Counting the days

The calendars are coming! I've been hard at work designing four different calendars for 2013. This time around, they'll be done before the first week of December. Way before.

The two above will be joined by an Out On a Limb calendar featuring new collages in that bird series, and a general Paper With a Past calendar with a mix of imagery.

Like the 2012 calendar, they will be a handy 5.5" x 8.5" and will be packaged in a clear box. But this time around, they'll be wire-bound and on heavier stock.

I plan to offer an advance order price of $12, after which the price will be $15. More as it happens ...

This could explain why Peter was a pumpkin eater

Claudette Conducts an Unscientific Study of
Whether Pumpkin Turns Men On (2012)
Vintage illustration and text; recycled paint sample, wrapping paper &
cookbook; ink and watercolor. 5" x 5" on archival mat board.
Price: $75 (matted),  $90 (matted & framed) 

Pumpkin turns men on. Really. In fall of 2010, the Small and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago conducted a study of which aromas act as natural aphrodisiacs and discovered that pumpkin turned men on more than any other smell. Pumpkin pie is my all-time favorite dessert, so, of course, I remembered the study, and had to create a collage with it in mind.

The title isn't too subtle, but the reference to sex in the collage itself is; it's buried in the text, which was torn from a French dictionary. Somehow, French seemed a sexier language than English.

Ah, the lure of the s'more

Flora's Exercise Routine Increased ExponentiallyAfter She Became Addicted to S'mores (2012)mixed-media collage: antique engravings (Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly,1888); vintage illustration; recycled paint sample, cookbooks and book;ink; watercolor. 5" x 5" on archival mat board.Price: $75 (matted only), $90 (framed)

This was, well, not easy - despite the background pieces coming together handily. When I found the paint sample, I remembered the s'mores instructions in my stash, as well as a photo.

Since the background is busy, the idea was to put one figure on it. After cutting out a half dozen or so and just not feeling it, I came across a series of engravings in Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly illustrating a feature on "The Physical Education of Girls." I snipped out a sequence and started placing them around. They needed some grounding, which was where the roasting fork came in. Her belt was colored yellow to draw more attention to her.

Then, something bad happened. There were small balloons of shading at her feet. I liked them ... at first. Then, decided they were distracting. So, I began peeling them off, which worked well for the three images on the right but not the two on the left. Paper peeled off. After attempts to paint it failed, I hit on the idea of covering the areas and that's where the small squares of chocolate came in.

New at Friday's open studios: collages, cards, tags and the debut of archival prints of my work

Julian Had Popped the Question But All Anna Could Think About
Was Her Order of Bacon (2012)
mixed-media collage: vintage illustrations (McCall's magazine,1937;
 Art of Food & Drink, Dover, 1974), recycled cookbook and paint sample,
 ink, watercolor. 5"x5" on archival mat board.
Price: $75 (matted), $90 (framed).

Friday night's Open Studios at Brazee Street Studios - 6-9 p.m. - offers the first look at all the new collages in the Food Colors series.

Also new in the studio: a special Father's Day card, a slew of collage tags - just finished 25 or so - and for the first time: prints! These are high-quality reproductions of collages, printed with archival inks on 100% cotton rag paper. The selection is small but will be expanding, and for now, they're available at the studio only.

Reminder: I'm on the first floor now- right across from the Brazee Street entrance and the gallery. where a delightful show is opening: Glass Woods.

The eternal debate: rub vs. sauce

It Was Widely Debated Whether The Secret to John's Barbecue
Was in the Rub or the Sauce (2012)
mixed-media collage: vintage illustration; recycled paint sample;
recycled greeting card, wrapping paper and book proof;
marker, ink, watercolor. 5"x5" on archival mat board.
Price: $90.
(SOLD)

I haven't a clue what that humongous slab of meat is, but love its enormity and the crowd of guys standing around watching it being cooked. You can almost smell it and hear the sizzle as he ladles something over it. His secret sauce?

Back in the kitchen ...

Janine Wasn't Fooling Anybody With That Cocoa Cup (2012)
mixed-media collage: antique scrap, vintage illustration,
recycled paint sample, recycled wine label, marker, ink,
watercolor. 5"x5" on archival mat board.
Price: $75 (matted to fit a standard 8"x10" frame), $90 (framed). 

I'm taking a break from the Paper, Scissors, Rock series - which will have 4-5 more pieces in it - by returning to Food Colors, a series created for the annual The Art of Food exhibition at The Carnegie. I got carried away and whipped up six more collages, which you'll be seeing over the next few days.

For this one, I was so happy to be able to use a wine label carefully peeled from a bottle months ago. Unfortunately, most of its beautiful red, glossy leaves - the thing so attractive about it - are hidden now. It was moved every which way but it was impossible to get in more of the leaves and the type - and I really wanted the words.

The paint sample is actually two separate ones combined to take the viewer from coffee and chocolate to claret and bordeaux. Now that we've gotten to wine, well, although I didn't want Janine to appear to be a total lush, I couldn't resist tinting her lips and fingertips purple.