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.

The nitty gritty

Yes, I know it appears that life as a collage artist is all glamour. The openings. The Prosecco breaks. The fun & funky studio. But there comes a time when you have to get things in order. No, not the stash. The paperwork!

As you know by now, I write detailed descriptions of my collages in which I try to squeeze in as much as much about the paper and other materials used as will fit on a 4" x 2" label. Viewers like knowing the history. So do I. Even though there are times when I think the label may detract from the art itself, I feel compelled to write on. Well, for now.

So, for the past two days, I've been hunkered down at the computer organizing the labels into one big, alphabetical file. Yeah, it's the librarian in me. But it's also the frustrated artist trying to find a specific label among dozens of files.

I had been organizing them by exhibition and/or by month - the latter for Open Studios. Now, I'm happy to say, they're all in one, easy-to-search document. And, they're uniform in style, to boot. Ah. I feel so much better now!

Horsing around

Walking on stilts is tricky, even for humans. The image is from the November 1883 issue of St. Nicholas children's magazine. But that's all I can tell you, because - oops - I forgot to scan the text with it!