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.    

Take-off: circle meets the square

Out On a Limb: The Music of the Birds (2012)

mixed-media collage: antique trade card (American Song Bird Series, No. 16, Meadowlark,
Singer Sewing  Machine Co., 1898), sheet music (The Music of the Birds, Oliver Ditson, 1898) 

and endpapers (Dante's Inferno: New Edition, circa 1885), vintage illustration (Audubon 

birds coloring book, circa 1930s), recycled book proofs and exhibition catalogs, ink, watercolor,

fluid chalk, acrylic sealer, and acrylic varnish. 6” x 6” on a hardwood panel. Price: $85.

(SOLD) 

Out On a Limb: Recorded Sound (2012)

mixed-media collage: antique engraving (Chatterbox magazine, 1874), trade card

(American Song Bird Series, No. 13, Brown Thrasher, Singer Sewing Machine Co., 1898), 

and record sleeves (Brunswick Records, Columbia Grafonola); ink, watercolor, 

acrylic sealer, and acrylic varnish. 6” x 6” on hardwood panel.

Price: $85

The bottom collage shows the big departure in how music is being incorporated into the newest collages I'm making for the Fifth Sreet Gallery. In the top one, it's via sheet music, as it was in the collage posted last week. But I wanted to break away from that and also from the vertical compositions I had gotten stuck in.

Well, there was a pile of antique record sleeves, which had been removed from LPs in the basement that we were ditching. After toying with framing one of the birds inside the round hole that showed the record's label, the idea was rejected. How could I cover up those beautiful Singer chromolithographs?! "No. No. No. No. No."

Well, I didn't say "never." The minute this ornate sleeve was put over the Brown Thrasher, I knew I was going for it. It was so visually striking and so different from the other pieces.

I don't say this often, but I love, love, love this one - and the other one that you will see tomorrow. Oh. That doesn't mean I don't like the dueling meadowlarks ... it's just fun to veer in a different direction.

I'm back out on a limb

Out On a Limb: Wings of Song (2012)
mixed-media collage: antique engraving (Chatterbox, 1879) and trade card
(Singer Sewing Machine Co., American Songbird series, 1898-1922);
vintage sheet music (Harold Flammer Inc., 1938); recycled catalogs and tissue paper;
ink, watercolor, marker, fluid chalk; acrylic sealer and acrylic varnish.
6" x 6" inches. On hardwood panel - ready to hang. Price: $85.
(SOLD)

This is the first of five new Out On a Limb collages created to hang in the 5th Street Gallery during July, when the World Choir Games hit Cincinnati. The five each feature one of the "American Song Bird" trade cards I've used a few times before.

There were 16 cards in the series of color lithographs (chromolithographs, if you want to get technical) issued by the Singer Sewing Machine Company. The original watercolors were painted by J.L. (John Livsey) Ridgway, a scientific illustrator who specialized in ornithological and paleontological art. Of course, since these were trade cards, the backs were used not only to provide more info about the bird on the front but to tout the latest Singer products, too.

These collages continue the pairing of color and black & white images, usually of the same bird. In this case, chats. I combed my music bins and found a remarkable number of  bird songs. I tried to use music in each collage but when it came to the final two, well, you'll have to wait to and see.

Bird watching

I've been intrigued by the trade cards in the American Singer song bird series since first spotting them a few years ago. J. L. Ridgway's watercolor illustrations are elegant and the printing is, too. Ridgway -  whose first and middle names are John Livzey - often collaborated with his brother, Robert, an ornithologist. J.L. illustrated numerous books and his work can be found for fairly reasonable prices.

I have a handful of cards and, as you can see from the images, they are damaged, giving me an excuse to use them in collages. There are 16 cards in the series, which was published from 1898 through the 1920s by The Singer Manufacturing Company. Yes, Singer as in sewing machines. The back of the cards advertised the latest Singer products. I'd love to show those, but my cards were pasted into scrapbooks and when they were removed, well, the paper stuck to them, obscuring the ads.

There are lots of reprints of the cards out there - and Singer reprinted the series, too. The earliest versions have an oval Singer logo on the top left corner, are numbered on the top right, include Ridgway's signature near the bottom right and the copyright information along the bottom. Happily, all of mine are before 1919, so they are copyright free!