In the Name of Art

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.

Maple/Hawthorn Saga

Joan Colbert wondered why I hadn't told the whole story to the piece posted just after this post, so I'll tell and try to keep it short! Last fall I wanted wings for my collages, cicada to be precise. But finding a cicada wing is challenging, finding more than one almost impossible and it occurred to me that the wing part to a maple seed resembled a......WING! Since they fall in the spring I thought I'd have to wait until then to work with them. Voila! The un-named trees on the tree lawns (devil strip to you NE Ohioans) let loose with a zillion wingseeds in October! An arborist was at the house messing with a troublesome plum and I asked him what kind of maple was on those tree-lawns and he snorted "Those aren't maples, those are hawthorns!" Now fast forward to May. I decide to name my collage by the elements that are in it and name it "My 1 cent Hawthorn Baby" based entirely on my trust in arborists. Then Joan Colbert (who was a very accurate arborist in a previous life) writes up the titles for the show and says to me, "What kind of hawthorn seed is that?" I relate the above story and think, "Well, yeah, what kind of hawthorn seed is that?" I ask another arborist while buying plants and he says, "I've been an arborist for 25 years and I don't know of any tree like that!" Hmmmmmmm! Check the internet under maples and hawthorns. Nothing about my tree. Finally check a guide to trees. Jackpot! Its a Hedge Maple or English Field Maple. Email Joan with the news. She emails back with a story about the art critic pausing in front of Hawthorn Baby and exclaiming "Why those aren't hawthorn seeds, those are maple seeds. How curious!" You really have to know the kind of reviews this critic writes to appreciate why I bit my nails until the article came out. We are lucky to have her but sometimes her opinions are, well, hard-edged.Happy ending, she loved the show! And didn't mention the title. Thats it, end of saga!

My 1 cent maple baby

Went to Akron this afternoon for lunch with my sister and another look at the AoRC May Show at Mocha Maiden. Took more photos than this but since the artist of this piece is me, it was easy to get permission to post it here, the others would take more effort. I've been stitching into cabinet cards for about 6 months and have 3 that I like and 2 that went down the tubes. This is my favorite so far. I've started titling them by simply naming the parts of the composition because it seems to lighten them a bit, they imply a seriousness that is sometimes off-putting. Not to me, but I'm accustomed to my ideas.

Fickle Muses

The muses have been fickle this week. My work has gone off in at least 5 different directions and the results have been less than stellar. So the strategy is to force it. It isn't the best strategy, but in my case, its the only option left. My kids would say to me, "But I'm not in the mood to make art!" thinking that somehow trumped the necessity to work. They didn't know who they were dealing with.

 On Monday, I just sat down and forced it even though I wasn't "in the mood". I really believe working through these dry patches leads me back to those elusive muses and sometimes I even discover something new. It's really very random. But I have to be working for the randomness to pay off. If it doesn't pay off and all I get is so-so stuff for awhile, then I just work through that too, all those "mistakes" are teaching me something. I admit, I don't always know what that is, but I'm convinced there is an upside to bad art. This piece is older and I just added the text and some scribbling. I'll get to the forced pieces tomorrow. 

Some Birds and Bouts

When the local library has their semi-annual book sale I am all over it! Picked up a huge book on birds with illustrations by Roger Tory Peterson (who was born in Jamestown, NY, right down the street from our cottage). It has migration routes and maps and as you can see types of birds in silhouette with information about each.

I'm still playing with the wingseeds and I'd torn out a page from the book and it kept calling my name, dancing a jig, etc. . I finally cut it up and these were the result. I'd planned to use the more colorful, realistic pages first, but I'm beginning to think the materials have a mind of their own.

Watteau's heart

Well it must be obvious by now that I'm going to be underlining everything when I insert a photo. As I said, bear with me, this new and "improved' version of typepad is probably just that but it'll take me awhile to adjust to it's wonderfulness.  Just finished this piece with the intention of using it for a sample for artfest proposal. I'm not sure about that because it veered off into territory of it's own and didn't stick to what I had in mind. My collages are a feckless lot. Anyway, there's quite a bit of stitching on this one. I'm not sure why I love string, but I only use materials and images I love. Tangles, knots and lines attract me.

Just One PC

Last week I took the whole 5 days to wrap up my proposals for artfest 2009 and didn't have time to make any collage, but this one kind of made itself. I've always loved the sculpture Uta and Ekkehard from the Naumburg Cathedral in Germany because they look as if they've just stepped inside from some very bad weather. Uta even holds her cloak up to her cheek. She just jumped off the page and into a blackberry dream!

Tiny houses atcs

The design on the back of these playing cards makes me want to make a whole 52 piece set of them but it'll be slow going. Slicing and dicing time for all the art I want, need, must do doesn't leave me a lot of time for these. I've still got my pmc silver charms sitting in the artfest box just waiting on a proper presentation and I've had no time to get to them! Yes, I realize some folks would kill for my problems and frequently ponder some of the last words of Hokusai (the Japenese printmaker): "If I just had another 15 years I could get it right!" He didn't and I won't either.

So the way its working for me is, occasionally the urge to go really tiny gets compulsive and I have to do it! I keep thinking I'm a miniaturist but LOVE the presence of larger works.

Addendum

Last week I entered the May Show Exhibit sponsored by Artists of Rubber City (that's Akron, Ohio) and of 3 pieces, 2 were accepted. This one wasn't, its the reject. Actually this isn't the whole piece, these 2 have another pc sized piece on the left and its the Bronzino/Venus card from another post on 2/14/08. Couldn't fit it on the scan-bed and photos were not coming out the way I wanted. Even the scan was dicey because they were both glued to a mount board. I thought it would be enlightening to see what the judges didn't care for. I'll be able to hang it sooner in my kitchen now!

More Mislaid

Fruit has such a reputation! 400 years ago fruit was a symbol for decadence and licentiousness, but who could resist it's charms? Eve couldn't help herself and besides, that story came from Adam who had a clear conflict of interest. The images of fruit I use come from a catalog published in 1908 and the surface texture of those pages is positively velvety. Between the allure of the texture and the images that catalog will soon be in tatters!