The Remembrancer: The Seamstress and Her Sister
collage (star chart, needles and thread, needle threader, pins, child’s dress pattern, and button) with Neocolors II water-soluble crayons and gesso
4 3/4 x 8 1/4 inches
Month: August 2007
The Remembrancer: Your Deeds Survive, Our Words Are Lost
The Remembrancer: Your Deeds Survive, Our Words Are Lost
collage and brass brads with Portfolio water-soluble crayons and gesso
4 3/4 x 8 1/4 inches
Productivity
I regularly read several art blogs, and the main theme lately has been that folks feel they are in a summer slump. I am surprised that I don’t feel that way, because I’m used to thinking of myself as a slow worker. That, despite the fact that I’ve gotten several e-mails from people wondering how on earth I manage to do so much. Ha! I don’t. Or, at least, I don’t think that I do.
But, it’s true what they say about creating new habits. I’ve somehow managed to get into the habit of arting pretty much every single day, whether I feel like it or not. I’m really not sure how or when that happened, but I think it’s been fairly recently–the last 6-8 months, maybe? It’s become ingrained, so that I can’t even sit down to watch the news without working on something.
Blue Tree
Blue Tree
wax resist (wax crayon and India ink) on leaf from 19th century patent book
9 x 5 1/2 inches
The altered books group posts monthly techniques. I hadn’t done wax resist in years–and never with India ink–so I thought I’d try it. I used RoseArt crayons, which aren’t as heavily pigmented as Crayola, but they are waxier, so they might be better suited to resist.
Blue Tree
wax resist (Portfolio water-soluble crayons and India ink) on leaf from 19th century patent book
5 1/2 x 9 inches
I also did one with Portfolio water-soluble crayons. That was only almost as stupid as it sounds. The top layers of crayon washed away in areas, but I can go back in and replace them. What’s more interesting is the way the ink bloomed. There are circular spots in the top drawing, where the ink dropped onto the paper. In the bottom one, there are lines, where I used the dropper to squeeze swathes of ink along the edges of the paper. In the scans, those areas read as tears, though close up, it’s obvious that they are not.
You could use other colors of ink. Watercolor or acrylic paint mixed with a small amount of water might be interesting, too. Pretty much anything that flows well and is water-based should work.
The Remembrancer: Blue Moon
The Remembrancer: Blue Moon
Portfolio water-soluble crayons, pencil, and gesso
4 3/4 x 8 1/4 inches
For some reason, I have a terrible time color-correcting blues. It doesn’t help that some media–like crayons and colored pencils–lose opacity when scanned. So, the color on this one is as close as I could get it, but it’s not perfect.
I’m also not a big fan of Portfolio water-soluble crayons. They’re super creamy and smeary and are just too mushy for my tastes. They also don’t layer very well, so just when you think you are building up nice, complex strata of pigment, you end up with bald spots. Hrmf!
I’m not dead, yet!
I was just playing around some more with Google Earth. StatCounter uses WhoIs to give geographic locations for each visitor, based on the location of their ISP. It then taps into Google Earth, allowing you to see a map of who is posting from where. Or that’s the basic theory. It’s not quite that straightforward, though, so don’t panic, thinking that I or anyone else can hunt you down! For example, I’m located in southern Indiana, but my IP address maps to Louisville, Kentucky. I assume that’s where my ISP’s main office is located. Except, I just looked at the Google Earth satellite map, and I appear to be posting from a cemetery.
I’m not dead, yet!
Distress Signals & The Soothsayer’s Palm
The Remembrancer: Distress Signals
collage (illustrations from old book, child’s dress pattern, and buttons) with gesso and Portfolio water-soluble crayons
4 3/4 x 8 1/4 inches
The Remembrancer: The Soothsayer’s Palm
collage (film strip, old shipping label, dictionary fragment, dried flower and brass brad) with gesso, ink, and Portfolio water-soluble crayons
4 3/4 x 8 1/4 inches
The Remembrancer: A Tragedy in One Act
The Remembrancer: A Tragedy in One Act
5 1/8 x 4 3/8 inches
8 signatures of 2 sheets (32 pages)
brown paper grocery bags Coptic bound with hemp twine
This one is kind of small, both in dimensions and length. It’s also nearly square, which will probably make me cry before I finish it. Too bad I got gesso on the binding, because it actually turned out pretty well. It’s nice and even, without being too tight. That’s not so easy to accomplish with rough hemp, because the twin itself is knobbly, with thick and thin bits. I’ll try to clean up the gesso splotches and get decent close-ups of the stitching tomorrow. Or maybe I’ll decide it doesn’t matter.
Maybe Sparrow
I’ve mentioned (a time or twelve) that I love Neko Case. This video made me cry.
And a lovely little lullaby from Mr. Cave, because I can. Resistance is futile!
Journals and Altered Books
Mead Composition Book
This particular notebook is filled with collage work. The spine became stressed, and is now square, because too much material was added without removing sufficient pages to compensate.
Learn from my mistakes, people!
These are a few of my journals and altered books. I finally figured out how I want to finish a painting I’ve had stashed away for years, so I dug out a sketchbook, to make notes. Otherwise, I’ll forget. While I was at it, I thought I’d take a few photos of the most recent strata of journals, sketchbooks, etc.
red paper boat 