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.

The 2015 calendars are here

Well, I wrapped up the 2015 calendars, and as in years past:

• each features reproductions of my collages
• there are three different themes
• and one size (4.25" x 8.5")

They are printed by me using archival ink on heavyweight card stock. They are wire-bound - also by yours truly - and packaged in a clear plastic box.

The price is 14.99. They can be picked up at my studio, and will be available at area shops (which will be listed on the blog as soon as they are stocked).

Want it shipped? No problem, it's an additional 4.99 (one more calendar can be included for that price, but if you want even more, please e-mail me, and I'll figure out the total). I don't make money on shipping; I charge what is costs.

Here's a look at the covers of the three, and the back covers, which feature details of each month's image.

Ahhh ... the struggle

I've been looking at one of the most recent Grand Tour collages, Bird's Eye View, above, almost every day for the past few months. It hung directly across the studio from my work tables. So, each time I looked up, I glimpsed it.

After a while, I began to not like it. The dark background didn't allow viewers to see the birds clearly enough. The birds were too close to one another. In short, it needed more air.

Toss it? No. Time to rework it. I popped it out of the frame, which will be put to use another time, and onto the work table. Happily, in order to give it the collage a 3D quality, each piece was not glued down completely. And PVA, which is water soluble, was used as glue on some sections. Even so, it took a few days of tearing, cutting and careful removal, to separate the birds and their passengers from the background. There was only one casualty: the baby's head, which I saved to reattach.

As I soon discovered, all that was the easy part. Below are images of it in progress, including two showing what it might look like if I created two pieces from it. More photos will follow, because it took an odd turn after the bottom one. I set it aside for a few weeks, and, so, it remains a work in progress ...

The train kept a rollin' ... more petites

© Flight Plans.
Mixed-media collage by Sara Pearce.

More of the petites, as in each is 3" x 4.5." All are matted to fit a standard 5" x 7" frame. One thing I like a lot about this batch is the fairly even blend of antique, vintage and recycled paper in each. I'll be making more later in the summer but, for now, am moving on to some much larger pieces. Enjoy.

© Ella's Green Thumb Transforms the Garden.
Mixed-media collage by Sara Pearce.

© Porkoplis.
Mixed-media collage by Sara Pearce.
(sold)

© Makes Me Wanna Shout.
Mixed-media collage by Sara Pearce.

Two more calendars in the works

Wrapping up all the calendar master files this week, then, the printing begins. These two join the Food Colors and Grand Tour calendars that I wrote about a few weeks ago. They are the same size - 5.5" x 8.5" - and as with the other two, I plan to offer a special deal for advance orders ($12), after which the price will be $15. More as soon as they're printed ...

Breaking up is not hard to do

A few weeks ago I took the ax, er, the box cutter, to "Summer 1" (above). To be honest, it was easy to do, because I never liked this piece. Too static. No focal point. Dull colors. I could go on ...

In any case, the pieces have been sitting on a worktable ever since. Well, I wanted space for other things and got tired of looking at 'em. What to do? Turn them into backgrounds for a couple of Out On a Limb collages. This time, I went bright. There are too many dark birds hanging around the studio.

Out On a Limb: August (2012)
mixed-media collage: antique science notebook (Lillian Mary Shackett, 1918);
 endpaper, book spine, ad and needlework illustration (Delineator, Chatterbox); 
recycled handmade paper embedded with leaves; vintage illustration 
(Reddish Plantcutter and Crested Sharpbill, Birds of the World, 1961); 
watercolor, pencil, ink, fluid chalk, marker, acrylic sealer and acrylic varnish. 
5” x5 ” on hardwood panel (2012)
Price: $85.

   

Out On a Limb: Summer (2012)
mixed-media collage: antique endpaper, book spine, trade card 
and illustration (Chatterbox); recycled handmade paper; vintage illustration 
(Rose-Breasted Thrush Tanager, Birds of the World, 1961);
 watercolor, pencil, ink, fluid chalk, marker, acrylic sealer and acrylic varnish.
5” x5 ” on hardwood panel.
Price: $85.

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.

Score at Covington's 4th Sunday Antiques Show

I woke up early this morning - well, 8:30 a.m. is early to me - drank some coffee, then, headed across the river to Covington's historic MainStrasse for its monthly antiques show. I hadn't been to any show in ages and since this one is small, I knew it would be manageable both in terms of my stamina and my pocketbook.

I usually don't find much here, but there's always that off chance. The vendors were fewer than I remember seeing in past years even though there was a decent crowd.

I was striking out until ... hitting a booth with boxes and boxes of paper. None of it organized. So the digging began. At this point, I look for specific things that will be used in collages. I've learned to become focused as my stash, er, archive - has grown. Too much stuff is crippling.

The digging paid off, first with a marvelous batch of 18 Arm & Hammer bird trade cards. Some are in awful shape, and that made them all the more appealing. After snapping up those tiny treasures, I spotted some Victorian flower scraps and oversized trade cards, multiple copies of a baking cookbooklet (not copyrighted!), a few cabinet card photographs of men (for a series I'm about to begin for a November exhibit) and other odds and ends.

So, it was well worth the time and I spent a mere $9. Score!

 

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

out on a limb collages, a set on Flickr.

I'm experimenting with using Flickr to create slideshows for the blog. So, I uploaded a dozen of the Out On a Limb collages but it appears that all I got was a static set. Guess I need to try again and maybe again and again. But first, I'm going to the studio to work out my frustration at this not working, even though I've been at it for at least an hour.