oil on newspaper adhered to 90lb Stonehenge paper
11 1/4 x 15 inches
This is just a base coat, but until it dries, I can’t do much more with it. The background colors will probably end up a little more muted and the bowl shape and color need to be fine-tuned. After it’s completely dry, I’ll add collage bits–probably some sort of planty thing.
Amulet
collage (wood fan slat, rose petals, brass discs, Polaroid photo, and magazine clipping), gesso, India ink, Cray pas, metallic wax paste on black 90lb Stonehenge paper
5 3/4 x 5 3/4 inches
I’ve been trying to finish this stupid thing for weeks. I finally slathered a bunch of gesso over it this afternoon while watching something on PBS about Catherine the Great.
It’s kind of hard to believe it’s on black paper, isn’t it?
The Polariod is of a life-size bronze sculpture, Lawrence Tenney Stevens’ Alba, that was wrapped up and crated. (You can kind of see what she looked like here.) She was on her way to the conservation lab. Because she looked like a mummy in a coffin, I thought it would be funny to photograph Baubo with her, as if Baubo were an amulet. It’s highly unethical to play with the art, but sometimes the temptation was just too much.
I pulled apart the Polaroid, only using the front plastic layer which contains the photo emulsion. I sanded the back side, rubbing the image completely away on the left-hand side. The jagged, dark form showing through the photo is actually a burned fragment of a magazine page.
The fan slat was covered with red oil pastel, then gone over with metallic gold paste wax. I love the combination, because it mimics traditional gold leaf over red bole.
I’ve been playing around with a few small pieces, trying to decide if I can salvage them or if I should just give up. I thought I’d add some bones, because a few bones can cure all manner of artistic ugliness. Right? Okay, maybe not. But! I stumbled on a couple of fun ideas.
First, bones are really easy to color with Walnut Hollow oil pencils. It took a couple of layers, and I used a Prismacolor blender to mush everything together, which worked well. I also went over them with an uneven layer of metallic gold wax paste. It was kind of a pain in the arse, because I was using itty bitty chicken rib bones, but the end result is pretty cool. I was going for a tarnished, worn, flame-y look, and I think I achieved it.
collage (bones and paper), acrylic, and oil pencil on 140lb Cartiera Magnani hot press watercolor paper
3 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches
Second, I’m in the process of coating some pig vertebrae with crackle glaze. I don’t know how they’ll turn out, or what I’ll use them for, but if the result is as cool as I think it’ll be, I’ll post pictures of those, too.
While doing all this, and because an idle mind is the Debbil’s playground, I’ve been “watching” the NCAA women’s gymnastic championships. It’s pretty cool to see gymnasts that don’t look like anorexic 8 year old girls. And, you’d never hear Guns n’ Roses as floor exercise music in elite gymnastics! I do have a complaint, though, about the commercials. Well, aside from objecting to their very existence. Specifically, I wish they’d lay off the T. Rex. It started with JC Penny and, I think, some car company, and now Coke (and The Slider, no less!). It’s bad enough that the good music from the ’80s is being abused, but there’s no excuse for messing with T. Rex. Bastards!
I just saw two swallowtail butterflies flitting about in my yard. Spring has definitely arrived. Summer, too, perhaps. It’s supposed to be around 85F today. O ick. And it’s supposed to storm this afternoon, so I thought I’d update and upload while I can.
First, some spring photos.
The first three were taken this morning. It stormed at about 4am, but the morning was absolutely gorgeous. The horse in the first photo had just calmed down. He’d been running around and rolling in the grass, full of joie de spring, which was super cute, but not so photogenic in a distance shot.
Next, Teh Cute and Teh Silly:
What can I say? Boxers are unbelievably weird. They do a silly kidney bean dance, wherein they whip their bodies in half, bending back and forth, accompanied by hilariously funny nubbin wagging. It’s ludicrously cute, but not easy to photograph. I tried to get video of it, but no dice. In the second photo she’s just plain lost it. Boxers are notoriously sassy. They love to talk back. This is Harriet woo-wooing at me. My timing was not good, because I was laughing, so I missed the part where she scrunches up her floppy lips and purses them in a perfect O. You can see a little bit of the lip action, but it’s not as impressive as it could be.
And now, the art. Three of them contain Polaroids I’ve altered using sandpaper and/or bleach.
Diptych: Faun
Diptych: Alba
5 1/2 x 5 1/2
collage (altered Polaroid photo, brass beads, unbleached waxed paper, pieces of burnt paper, and fragment from 1854 patent book) and acrylic paint on 90lb Stonehenge paper
Reissue and Extension
5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches
collage (stone beads, braided hemp twine, copper wire, and fragment from 1854 patent book) and drawing (Sarasa gel ink and dandelion pulp) on 90lb Stonehenge paper
The paper was stained beforehand with instant coffee. I made the flower by pounding a dandelion into the paper, then drawing around it using a Sarasa retractable gel pen and water brush. The ink in these pens is dye based. It doesn’t skip and it bleeds when wet.
The Bone of a Thought
5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches
collage (altered Polaroid photo, bone fragment, brass brads, unbleached waxed paper, and fragment from 1854 patent book) and acrylic paint on 90lb Stonehenge paper
This one is nearly finished. I added braided tissue paper “vines,” then colored them with oil pastel. Unfortunately, I tried to photograph it outdoors, where it’s approximately 900F, so the pastel melted into a mirror-like finish. I’ll have to buff it a bit with paper towel to re-matte the finish. That’ll be the final step. In the meantime, there is a bit of glare.
oil, oil pastel, and oil pencil on newspaper adhered to 90lb Stonehenge paper, with braided dress patterns and tissue paper
11 1/4 x 15 inches
Vessels: The Raising of an Old Hope
oil pastel on 90lb Stonehenge paper with bones, hair, brass brads, and copper wire
11 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches
I meant to play around with making a pinhole lens for my 35mm camera, but I didn’t end up getting to it. The weather turned kind of gross–cold and grey and snowy–so I stayed inside and made art. Not that it was terrible out or anything, not like what the east coast is experiencing (25 inches of snow?!), but I just didn’t feel like doing much of anything. Instead, I spent the day drawing while watching some awful movie about a 16th century Venetian courtesan on WB (ah, apparently it was called Dangerous Beauty) and a biography of Anne Boleyn on PBS. That was an odd juxtaposition!
And, now, the weekend is over. Hrmph. They always speed by too quickly, and there is never enough to show for the time spent.
Vessels: Six Secrets
Prismacolor and Caran d’Ache Neocolors II on 90lb black Stonehenge paper with vertebrae and copper wire
11 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches
Someone in one of my art groups asked about drawing with Prismacolors on black paper, and I remembered a stash of black Stonehenge paper I’d gotten a while back. My intention was to use it for oil pastels, and I will, but there’s plenty of it to play around with. It’s been years since I’ve played around with Prismacolors. They’re fussier and more time consuming than oil pastels, which is probably why I don’t use them much. And, while they’re somewhat finger blendable (I just cannot seem to keep my fingers out of whatever I’m working with), once you’ve built up enough layers, they aren’t as easy and fun to move around on the paper as oil pastels.
While I was working, I watched the last DVD of Freaks and Geeks. Good grief! I laughed, I cried, it was way better than Cats. Truly. It reminded me so much of the preppy high school I went to in 9th grade.
Recursive Jumprope
acrylic and collage on paper
Flying the Sun
acrylic and collage on paper
Cathy used an appointment diary, so I guess her journal is also an altered book. She chose copper and orange. Have I mentioned how much I love metallics? Oooh, shiny!
Top: This spread incorporates more yearbook photos, along with obituary photos from our local newspaper. The little cut-out girls are made from phone book pages. The little orange I ended up using is in this spread–coloring the cut-outs and as a base coat. I’m not completely happy with the little jump rope squiggles. I should have used a lighter pen. The ropes are too dark, but there’s not much to be done about that now.
Bottom: Yet another appearance made by me in my tutu. I’m standing on the moon (thank you, NASA). The drawing of the sun was done with cheap metallic gel markers (made by RoseArt). I have yet to find a surface they won’t write on. I didn’t stick as faithfully to the color scheme with this spread (gold is kinda like copper, right?). I had been wanting to make the sun out of copper leaf, but just couldn’t make it work. I ended up pasting a piece of newspaper over my colossal oops and starting over again. The result isn’t exactly what I had in mind, but it’ll do.
I was supposed to get this sent off on Friday, but as anyone in the US knows, that was Post Office Hell day. So, I’ll be stopping by the PO on my way home tomorrow, God willing and the creek don’t rise, as they say. I’m just relieved that I managed to finish my pages without making an unfixable mess or slopping paint all over someone else’s pages. Now, if I can manage to get on-line to post this, all will be well.
watercolor, antique curtain fragment, metallic wax, bone, Gepe mount, yearbook photo, and ink on paper
Epitaph for Eula Strange
I dread for me
living one mute day every time
an allusive and subtle communication
an ever present affliction
clutching to me
an old thought to gnaw on.
I am afraid
Out of worth
without words
caught and reduced and disorganized
like dreaming of sleep
and the taste of dry bones.
This is another of the watercolor collages I’ve been working on. I added a bit of antique Swiss dot material from a curtain that belonged to Pinkie Gray. She’s a watercolor artist who lived in Metamora. The jaw bone I found along the river in Muncie while walking my dog. The photograph is from another old yearbook.
Remembering Beatrice Stone
watercolor, ink, gel pen, Gepe mount, yearbook photo, metallic wax, and doll parts on paper
This is another of the small watercolor collages I’ve been working on. The background is acrylic wash on paper. I used ink to make the hand print, then applied the Gepe mount and drew around it with silver gel pen. The doll parts were covered with metallic silver paste.
red paper boat 