It's a date: 2016 calendars

Here's a look at details of the images inside the 2016 calendars, all reproductions of my collages. Most of the pieces were created in 2015, and many of them have not been seen before by the public since they were made for a special project or just for the calendar ...

A Porkopolis St. Pat's

Cincinnati picked up the nickname "Porkopolis" back in the 19th century when this river city was a center of the pork packing industry. The name stuck, even long after the last pig ran through our streets. Pigs also have been a long-time symbol of abundance and prosperity. So, after spotting this trio of delightful St. Patrick's Day postcards in the archive (the physical archive, not the electronic one), I just had to share them; all were published by London's Raphael Tuck and Sons in its St. Patrick's Day Post Cards series No. 106.

  

The writing's on the front of the postcard,
because it was published
when addresses only were allowed
on the back, a convention
that was about to change.
It's postmarked March 17, 1907
from Philadelphia, PA, and was sent
to Mrs. E. Lapp, Wyoming, DE. 

Postmarked March 16, 1908, but
the city name has faded. It was sent to
Mr. Edward Bruner, Holton, IN.

Postmarked Cincinnati, March 17, 1909,
 and sent to Miss Georgie Martin,
3308 Gilbert Ave., City.

Not a moment too soon … 1st annual Christmas poster

© Sugar Plum Tree

I so wish that in July, someone would dump snow into my studio and pipe in continuous holiday music. That way, I might get on schedule with my holiday greeting cards, tags, etc. But, no, here it is Dec, 6, and what am I doing? Designing a new card, and, "wait," she thought, "why not turn it into a holiday poster, too."

So, I have. Both the card and poster debut this weekend at the Showcase of Art at the Woman's Art Club of Cincinnati, which opens this morning at - gulp - 10!

For the design I used one of my favorite Christmas images in which tiny children dance around a ginormous Christmas tree laden with all kinds of goods from the practical (soap, coffee, furniture) to the whimsical (candy cones, fish, toys).

The tree is adapted from an engraving a black-and-white engraving in the January 1882 issue of St. Nicholas, a popular American children’s magazine published by Scribner’s. The pastries are from “The Trade’s Cake Book,” by T. Percy Lewis (MacLaren & Sons Ltd, London, 1912). I altered their colors substantially to make them more fanciful.

The 11" x 17" poster is titled "Sugar Plum Tree," and is a limited edition of 25 signed copies. It's printed with archival ink on Legion Paper's Somerset Enhanced Velvet 100% cotton rag paper. It may be the first of an annual series of Christmas posters. And, who knows, maybe next year's will be designed earlier.

You never know what will turn up in the mail

So, on Friday, I received a package from my friend Jo Diamantes, a wonderful Cincinnati book artist. It was taped within an inch of its life. At first, I thought it was something related to the Cincinnati Book Arts Society, which we both belong to. But what could warrant such intense packaging?

I soon found out. Inside was a worn, crumbling scrapbook, circa 1890, and a note from Jo explaining that it had belonged to someone on her mother's side of the family, but she wasn't sure who. She said she had no use for it, but suspected I might. How thoughtful!

It's a small - 6" x 8.5" - album with pressed cardboard covers that mimic leather. The front cover - above - has hand painted roses, and the fading inscription: "A Present from London."

The first "scrap," is a large chromolithograph glued to the inside of the cover. The rest of the book is filled with an eclectic mix of paper: scraps, trade cards, personal calling cards, etc. Here's a quartet of the most arresting images … those with a keen eye will note that the final scrap is similar to one written about last August in a post about Victorian oddities.

  

The petites keep going, and going ...

High Spirited.

Two more petites. Taking a break from them, well, maybe ...  found some dancing pigs yesterday, and there is an elephant one I've been toying with, and still herding cats and dogs. Plus, these two make me consider the possibilities of what can be done with the hundreds of postcards in my stash.

Untitled ... at the moment. Maybe "All The Young Dudes"? 

Redo No. 2

Having just finished the revamp of "Over the Summer Sea" detailed in the last post, I decided to tackle "Plate 25." It's another long, narrow collage from the same time period. For a while, I had been thinking that it needed to hang horizontally and the initial idea was to turn it on its side, and add a group of children. Not just any group, a specific group from Godey's Lady's Book that included a girl in a dress decorated with letters.

I used an image of her on a postcard and sign for the studio, and thought she'd fit nicely with the vintage report card already on the collage. But I couldn't find her. Fashion bins? No. Letter bins? No. Children's bin? No. Girls bin? No. After two days of looking, I remembered where she was ... in the "collages in progress" bin. I tucked her away there, thinking she'd be safe until I wanted to use her. But I'd forgotten that the engraving illustrated costumes, and once I saw it, I knew it wasn't what I wanted.

The search wasn't a bust, though, because during it I found a beautiful engraving from Peterson's magazine of a girl studying. It's titled "The Hard Lesson" and I discovered two copies. I almost decided to create twins. Almost. With the background removed, it appears that she's sitting at a table covered with marbled endpaper.

During all that rummaging, I came across a roll of vintage embroidered initials. Since the name on the report card begins with an "E," I decided to add them. The final touch was lightly coloring the image transfers on the left side, which were too white.

So, that's it. Well, except for the title - after all the searching, I'm thinking of changing it to "The Hard Lesson."

Annie Got Her Guns: A 19th century morality tale. I think.

Annie Got Her Guns:
A 19th Century Tale of Self-Defense
mixed-media collage: antique engraving (Chatterbox, 1893) and
 illustration (Mother Goose, Volland Popular Edition, Donahue & Co., 1915);
vintage illustrations (Anatomy of the Human Body, Lea & Febiger, 1959;
Art Forms in Nature, Dover, 1974); recycled catalog and folder; ink, watercolor,
marker, acrylic paint, acrylic UV  sealer.  7.5" x 9.5" on acid-free mat board.
(SOLD)

Okay. Before you get your shorts in a bunch. I'm not pro-gun. I'm not a member of the NRA. But I am imbued with a wicked sense of irony. I came across this illustration in the Chatterbox, a popular 19th children's magazine. It accompanied a story titled "The Valor of a Girl." In short, it's 1820 and the eldest daughter is left alone in her family's home deep in the German forest while the rest of the family goes out.

A beggar knocks on the door and feeling sorry for him, she invites him in for a bowl of hot soup. She quickly realizes he's not who he seemed and throws the hot soup in his face. He flees. Then, another man knocks on the door, and when she refuses to open it he breaks it down. She grabs her father's rifle and shoots him. Shortly after that, yet another man appears, who she shoots and kills.

I couldn't believe I was reading this in a children's magazine. The collage is meant as a graphic commentary on the kinds of stories told to children - then and now. The story ends with the two surviving men in jail and the "kind-hearted" girl feeling sorry about the man she killed. It certainly demonstrates valor, but I'm on the fence about how the lesson "to be brave" is taught.

Look for it - along with the original text - in the upcoming exhibit "The Hunting Season" at the Thompson House's Shooting Gallery in Newport. It opens 7-11 p.m. Sat. Sept. 8.

    

From the scrap pile: Victorian wackiness

I visited my friend, Shirley Tenhover, last week in North Carolina. And we did a trade. Shhh, don't tell my husband. She got a Social Butterfly box collage. I got a box of fantastic Victorian scraps. They range from teeny-tiny people to oversized holiday greetings. Here are a few of the more, um, interesting pieces. Now thinking about how to use them in collages ...

 

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.  

Ogden Was Bent On Mischief

Oops! I know I said that yesterday's post was the final Halloween one, but I forgot about Ogden. He's a Victorian engraving from The Chatterbox magazine and is one of the many illustrations of chubby-cheeked children from that era that creep me out.

I can't explain why. Even minus the mask, he disturbs me. So, what better image for a Halloween collage?

I added color to his cheeks and lips, and now that I'm looking at it on the computer screen, well, I may go back and add color to the mask. The text is from a holiday crafts book and the smidgen of orange is from a recycled book proof. 4.75" x 4.75" on archival mat board.

Matted to fit a standard 9" x 9" frame. $75 + $7 shipping & handling.