Category: Collage

Art, Collage, Letters to Esther

Vessels: Tesserae

Shelly

A Book of Vessels: Tesserae
Vessels: Tesserae
collage

This is another in the Vessels series. I’m not completely happy with it, but that’s how it goes sometimes. The title comes from the central image–the interior of a mosque dome. The tiny tiles that make up the mosaic are called tesserae. A Latin word, it also was used by the Romans to describe small plaques of bone or wood that served as tallies or identification vouchers. A multitude of tiles creating a larger picture; a multitude of people creating a larger society. Each tiny piece is important to the whole, but in becoming part of the whole, the pieces cease exist as individuals. The understanding that there exists an unending conflict between individual identity and society as a whole is at least as ancient as Homer’s Akhilles. Yeah, he was a whinging mamma’s boy, but he did have a legitimate complaint.

There was a recent-ish discussion in one of my groups about old family photographs. Someone said that, after she was dead and gone, who would care who those people were? It’s probably true, and I find that incredibly sad. Maybe that’s why I’ve been so obsessed with getting all the Letters to Esther transcribed. I hate to think that no one cares. I’m not particularly religious. I don’t believe in an afterlife. Once we’re dead, we’re dead. The only way we continue on is in the consciousness of others and in the marks we make on this Earth. If we leave no marks and are unremembered, we truly go back to the dust and ashes from whence we came–just one unremarkable grain of sand among millions of other unremarkable grains of sand.

Art, Collage

Vessels: Fruits

Shelly

A Book of Vessels: Fruit
Fruits
collage

Another piece for the Vessels book.

I thought I’d use up some of the photos I’d altered. I didn’t like the way they turned out, so I didn’t want to use them as stand-alone pieces. I saved them, though, thinking I might use them in a larger project. The little figure in the center is Baubo. I have no idea what the photo under the olla used to be. The image at the upper left is of a bronze cross. I believe it was made in Africa, though I have no idea where. Baubo was sanded; the two other photos were sanded and liberally augmented with metallic gold wax.

And, yes, the tomato is a fruit.

Art, Collage, Paintings

Vessels: Conceiving the Plan

Shelly

A Book of Vessels: Conceiving the Plan (before) A Book of Vessels: Conceiving the Plan
Vessels: Conceiving the Plan
mixed media

I called my mom this morning and spent three hours talking to her. Where does the time go? While I was on the phone, I took another look at the watercolor I did a couple of nights ago. Ugh. It was just as bad as I remembered. I figured, since I was gabbing and my hands weren’t busy, I may as well try to salvage what I could. I diluted some gesso and splashed it over the paper, let it sit for a bit, then blotted up the excess. That lightened everything and left a milky, mottled cast to the image that I quite liked. You can see the remains of the effect in the lower left-hand corner.

I then got out my Pitt pens and played with the shading. I did some cross-hatching, which helped, but not enough. However, I made a discovery. I was using my grey brush-tip pens and decided to do some washy shading on top of the cross-hatching. The under layer of ink melted and smeared. Hmmm. Pitt pens are permanent when water is applied, but apparently the carrier in the pen itself will melt already-dried ink. That makes sense (otherwise the ink would dry up in the pen, right?), but it hadn’t occurred to me before.

So then I played around with laying down dark areas and using the lightest brush tip pen to melt and redistribute the ink. Oh frabjous day! I really like how the final image turned out. It’s not perfect, but I’m pleased that I was able to salvage it. I think it’ll make a nice addition to the Vessels book.

Art, Collage, Paintings

Blue Horizons

Shelly

A Book of Vessels: Blue Horizons
Blue Horizons

A Book of Vessels: Cave
Cave

I had to use Flickr again. I like how easy it is to upload and manage images, but I’m not happy with the thumbnails it generates. They’re a little too small, I think. I prefer 120 pixels instead of 100. Hrmph. So, I decided to use the next larger size as thumbnails. (Yes, I really do obsess about these sorts of things!) Anyway… Both of these collages are destined for the Vessels book I’m working on.

Blue Horizons: As always, I turned to Mr. Dictionary to see if there was anything I was overlooking. One definition given for “horizon” is “The limit of the theoretically possible universe.” I like that. It speaks to exploration and a potential to be fulfilled.

Cave: This image came from a scenic/touisty type magazine. I tore it into vertical slivers, then inked the margins (my hands are still stained black) and used a Q-tip soaked with ink to color between the torn pieces. I like the way the vertical black lines echo the errosion lines in the rock face.

In mythology, caves are places where the underworld and the real world meet. The cave, like the cauldron, cup, and chalice, also echos the womb. It is the place from which things are born.

A Book of Vessels: Conceiving the Plan
Conceiving the Plan

This is a piece in progress. I’m not happy with the way it turned out (watercolors drive me insane), so I’m probably going to either use the painting in a collage or collage over parts of the painting. We’ll see.

Art, Collage

Vessels: Attun

Shelly

A Book of Vessels: Attun
Vessels: Attun
collage

I tried to upload this last night, but I couldn’t get online. So, I’m trying out Flickr, because it’s accessible from work. It seems easy enough, but I’m not sure I like the size of the thumb-nails. I’m also not keen on the the way images are displayed. I really like the transparency of Hello. But, beggars can’t be choosers, right?

Anyway, this piece is yet another in the new Vessels series. After I had the basic lay-out sorted, I started playing around with some letters I’d cut out of an architecture magazine. My options were limited, word-wise, so I settled on attun. Hmmm. I was sure I’d come across the word before, but I couldn’t remember the context or meaning. A quick Google turned up this. Oh, serendipity!

http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-hebrew/2000-January/005986.html

Dr. Marcus Jastrow defines ‘attun /’attun’a as “fire-place, stove; a fire-place of which the fire has been scraped out.” … However, it is also used in Targum Onqelos to translate the Hebrew word kavshen at Exodus 19:18, which is a “kiln for lime or pottery,” (BDBG) and was used to describe the smoking mountain of the theophany. Or as some translate this Hebrew word also, a “furnace.” It would appear that the word ‘attun is not explicit, except to refer to a large place used for burning. Yet ordinarily, that might favor furnace or kiln over a bread oven.

Art, Collage, Journals

The Rain Boat & My Favorite Old Jeans

Shelly

Rain Boat

Favorite Jeans
Top: The Rain Boat
Bottom: My Favorite Jeans
acrylic, Faber-Castell Pit pens, and collage in composition book journal

It’s been raining for days, so I’ve been thinking of boats again. Taking my cue from the weather, I came home from work yesterday and painted the background a muddy navy color. It reminded me of stormy seas and old denim, so I made another paper boat. This morning I added a doodle of my favorite blue jeans. I got a little over-zealous trying to blend the ink (Pitt pens are permanent, dummy). I managed to tone down the pen strokes a bit, but in the process I nearly rubbed a hole in the paper. Oh serendipity! It looks all the more like worn denim.

And, of course, the rain has now turned to a lovely “wintry mix.” Winter in Indiana is so, well, Winter in Indiana.

(Ha! After checking to make sure this entry was displaying correctly, I was reminded of the Dr. Seuss story What Was I Scared Of?)

Art, Collage, Ladybusiness

Vessels: Blue Moon Gold Halo

Shelly

A Book of Vessels: Blue Moon Gold Halo
Vessels: Blue Moon Gold Halo
collage

This is another piece in the same series as the Identity Theft pieces. Instead of working in a composition book, these pieces were all done on chip board. My plan is to eventually bind them all into a book. The book’s working title is Vessels. That could change, but at this point things are shaping up nicely within that overall theme.

As with most of the glue book pieces I’ve done, this one is nothing new or profound. It’s just a reflection of where my head was at the time. Glue books, for me, are as much stream of consciousness as anything. As you can see, I’ve been thinking a lot about the dichotomy between the Virgin and the Whore. Girls learn at a very young age that they’re either one or the other. However, as any sane woman can tell you, there are no such absolutes.

Art, Collage, Ladybusiness
Shelly

A Book of Vessels: Sacred Cow
Sacred Cow
collage

A Book of Vessels: Identity Theft 2

A Book of Vessels: Identity Theft 1
Identity Theft 1 & 2
collage

These are pretty self explanatory. Our break room at work has a table where people leave magazines they’ve finished with. There are usually several women’s magazines Good Housekeeping, Women’s Day, etc. I occasionally flip through them. It never fails to depress me.