main library.

Bookworks 13 continues through Sept. 2, with a walk-through with some of the artists at 2 p.m. on Sunday Aug. 26. For more about the exhibit and CBAS, check out CityBeat's review of the exhibition or the Enquirer's feature story on it or the CBAS blog.

Seed Bombs: a better view

Seed Bombs (2012)
mixed-media collage: antique engraving (Dante's Inferno, Altemus Edition,
 illustrated by Gustav Dore, circa 1880), vintage illustrations (Ernst Heinrich Haeckel's
 Art Forms in Nature, Dover, 1974; Prestel, 1998), recycled Italian wrapping paper;
watercolor, ink. 7.5" x 9.5" on acid-free mat board.
(Sold)

Here's the scanned version of "Seed Bombs." It's part of the bomb series being made for a solo exhibition in November at The Thompson House's Shooting Gallery. Yes, I am working ahead for once! I'll post more images from the series during the next week or so ...

Bombs away

People keep asking me to show the evolution of a piece. Generally, I fail miserably at capturing the process, because once I'm immersed in the collage, well, I forget to stop and take photos of each step.

I just tried documenting the making of "Seed Bombs" - part of my new "bomb" series - with mixed success. At top: the background I chose, an original Gustave Dore engraving from the 1880 Altemus Edition of Dante's Inferno. I knew that most of the "seeds" would be in color and wanted to spread them across a rich, dark backdrop.

As you can see, I'm well into the piece by the time I remember to stop and take a picture.

Next stop: more seeds. There should have been another photo before this to show that most of the brown seeds were added later. I wanted more colored images.

The final photo. I was tempted to add more large seeds in the bottom right corner, but decided not to. I planned to take another photo yesterday to show it with those seeds but wasn't able to find the pieces. Usually, every piece that might be used for a collage is put in a clear bag that stays with it. Yeah, "usually" being the operative word here!

In any case, this is the final version. I'll scan it later today and post a better image with full caption information. Now, it's back to the studio.

Another series is about to launch

For the past few weeks, I've been working on a series of collages that is quite a departure from the narratives. I haven't cooked up a name for it yet, even though I'm already on collage No. 7 and have at least three more in mind.

The photos above are blurry, but they''ll be scanned and posted soon. The idea was inspired by a clever collage by Georgia artist Robin Miller, spotted in Manifest Gallery's Magnitude 7.8 exhibit, which ended a few weeks ago.

Robin punched small circles of letters from a variety of books, then, pasted them in the shape of a circle onto a found book page and titled it "Letter Bomb." I just couldn't get it out of my mind and wanted to make something similar without copying him.

After a few weeks with the idea rolling around my head, I dove into it headlong. The first piece, "F Bomb," did involve letters, but took on a life of its own from there. I don't want to give everything away quite yet but suspect you can figure it out from that title and the images above.

One of the great surprises - as always, I suppose - is the evolution of each collage. Another surprise was that I - finally - am using background papers painted two years ago during a Greater Cincinnati Calligraphy Guild workshop taught by visiting artist Jacqueline Sullivan, as well as a watercolor painting recovered from a dumpster around the same time (hear that Diana Taylor?!).

More as it happens ...      

It's alive!!!

Woo hoo. Finally, a Paper With a Past web site. More later. Okay, finally back. Thought I'd post some pictures of the web site pages to give you an idea of what to expect. The top image is the home page.

This is one of the galleries in the "artwork" section. Just click on any thumbnail and a larger image of it appears - see below - along with information about the piece. If a piece is for sale, you can just click on the price to order it via PayPal.

And here's what the Cards With a Past gallery looks like. I haven't showcased these on the blog or, well, now that I think of it even mentioned them. They all feature images from my archive - no other source. I'm adding more each day until I get the entire inventory posted. When I do, I will make them available for sale via PayPal.  

That's the short tour. There is a lot on the site that has never been shown here, including the full line of prints available now, and I will be adding the Fit To Be Tied tags soon. If you have any questions, give me a holler!

Tea time

Even As A Child, Clara Took Tea Seriously (2012)

mixed-media collage: antique engraving (Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly, 1888); 

recycled cookbook, paint sample and greeting card; ink, watercolor,

acrylic sealer. 5” x 5” on acid-free mat board. 

Price: $90 matted and framed (SOLD)

*available as a signed, limited-edition archival print, matted & ready to frame: $25 

Just about every collage in the Food Coloring series is droll. Clara is one of the exceptions. The engraving was too sweet for anything but a homage to girls and their penchant for tea parties with their dolls or, in our house, a menagerie of mice from Walt Disney's Minnie Mouse to Beatrix Potter's Hunca Munca.

I confess that I'm completely smitten by the engraving from Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly. The tiny dishes. The languid doll tucked under her arm. The delicacy with which she is pouring the tea.

The collage sold within a week of hanging it in the studio. But I like it so much that I'm offering it as a signed, limited edition print. Contact me if you're interested. Or drop by the studio. We have Open Studios this Friday (July 13) from 6-9 p.m.  

Happy 4th of July: Strike Up the Band!

I was just about to scan in some antique July 4th postcards to post here when I came across these two  pieces of patriotic sheet music in my archive. The covers are simply gorgeous and marchs are oh-so-Fourth of July. The top image, from 1905, was transformed into a holiday postcard last year. I wasn't quite so ambitious this year, so the bottom music, from 1912, will have to wait for 2013.

Still perched, but now downtown

Out On A Limb: 80 rpm (2012)

mixed-media collage: antique trade card (American Song Birds: No. 12, Mockingbird,

Singer Sewing Machine Co., 1898), record sleeve (Columbia Grafonola) and endpaper;

vintage sheet music (The Etude magazine, 1905) and endpaper (Field Guide to the Birds: 

Eastern Land & Water Birds, 1947); ink, watercolor, acrylic sealer and acrylic varnish.

 6” x 6” on a cradled, hardwood panel - ready to hang.

(SOLD)

Out On a Limb: A Little Bird Told Me (2012)

mixed-media collage: antique engravings (Chatterbox magazine, 1872 and 1905),

trade card (American Song Bird Series, No. 14, Song Sparrow, Singer Sewing Machine Co., 1898),

Columbia Grafonola record sleeve, endpaper (1887 edition of Paradise Lost);

 vintage sheet music (A Little Bird Told Me, Harvey G. Brooks, 1948); acrylic gel image transfer;

ink, watercolor, marker, fluid chalk; acrylic sealer and acrylic varnish.

6” x 6” on a cradled, hardwood panel - ready to hang.

(SOLD)

These are the final two American song bird collages for the 5th Street Gallery. I packed up all the birds ...  Wait! I've gotta come clean, there is one more. It's not posted, because it includes an American music legend whose resemblance to the Umbrella Bird is remarkable. His estate would probably nail me for using his image, but I couldn't resist. The title may give you a hint of who it is: Out On a Limb: Thank you, thank you very much.

Meanwhile, as you can see, every bit of that antique Columbia record sleeve found in the basement is being put to use with pieces of it in both collages.

The top collage was pretty much finished when I hit on the idea of using the sleeve to frame the mockingbird. Unlike the collage posted last week with a Brunswick Record sleeve, this one does not cover the entire surface. It was torn and once it was glued down, more of it was peeled off so that the silhouetted birds were a bit more visible, especially, bird No. 9, which is a mockingbird.

Both are hanging downtown at 5th Street Gallery, which is open 9 a.m.-9 p.m. daily, now through July 15 while the World Choir Games are in town. Hope you stop on by.