Everyday miracles

A few weeks ago, I posted the photos above on Facebook. I was playing around with a grouping for a new collage series with the working title of "Miracles" that explores the awesome nature of things we now take for granted, such as the food we eat. But it will not be limited to food, that's just how it started a few months ago in my head.

The backgrounds are vintage magazines images of famous antique paintings. The figures are from "Costumi dei Secoli," an early 19th century Italian book that's been a big scanning project for me for far too long.

The hand-painted figures are remarkably vibrant, especially when you take into consideration that they are from 1837, were in a two-volume set that was falling part and had seriously foxing, and were not archival stored. I've been itching to use them for years, and thrilled to finally be doing it.

Here's a look at how the piece, "The Miracle of the Mushrooms" has progressed. The changes are subtle, primarily moving around mushrooms, debating whether the women should be holding them, etc. The mushrooms are from plates found in a variety of antique botanical and medical books, and recycled wrapping paper that duplicated mushrooms from an early edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica.

Look for photographs of the second collage, "Behold, the Beets," later this week.

Note the addition of angel wings to the woman on the left.
This is supposedly the final version, but am testing
additional mushrooms on the bottom left, before I seal it.  

  

"Deja Boo!" New line of Halloween cards

These are not only new, they're also my first line of Halloween cards. They are adapted from antique postcards and anatomical illustrations, vintage bridge tally cards, and vintage decorations in my collection/archive/stash.

They're available, to varying degrees, at the Cincinnati-area shops listed below - and all styles are at my studio at Brazee Street Studios in Oakley, and can be ordered by getting in touch with me:

• Bonbonerie (O'Bryonville, in the bakery)
• Dandy Haberdashery (Pleasant Ridge)
• The Framery (Hyde Park) 
• Indigenous: a handcrafted gallery (O'Bryonville)
• MICA 12/v (Over-the-Rhine)
• NVISION (Northside)
• Redtree Art Gallery and Coffeeshop (Oakley)

Animal kingdom

During a lunch last month, my friend Cecie Chewning casually handed me a small packet of engravings that she had been given by her uncle. I didn't look at them until a few days later, and when I did, whoa! What a treasure.

They've been scanned them into the archive now, so it seemed time to share them. The pages are relatively small - 8.5" x 4.5" - and there are headings and table numbers on each, but no bibliographic information. Not even the engraver, whose name usually is at the bottom of a plate.

They are hand-painted, and exquisite, if a bit worn/foxed. I'm guessing circa early 1800s, and betting there were more in whatever book they're from, since fish, insects, etc. are absent from mine. Here's a look at what I have … they'll be turning up in collages.