Teabag Series 01 and 02

Teabag Series 01

Teabag Series 02

I started this series with teabags that I had adhered together with matte medium.  I then added Japanese ledger paper underneath the tea bag pieces.  As you can see the teabags were transparent.  I used Stablio Woodies, acrylic dendrites, stamps, vintage photographs, stamps, and stitchery in each piece.  I will talk more about the process in future blog entries.

The series started out as a series of 25 which really became 30 or 31, I may have miscounted.  I made the series to send to Germany for an art exchange.  I liked the series so much that I did not want to part with the collages.  So what to do.  The thought of making 25 more seemed a bit much.  An art friend suggested making ten more and then decide which to keep and which to send.  Well, I made  25 more so the series actually has 55 or 56 collages.  My plan is to select the 25 to keep and the rest can depart for Europe soon.  I want to make a clamshell box for the 25 that I keep.

Bristol

Bristol

This is the collage that I did for the Cancer LifeLine Show that is currently open in Seattle.  Cancer LifeLine clients/cancer survivors were tasked with writing poems.  The NW Collage Society members selected poems from the group and created collages to represent the poem or something in the poem.

The poem I selected was about the death of Bristol, a female aged 12 or 13.  I was not quite sure of the age because of the way the poem was written.  In the poem the mother (this is going to be very sad) watched her “daughter” be misdiagnosed and then diagnosed with cancer on the bone.  Originally it was thought the cancer was in the lung.  The “daughter” died five days later.

So as you see I have 13 girls plus the mother watching over the girls in my piece. One of the girls is whiter than the others to represent the question as to the appropriate age.  I attended the reception for the show.  I saw three women surrounding my piece and chatting about it as I walked through the gallery.  I got the idea that one of women was the poet.

So I went up to the women a bit later as they were still by my piece and asked if one of them was the poet.  Indeed, one of the women was.  Her partner or business partner, I was unsure, started talking to me right away.  Come to find out the “girl” in the poem was not human after all.  The poem was written about the poet’s Pomeranian.  Yup!  A dog!

I can not tell you how much I agonized over this poem and my piece.  I changed the collage so many times because I wanted to get it right, at least my interpretation.  I asked others to read the poem and everyone agreed I could not have known it was about the death of a dog.  Everyone thought it was a human girl aged 12 or 13.

I offered the collage to the poet if she wanted it.  She did not say yes or no.  She barely could get out a thank you.  I also told her I would donate the collage to Cancer LifeLine if she did not want the piece.  I still do not know what will happen.

I would share the poem with you if I could but I do not have the permission of the author.   One just never knows what will transpire in any one day.  Every day has events that come as a surprise.

November 2019 ATC

November 2019 ATC

I made over twenty of ATCs for November as I had two different groups to send cards to.  I started each ATC with marbleized paper that I made in San Francisco.  I then added flowers, a number, a stamp, and a bee.  I finished each one off with some Stablio Woody crayons, some graphite pencil, and some transfer paper asemic writing.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all in the States.  :-)

Manzanita 2019 - 12

Two-fer Wednesday.  I had an endoscopy yesterday and I was not oriented towards preparing blog entries.  So here is the catch up.

Manzanita 2019 - 12

I have two more in this series but I forgot to scan them before mailing them out.  I will contact the recipients to see if they will photograph them for me and if so I will post later on.  Since I like the handkerchief ephemera so much I will search for more of them for future works.

Manzanita 2019 - 11

Manzanita 2019 -11

I like adding ephemera right onto the photo.  More of that coming in the future.

Manzanita 09

Manzanita 09

This piece seems very calming to me.  Is it the colors?  Is it the pansy?  Maybe it is the total composition.  It just works for me.

The pansy comes from a handkerchief that I found at a garage sale.  Cutting them out proved to be a bit of a challenge.  Problem solved with a combination of cutting the cloth with both scissors and a breakaway utility knife.

Manzanita 08

Manzanita 08

I have used this figure previously and will use her again most likely.  For some reason I find her image simple but effective for using when a female figure is needed.  I like using her on a piece of photograph that I might have otherwise discarded.

Manzanita 07

Manzanita 07

I had made the backgrounds for this series quite some time ago.  So when we went to Manzanita for the art retreat I stuffed them in a box of unfinished projects.  I am liking how this turned out.

Manzanita 06

Manzanita 06

I am taken by my new process of including strips of ephemera with or right next to the cropped photos that I have been using.  My photo supply is dwindling and that might be a good thing or possibly not.  It might be good because I have avoided using some photos that are just portraits.  I have avoided using images of children.  So now it might force me to either hunt for more photos or it might be a challenge to figure out a new way to use what I have.  Time will tell.

Manzanita 05

Manzanita 05

I rarely do nudes but I found a flip book that I have had for quite some time and decided to go ahead and use one of the photos from it.  The original photo is one by Muybridge who did a study of animal movement including the human kind.

Manzanita 04

Manzanita 04

Yesterday I attended the NW Collage Society membership meeting.  There was a guest speaker, Joe Rudko.  He uses photograph pieces in his works.  He was very inspiring and refreshing.  I want to learn more about his work.  http://www.joerudko.com/

I am not into anything that might have to do with weapons but I do like target images.  I have been collecting them from many different online sources over the years.  I like how the black unifies this piece.  In several works in this series I have been taking a human image and removing it from its original setting, replacing it into a new “environment”.

Manzanita 03

Manzanita 03

You probably can not tell it but the Chinese character on the right is actually two pieces of ephemera. They look like they should have been together all along.  I have not used napkins for a long time but I did in this piece, note the background greens.  This piece actually puts Japanese and Chinese characters together making it, perhaps, operatic.  

Manzanita 02

Manzanita 02

Seeing something in a new way is what collage is all about.  In this case, taking something apart and redistributing it with other ephemera pulled this collage together.  It is the process of recreating a different image, something new out of something old or vintage.

Manzanita 01

Manzanita 01

Earlier this month I was in Manzanita, Oregon on an art retreat.  I made many postcards and ATCs while looking out on the Pacific ocean.  This one actually was finished when I returned home.

ATC Halloween 2019

ATC Halloween 2019

While in San Francisco I created a series of Halloween ATCs for the Facebook group to which I belong.  This is one of the series that I kept.  I am late posting it but I just found it in my ephemera stash from the trip.

Muse Mail Postcards 2019 - 11

Muse Mail Postcards 2019 - 11

This postcard is the last of the 2019 Muse Mail series.  If I ever find my original scans I will post the twelfth one, but for now it is lost somewhere in my image files.  Perhaps I deleted those files.  Not sure.  You know how computers are....they sometimes have a life of their own.  Personification of computers!

Muse Mail Postcards 2019 - 10

Muse Mail Postcards 2019 - 10

I kept this one for myself.  What an angry or mean look!  So expressive!

Muse Mail Postcards 2019 - 09

Two-fer Wednesday.....

Muse Mail Postcards 2019 - 09

This postcard was sent to one of the Muse Mail participants yesterday.  It probably has not arrived.  It might just be my favorite of the series.  I think the background really goes well with the portrait.

Muse Mail Postcards 2019 - 08

Muse Mail Postcards 2019 - 08

This guy makes me smile.  I love everything about his appearance.  His hair does remind me of a comb over.

Muse Mail Postcards 2019 - 07

Muse Mail Postcards 2019 - 07

I just love creating something new using something that had a different purpose.  When the original ephemera was created the idea of it becoming something else was never envisioned.  That is the fun of collage! :-)

Muse Mail Postcards 2019 - 06

Muse Mail Postcards 2019 - 06

Can’t imagine growing such an unusual beard.  Color seems to be an unifying element in this piece. The cut line above the eye almost looks like a scar to me.

Muse Mail Postcards 2019 - 05

Muse Mail Postcards 2019 - 05

I found the boy image where each of the three parts can be interchanged with another image of a person, hence the two lines through the face.  It sure seems like a long time ago that I made this postcard series.  It has been a year.      

Muse Mail Postcards 2019 - 04

Muse Mail Postcards 2019 - 04

I am home from Manzanita, OR.  The retreat was fabulous as I got a lot of work done and I got to spend time with three artist friends.  Fun time working and chatting away!

Muse Mail Postcards 2019 - 03

Muse Mail Postcards 2019 - 03

This guy looks piratety to me.  High ho!  Walk the plank and all that!  I guess he does have barbells though.  So I must be way off on the pirate thing.

I have been in Manzanita, Oregon for a few days.  Sad to leave but found a great house to rent next time, too.  The Creative Gents are planning a visit in the fall 2020 for my 70th birthday.

Once a trip is over I wish I could just beam myself home and not have to drive five or six hours.

Muse Mail Postcards 2019 - 02

Muse Mail Postcards 2019 - 02

Dapper gentleman!  I did some dendrite work for the background.  I love how the red just makes the finished postcard pop.

Muse Mail Postcards 2019 - 01

Muse Mail Postcards 2019 - 01

I belong to a group called Muse Mail.  Each year a project is decided upon and we mail a piece of art to one of the group members each month.  Since there are twelve participants that works out well with the calendar.  I had scanned each of the postcards, this year’s project, when I finished creating my twelve last December.  Do you think I can find them on my computer?  No!  So lucky each postcard was posted by the recipient on our Facebook account.  I was able to reconstruct the images so I can post them on this blog.

One of my postcards was lost in the mail last January or February.  So I sent a different postcard to the recipient so that she would have something.  Guess what, it finally showed up.  For some reason I have only been able to find eleven of the ones sent.  Oh well.

Pressing Clamshell Box

Pressing Clamshell Box

It takes a bit of time to create a clamshell box.  Pressing each side of the box only takes five minutes To make sure that the glue is going to evenly hold the side in place.  I love my little press that Michael Jacobs gave me a few years ago.  It is perfect for the process, just the right size.

Autumn ATCs 03 International Group

This three-fer Friday.  I noticed that I am behind a little on the number of posts that I have made this year.  So every once in awhile I will be catching up

Autumn ATCs 03 International Group

Here are the last of the Wild West series.

Autumn ATCs International Group 02

Autumn ATCs International Group 02

I made seven cards total.  I especially like how these two turned out.

Autumn ATCs International Group 01

Autumn ATCs 01 - International Group

Irene, my Palos Verdes art friend, suggested that for the international ATC group’s fall theme we do something about our country of origin.  I decided that I would combine a variety of American flags and the Wild West.  I wanted words on the card and since I have many old children's readers  and I decided that I should use what I have around me, I would take pages from the readers for the background.  During the process I needed one more element so I stamped each with a number stamp that I have.