In the Name of Art

Frottage

I remember the day in school, talking to my fellow teacher about a project I was planning and saying, "First we're going to do a frommage and then paint over it". I barely got the words out of my mouth and Gretchen says (with extreme umbrage), "Frommage is cheese!" Indeed it is! What I meant to say was frottage.

This is a combination of frottage (not cheesy at all) and some monoprint that is hard to see. Another of my samples for image transfer. I think the stripes are funny, they remind me of striped socks. 

The Empty Space

The collaborative that came to my doorstep this month is "The Virgin/Maiden" and my first impulse was to explore the pagan concept of virgin (which is a bit more flexible than our idea about virgins). But flipping through my sources changed my mind. Mary, of course, dominates. 

So Mary it was! And I began cutting. The more I cut, the more important her accessories became, all those angels, the crowns, the roses, the doves! Finally I gave up and cut her right out of the picture and that seemed right. The papers were obviously guiding me here.

This is not part of the collaborative but a sample I made to see where the pieces were leading me. The boys faces became part of the comp here too and they remind me of the constructed nature of cultural ideas . I'm not sure I'll use all the stitching with the larger version. 

All in the Family

My grandmother, the one with her eyes closed, lived in a place called Buffalo Bottom in Indiana and married the son of a (fairly) rich farmer named Ralph. This is a transfer of them in all their courting glory with friends, including Ralph's sister (on the right) Mable. I puzzle over the mystery of photography and am with Sontag in regards to their function as markers of mortality. I know that anything "vintage" in art is in danger of becoming sentimental and I fight that in most of my work, but sometimes I just lose that fight and give in. 

I don't bother working with unusual photos, the mundane ones provide more than enough ammunition for imagination.It's too bad we don't realize every time we take a picture how many permutations of meaning it later can take on. 

 

Mrs Vendor's 3 cent Maple Fantasy

These cabinet cards have been my silent companions for so long that it surprises me to see how changed they are when I finish remaking them. This woman looked so grim, and I changed that a bit with the visuals, and certainly changed it with the title. She became lighter, and her fixed gaze above the negative of a beach outing completely changed the translation of her dour expression.

I let the parts of the composition suggest the titles and keep that fairly concrete. In this one, the man's face dot above her head led the title into more speculative territory.

Sterling in Pictures

I've been exploring image transfers for Gretchen Bierbaum and making a mess on my kitchen counter rubbing wet paper off the back of packing tape. The images of my father and his father are the result of that process. I was surprised that this hangs together as well as it does, given there is no strong emphasis.

After Small Appliances

Piles of paper, scraps left over from the last work, what an embarrassment of riches! When the pile gets too large I dive back in to use some of it for other works. The photo element of this piece is the other half of the photo I cut up for the Small Appliances entry. I was flipping through my tattered and cut art history books and came upon cupids holding up a mirror for Venus, I'm sorry to say I didn't take note of the artist. Then there was the photo from the early 60's of the kitchen and dinette someone was very proud of, well, it all came together in a harmless jibe at our tendency to be vain about ourselves and our possessions. The quilt at the top and the bottom anchors that attitude in tradition.

More Tree Stuff

The tree stuff never ends! First it was the helicopters or wing seeds and now the bushy, wiry tendrils they were hanging on is falling and adhering to itself to form these balls of beautiful, airy stuff. It looks like delicate jewelry just laying there in the street. I keep wondering how I could use it in collage.....  I know, I'm incorrigible.

Perhaps the trees are just speaking through me? They need someone to speak for them! I won't be working on tree-related images this week because I've got to do some work for my friend Gretchen's book, so its all image transfer or nothing until the weekend!

Worshipping Small Appliances and Other Oddities

I've been up at the lake for a couple of days with parents for Father's day and haven't had a chance to make any art what with the onerous responsibility of jumping in the lake and enjoying their company. So these are some 6x4s I made last week. For the one on the right I just reached into my pile of old photos and told myself I'd make art around whatever I lifted out. It was such a poignant image, someone had snapped a shot of a new kitchen in the early 60s and I thought it encapsulated an attitude about the objects we accumulate. So I exaggerated that. The other piece is just rearranging pieces in art history books.

Back to One a Day

So the days started to pass without me piling up works of art and it started making me nervous. This urge to produce must be an inheritance from my working days. I'd walk into school and move mountains and it felt good! But it is summer and I'm lightening up on time limits and the like. This piece is in the mood of the great outdoors and the spirit of the trees. After reading Derek Jensen I really want to make tributes to all kinds of trees. I climbed them, I sit in their shade,I use parts of them in my art and I take care of them. I also plan to make more art about them.

Haiku Memoir, oh Dear!

I've been tagged by Sarah and didn't know how to link to her name, but thanks to the kind intervention of Catherine Witherell, queen of the links, now I do. So I needed to tag 5 others and you know who you are! Here are the rules:

1. Write the title to your own memoir using 6 words.

2. Post it on your blog.

3. Link to the person who tagged you. 

4. Tag 5 more blogs. 

So my title is (drum-rolllllllll):

Its Always Now, Until It Isn't 

As I was falling asleep, it came to me. At first it seemed kind of wacky but the more I thought about it, the more accurate it became. And in case you think I've gone too zen I woke up with one of the Disney cartoon songs in my brain and couldn't dislodge it, "I Know You, I Walked with You Once Upon a Dream". Its scary to think there might be some sort of connection. Anyway, made a little art to go along with it.