Tag mania

I spent much of last week working on the Fit To Be Tied® line. Each is an original collage and were intended to be gift tags, but since people keep asking if they are book marks I changed the sticker on the package to read: "Gift tag? Bookmark? Greeting card? Framed art? You decide." 

While working on them, I ended up all over the place in terms of theme. That became a problem as I started pulling out papers to fit each new subject. Result: a mess that reached a point where I couldn't find pieces of paper I'd just held. So, I've decided to work on one theme at a time. Today: food.

I'm building up inventory so that I can begin shopping the tags to area retail outlets.

Summer 2

It's obvious looking at this that it was created while I was working on Summer 1. They have the same color scheme and share other elements: the pen nibs (gel transfers), yellow flowers (both Victorian trade cards) and light color washes. I enjoyed working on both; for once, I left enough time to move pieces around, and add and subtract elements. Here, the latter included roughing the edges with ink for a worn appearance.

This is on the boxy stretched canvases I'm experimenting with. The papers wrap around the edges to cover them, then, onto the back. They're sealed with an acrylic sealer and a UV protection spray, and can hang without a frame.

It's one of the collages created for this weekend's Botanica exhibit at The Green Corner in Kennedy Heights. If you have a chance, stop by. Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. today, noon-4 p.m. Sunday. 6524 Montgomery Road, one block south of Kennedy Heights Arts Center.

Summer: 1

This is another one of the narrow-form collages I've been playing around with for the past 10 months or so - and it's also one of the new collages created for this weekend's Botanica show at The Green Corner. In it, I finally got to use another section from Lillian Mary Shackett's 1918 general science notebook. I mentioned the notebook - a flea market find - in May when I incorporated a page from it into Autumn: 2.

I'd love to know more about Lillian but geographical references are not to be found in the notebook. The first few pages were nibbled by mice and text is missing. In any case, I'm pleased to give her notebook new life and a wider audience. Speaking of wide audiences: the book spine is from an early edition of "A Garland for Girls" by the wildly-popular children's author Louisa May Alcott. It belonged to my late mother-in-law but was water damaged beyond repair, so I salvaged the spine. 5" x 10" on archival mat board.

The Incredible Lightness of Being

Welcome summer! Given that it's the longest day of the year - for those of us in this hemisphere, at least - I thought I'd post this vivid, sun-themed collage. The piece was done as a commission for a friend, who is giving it as a birthday gift to a friend of hers with breast cancer who has chosen the sun as her healing image.

The images are from a vintage atlas, catalog covers and book proofs. The girl was extracted from an early painting by Picasso - "Child Holding a Dove." It's a well-known image that I thought would be copyrighted, but discovered isn't. It's in the public domain, because it was created in 1901. That's well before the 1923 cut-off date, after which copyright gets tricky and requires investigation to be on the safe side.

The words encircling the girl are from the first stanza of Emily Dickinson's oft-quoted poem "Hope," which begins with the line "Hope is the thing with feathers ..." 5" x 8" on archival mat board with pencil and ink {SOLD}

Shape shifting

A few months ago, I posted a photo of canvases that I had covered with papers as first layers for future collages. One of them became April and another one - papered with a fantastic map by Guyot - now is this escapist collage. I've been itching to make this piece for a while. I spotted the engraving of the balloon in an issue of Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly last summer and added it to my "collage ideas" bin. I knew I'd use it to aid Victorian women trying to outrun the strictures of the time.

The idea of corsets as ballast came next and I began clipping them from advertisements in 19th century women's magazines - looking for a variety of sizes and brands from Dr. Warner's Electric Corsets (yes, they were wired) to Armorside and Glove-Fitting. I'm not sure if the women atop the balloon are approving or disapproving - I'm leaving that up to viewers to figure out.

12" x 12" on stretched canvas, with acrylic and watercolor paints, colored pencil and ink. Ready to hang. $75 + $10 shipping & handling