can’t decide which one to use….

week 64 collage play with crowabout. next week i get to play ‘admin’ and submit the collage sheet for our Flickr group! wheee! it will be a birthday sheet to celebrate the creator “Nancy B.”’s birthday!

the watercolor pencils are so much fun…i used them to enhance the somewhat bland portraits. 8×11 pencil ink and watercolor….

not all little boys are made up of frogs and snails and puppy dog tails.  this is cropped portion of 8×12. from flickr collage group hosted by Nancy B. week 62.

4×8 altered postcard. K&Co backgrounds, dover.com clip art. various body parts from magazines. per wikipedia: maria letiza, napolean’s mom was obsessed with cleanliness bathing 8 of 13 surviving children every week as opposed to once a month as was the custom during the 18th century.

text: a letter between me and my mother. napolean is thinking:”is it almost bath time yet?”

work in progress…original here;—>after scanning and photoshop, added atlantic city boardwalk and removed backround and some text which says i’m bored etc…this is a mosaic of a photo-all but the far right side of her face has been replaced with paper that was treated with ranger distress ink and pencil. magazine paper always scans with funky lines on it. this is a work in progress.

The threat of a winter storm with 6 inches of snow sleet and freezing rain turned out to be a dud. But fortunately the lack of inclement weather allowed me to take part in the Hip Happening down in the Sellwood area. Thanks to all of those brave souls who ventured out in 34 degree rain to come shop at my small booth and save the day!

blind collage is a fun thing to do when you are completely brain dead (like I am today) just throw a bunch of random images on your scanner screen face down. don’t worry about order. just start with small images and lay larger and larger on top of those till the screen is full. above is my blind collage to thank you all for coming out yesterday!

as much as I would love to go to friends and family this year-I have chosen to create ART for paying customers. Here is my gift to you all: Lady GaGa as a turkey pilgrim….enjoy the holidays!

November 21st at Reedwood Friends Church. We got there early enough to find what we thought was the best table-alas we were by the exit! There was very little (if any) advertising but we still had a fun time and were amazed by the number of vendors that came to sell their wares. We were by far the most unique and quirky of the 25+ vendors. Jessica’s Star Trek ATC’s sold like hotcakes and Deb’s beaded ornaments were also very popular. I got the feeling that many of the tables around us had been doing this for years and some were quite adept at the hard sell.  I did not have a sale until 2 pm-which was sort of disappointing. Until I have done this a few more times I will not be bitter about the lack of customers-I’m just glad that I got my earrings and easels back from the church office! Apparently we left them behind in the parking lot!

This is the fourth Lady-wing collage. She ended up looking like Gina Gershon but she is based on an image from a 1954 Good Housekeeping. I use vellum to trace the original dress and create  a template. The template is placed on designer card stock until the dress looks ‘right’ to me. I cut out the dress and distressed the edges with tea dye Ranger ink. The belt (or any accessory) is created the same way.

The original image is scanned and reprinted on 32 lb linen and then hand colored with pencil and pastel to create a painted look. Sometimes an arm or head will be replaced by other arms/heads (from other images) and pasted on to the body. The dress is pasted over this and sometimes more embellishment occurs with either pastel, ink or adhesive gems, or charms on the work.

When the paper doll is dressed she is placed on a complimentary background. Then the work is scanned and cropped. Sometimes text is added. This particular collage has text that translated reads: “Where is Julie? I think I found the diamond ring she lost in the pool.”

‘Constance, not unlike the California Condor had a reputation for seeking out carrion and elderly billionaires…’

This is Lady-wing collage No. 3. Her head was added at the last minute when the original image turned out looking like a snake with malignant melanoma.  It took over 24 hours to complete Constance. Her dress and sweater shrug were very complex as was her jewelry.  She was floating in space until I added the vulture for her to lean on.

I did my research. The California Condor has a bad rap (rep?) just like Constance. Please do your part to save these beautiful condors.

http://www.cacondorconservation.org/

Ladywing #2 is a 12×12 collage. Vintage image from a 1954 Good Housekeeping was scanned and then printed on linen paper, hand colored with Prang pencils and ink pen. Paper doll dresses were created from cardstock (K&Co~Que Sera Sera) and embellished with hats, and wings of my own design and construction. Pale pink & fuschia adhesives gems for earrings and necklace, ring. Sash on belted dress is mounted with pop dot for 3D illusion. Dolls placed on remains of two 12×12 sheets from the Sasha Collection.

Image was then scanned and uploaded to add text in photoshop. I played around with different effects and posted a cropped ‘watercolor” version on Flickr. This is the “text” version…

My friend, Kirsten,  was accused of being a “Decepticon” by her boyfriend, David (who will be attending the Star Trek movie with us tomorrow) when  she was being sneaky but attempting to look innocent. We tagged the header for the movie trailer voice over…”don’t be fooled, she is really a Decepticon!” on our lunch break one day. For more info on what David was alluding to see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decepticon

I love the idea that men can be hoodwinked by a pretty smile and good make-up. These two Ladywings are definitely up to no good.

The caption on the image is sort of lost to me now-but that last line is French for, “Where is Mother and Father?”

Lady-wing #1 is an 8×10 Collage~vintage image, cut and pasted paper dress/wings/bonnet all hand made by me using printed designer paper(Sasha Collection), distress ink, pastel, ink pen,
paper punched flowers, background page from Sasha Collection (Prima).

Although you may mistake her for Sarah Jessica Parker, this model is probably 75 years old by now. I found her in a 1952 Good Housekeeping magazine for a Kotex advertisement! She had a drab beige Dior gown that screamed: Dress Me Up!

She is very popular now with her new flowery dress and big wings. But she needs to see the chiropractor since the collar necklace has been around her neck for 57 years.

This image was not retouched except for eye make-up done with ink pen and distress ink on her gloves.

Number One in the Lady-wing series.

I have been working out the elements/arrangements of this painting for several weeks in my head. As you know, I have a large collection of victorian ephemera and have been gathering antique portraits for many years. I have been fascinated by medical coding and will attempt to create a vintage form of coding similar to the Victorian’s “Language of Flowers”. Here is the first rough draft of a 20×20 canvas.

here is some info for all you flower lovers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_of_flowers

I found honey o in another very old magazine from 1953. I will give the detail on construction later as it is too late and my neck hurts really bad. 12×12 collage done in the same way as all the other lady-wings.

Mother Electra was one of the many vintage images found in the 19th century ephemera stash. I had read an article about making *mini books* and I thought I would give it a whirl. I began by gathering images that would tell the story and then wrote the story to go with the images. I used some of the tricks from the article and added doors, pockets and sliders within the book. The interior pages were designed with a repeat leaf pattern which I embellished with gold ink. Two pages were glued together back to back  and cut into 6″ strips. I created four strips which folded in half and stapled in the center made 16 pages. I knew that a hard cover would eventually conceal pages 1 and 16 so I left those blank.  See Mother Electra’s Pride and Joy for page construction.

I was invited last week to join a weekly artist’s challenge on Flickr, hosted by Crowabout (aka Nancy Baumiller). The host sends out a collage sheet on Sundays to all members of the group by posting it on Flickr. From there it’s basically a free-for-all; you are allowed to do what ever you want with the images to create a piece of art. You must use at least 3 images to be in the running for the weekly prize. But you are encouraged to use all the images.

The challenge as I see it is to create an original work that uses the images in different and unexpected ways. I was so excited to play I made mine into a real game, based on the old game spinners of yesteryear , that I’ve noticed are finding their way back into vogue. So I put the collage sheet into the collage creator program and separated the spinner base from the other images and enlarged it. I printed the spinner base on card-stock. I then hand colored the spinner base and all the little faces. I made a real spinner out of another image (printed 5x in a row) and cut it out in the shape of a needle spinner. I poked a hole in the center of the base and attached the spinner to the base with a copper brad.

This game was then placed on top of a variety of images from the collage sheet, including the tattoo of a pretty senorita. The senorita I also enlarged and flipped and printed on card-stock. Her blouse is another image of an old box of beef bouillon cubes!

I embellished the senoritas with pencil, ink and gems.

The Crow-about Challenge was lots of fun and took me most of Sunday to complete. I guess I will go outside now and enjoy some of this summer weather!

Today was so beautiful I just had to get outside and stroll by the magic waterfall. It was so bloody hot though, I thought I was going to faint. I bought some new designer paper and before I went to bed created this collage…

A co-worker requested a Lady-wing of her youngest daughter, Jenna-Ann whose birthday was May 19th. I suspect that there is some fairy blood in her family, as her girls all love PINK!

I wanted to do a baby Lady-wing and am fortunate that  I found the right one. This is Jenna-Ann who was found under the azaleas all pink and sparkly with her pink diamond tiara and giant baby wings! 

I only had a small photo of her in a swimsuit. I made the dress out of Sasha Collection and the wings from K&Co. The original is 12×12.

Pinkie Taylor was so thrilled with Jenna-Ann she showed it to everyone at the office. Marlene, one of the follow up team, asked me if I’d make one for her grand-daughter. Here is Avery, the summertime fairy. This was a major cut and paste job-since I had two photos to work with. 

Paper used: Wild Saffron (K&Co) for dress and hat, Marah Johnson (Creative Imaginations) background, flowers from scraps of Sasha Collection. A variety of adhesive gems (Darice & Me&My Big Ideas)

12×10 collage.

Jessica came over last night for *art night*. We each worked on different projects and ate chips and salsa & ice cream from the dairy bar.

I worked on Crowabout #37. Since I wanted to be totally original with my collage I created a kalidescope effect with the floral border that came on the collage sheet. There was also a pig and a flapper gal and a bunch of bird eggs and vintage fruit crate labels. I am sort of hooked on the adhesive gems and went a little psychodelic on this one:

 I cut up all the text from the fruit labels and came up with:

Date Dribble Deluxe A Circle Of Luscious Girl Fruit

I stuck an egg on the Blue Ribbon Berry’s and put that on her tummy. I also put an egg on her head. I had a dress in the image stash (not part of the collage sheet) that I colored with pastels to match the blue sky background.

I think she is Egg-Ceptional.

Don’t you?

The only energy I have when it is 93 degrees in the shade is to go to Safeway’s Starbucks and get a caramel light frappacino. Then, of course ,  I wander the aisles in air-conditioned comfort hoping they will not notice I am pushing an empty cart.

I was exhausted after doing Crowabout #38. Nancy was sneaky and posted the collage sheet on her photostream and NOT in the Collage Play with Crowabout group on Flickr. I think only 3 of us have posted so far.

Crowabout Collage Play Week 39 featured some vintage ads and a rooster head I could not resist playing with. Here are the details on this 12×12 collage.

“The Wigwam Villages went out of business in 1939 after their award winning White Rooster “Big Daddy” collapsed under the weight of yet another insatiable female patron. The owner’s put up a sign explaining what ”happened” and why they had to close their teepees and lucrative side show entertainment featuring the 10 cent rooster rides and the Talking Tuxedos, two cats that did vaudeville schtick and who peed on command. The Most Unique Tourist Haven in America was truly an example of what my father called: High Weirdness. It has been rumoured that Big Daddy is still alive and living with Zibelline in Minnesota. The cats are still roaming about Cave City looking for handouts and clean litter boxes.”

Thanks, Nancy B for the collage sheet. *Rider* courtesy of Lunagirl Images. Cat heads are from NYPL digital image collection.

The body of the rooster is cut out of cardstock from K&Co’s fabulous dual sided Que Sera Sera collection. It was made out of  ten different pieces; four wing parts, one body part, two thighs, two legs and of course, the rooster’s head, which was enlarged and cropped from the collage sheet. Rider body was copied off of Lunagirl CD from ‘bathing beauties’ section and then hand colored to match the lady head on the collage sheet that Nancy sent.  Her bathing costume (and shoes) was created by making a vellum template of the orignal and then pasting pieces from the collage sheet onto the vellum. The patchwork was sealed with  clear tape and cut out and placed over the orignal. Hat was made from enlarged dahlia and embellished with adhesive gems. Pop dots, glue and doubled sided tape were used to put the rooster and rider together.

Columns and banner header were digitally manipulated from collage sheet. Banner was hand colored with pen and and ink to add more contrast.

Cat bodies/heads were reversed before construction. Text ‘yourself’  & ‘10cents’ from collage sheet; the rest from my computer printed on yellowing design scrapbook paper and then hand colored and cut out. Arrangement was difficult as my scanner only takes an 8×11 photo.  the 12×12 background is a cardstock page by basic grey.com (wassail/olive branch)

I will do some reserach on the Wigwam Villages…I would not be surprised if a Walmart has permanently replaced this property. The term “High Weirdness” was coined by Ivan Stang, founder (publisher) of the Church of the Sub-Genius, a compendium of oddball culture of which America is famous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Stang

there is a challenge on Flickr called: The Many Faces of Mona Lisa. You can submit any kind of artwork as long as Mona Lisa is in it and it’s G-rated. ‘Mona Leasha’ is Kirsten’s idea-but I created the artwork. It is vellum on a Formica chip from Home Depot with ink and pencil. The chip is glued to a  3×5 piece of black mat board.  The dark circle around her eye is NOT an eyepatch. It is the hole cut out of the chip to hang on the display. This chip is just one of many left over from my kitchen re-model five years ago. I knew they would get used someday!

Cade, Avery & Aric had a great time on Grandpa’s boat up on Frog Lake last summer. The original photo was lacking the postcard quality background so I cut that out and superimposed them on this great shot of Mt Hood. (Frog Lake). Each child’s paper doll template contained between 8 and  12 pieces! This one took two week-ends to complete. I am going submit the before and after shot to K&Co’s editor and show her that their cardstock pads can be used more creatively than just scrapbooking!

Once I had the kid’s outfits glued into place and their skin colored in with pencil I decided on the background. The image was digitally enhanced in Photo Impression and then printed on a clear transparency. Then the transparency was placed over another *blue* sheet from the K&Co collection. Mount Hood was printed on plain paper and colored over with oil pastel and pencil. This was slipped between the transparency and the cardstock.

I rearranged the kid’s for balance, putting Avery in the center. The dragonfly hairclips were the last embellishment. Vellum, pencil  and OPI glitter top coat (Paris Couture For Sure) gave her some sparkle (since you can’t seen her fairy wings under the safety vest).

12×12 collage created with images from Nancy Baumiller’s collage sheet for week 40 Crowabout.

Before they got the gig at the Wigwam Villages, The Talking Tuxedos worked at Coney Island in 1910. They misread the ad in Variety and thought they’d be performing at  “Tuna Park”. They opened for a musical spectacle called “Cod Moments” featuring a group of identical mermaids who re-enacted the Birth of Venus in a salt water pool. The show opened and closed the same night. The Angelfish Sisters took their act to Florida to a place called Weeki Wachi. The “Safety Matches” burned out and headed to Kentucky.

8×11 collage done old school cut and paste. Kirsten is responsible for this madness that has come over me. She also suggested Mona Leasha. Vincent Van Go Go was pretty easy. Found the ‘dancers’ on a Google search for 60’s dancers. Not sure if they were costumes or the real thing-they looked kind of staged. Printed them out full size and cut off their heads (including their ears) Easy to find the Van Gogh self portraits-chose two of four-flipped one and printed, cut  & pasted. I hand colored the images for added contrast. The background and dance floor were out of the scrap pile!

I did a little research and learned of the new theory about the ‘ear’. Some French scholars are claiming that Vincent and Paul Gauguin were arguing over their favorite hooker, Rachel. Gauguin, who liked to carry a SWORD got angry at Vincent for shoving him and thus retaliated by pulling out the ‘epee’ in self defense. The ear was severed off but Vincent was so in love with Gauguin he did not file charges and instead claimed he did it to himself. He then gave the ear to Rachel for safe keeping. Gauguin split and never talked to Vincent again! It’s sound plausible-but you have to wonder why Gauguin never fessed up to it. Oh, and by the way, they were drunk. On absinthe, no doubt.

Vincent died two years later at age 37 of a self inflicted gun shot wound.

Stay tuned for KBP’s debut art work here soon….

I am hoping Santa will bring me a large format scanner so I can upload these 12×12 collages. This one is for Crowabout Collage Play week 41. I now understand how you can inadvertently ‘copy’ someone else’s idea-as I copied Zibelline’s cow head man without knowing it! Apologies, ZiB!!

It was so late when I did this-it’s sort of a blur. I did most of it in Collage Creator to save on ink and cutting.  I used 11 out of 17 images from the collage sheet: which is disappointing since the images were all really cool.

I did enjoy hand coloring the ‘eyes’ and making the film hair for the Britney WannaBe’s. The Twin’s were going to have cat heads until my computer froze up and I kept the cows as is. Wide Awake at 3 a.m. is scary. I must stop drinking the diet Dr. Pepper.

I have been complaining about the pain in my neck and just found out I will most likely need surgery. I have slacked off on doing almost everything-but can’t seem to stop submitting to Collage Play. Here is week #42. If you go to my Flickr page there is a funny little story about this piece. I am pleased it turned out-basically a pencil drawing.

found a new group on Flickr called RETRO_COLLAGE. Dang! This is what most of them look like. My first attempt.

week 43 was really hard for me…it took about five tries before i gave up and came out with this…so now everyone wants a BOOK/zine with the stories on the inside….I need a manager. i am up too late…had to wait for the frieworks to stop…

here is the collage sheet from Nancy; I used almost all the elements. I am seriously considering a small 12 page zine for my flickr crowabout friends.  maybe magcloud?

if my neck felt better I may have done this collage on paper but since I was low on ink and also feeling sort of crappy I cheated and made it in the collage creator. this is not my best and if you felt like you had a 5 inch mutant wasp biting and stinging your neck with electricity pulsing after each bite you’d do that same as i did…sort of surprised myself when I guessed “flinch” was a card card game. and for some reason cut & paste to wiki is not working….

patrick???

“it was by the shores of the Temple of the Giant Blue Baby Heads that Nayski’s great great grandfather, the illustrious Captain Isiah Nayski discovered the curative powers of the sea where the ancient Egyptian god Serapa Kitty peed magical crystals.
Thanks to Nancy B whose week 45 Crowabout  collage sheet featured a giant blue baby that few of us could translate into a proper Christmas themed collage; also thanks to ArtsyFartsyQueen for the game boards, other images various sources including the NYPL digital gallery.
For Nayski: thanks for giving me another insane idea….”

this is an afterthought. there was a hideous blue baby on this weeks collage sheet and for the life of me i could not get it to look like a human child. and i wasn’t the only one! it was a “Christmas in July” theme so I created a Christmas tree from this sheet:

i tried several variations and ended up destroying all. i was so tired and my neck was hurting so i shredded all the images and made this:

the neck thing has not let up. working part time helps but i will have to return to work soon. getting a steroid blast in C5-6-7 in the morning. hopefully this will stop the constant burning vibration in my neck and shoulder. here is the blue baby that i gave up on due to the pain in the neck (saturdays crowabout) this was photo impression work…my right shoulder was sore after this much color smudge. i was real unhappy with how it turned out-but lo and behold nayski and a few others in the group had the SAME problemo! that damn blue baby. so i took it a step further and found some great images in the interwebz…see next post. wish me luck. and jess, i’m thinking about ya and sending the love!

created for the Flickr group ‘Pointy Hats and Wings’ my witch fairy is ready to learn your fate thru her Ouija board. Ask anything! Ouija knows all. The group is a collection of some serious pointy hat artists, especially my favorite, TumbleFish, aka Marsha Jorgensen. The admin is the ever lovely and creative Nancy Baumiller who has taken many of us art witches under her wing.

I spent only a couple of hours on this peice which included cut & paste, scanning, hand coloring, scanning, photo shop and more scanning. I increased the contrast to bring out her ghastly complexion and make the Ouija float beneath her hands.

Today marked the first day of Autumn but you would never know it as it was 93 degrees here in Portland, Oregon. It is hard to wear my pointy hat when it is that hot!

the elder goth dance party takes place at a historic “mormon” establishment which has a long curse near the shores of the great salt lake. read the full history here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saltair,_Utah

WINNER!!! Week 55 Collage Play with Crowabout! How exciting to have been chosen as this week’s winner! My prize was a lovely collage sheet of awesome borders from Nancy Baumiller’s Etsy shop!

Yahoo!!!!!

when Zibelline posted her last crowabout collage i commented “you know what green hearts mean…”

no she didn’t. neither did half a dozen other members. so i created this as a reply and definition of a term that has absolutely not been coined ever; until now.

green heart~adjective used to describe engaged or married gentlemen who betray or who are disloyal to their spouse. “Elsie never forgot when her husband strayed and she became the original Fat Cat Lady”

Back in high school I was in love with the fashions of Ernest Tubb & the Texas Troubadors, George Jones and Porter Wagonner. Their album covers frequently featured them wearing ‘Nudie Suits” designed by the famous Hollywood costumer: Nudie Cohn.  I remember designing my own wardrobe of western wear and trying to find vintage nudie style shirts to wear to the grateful dead or new riders of the purple sage concerts in NYC circa 1974.

The closest I got to that Dale Evans look was when I wore a silk kimono with army fatigues and Frye boots to a Jerry Garcia show in Jersey City. I carried a toy pistol that came with my authentic childhood cowgirl costume. I got my picture in the local rock rag and it wasn’t because of the toy gun…

I have not attempted the cowgirl look since then. However, vintage cowgirls, like the kind on the album cover of the Byrds “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” still intrigue me-so when this week’s crowabout challenge had a pistol packin’ mama on it-I found my way back to my roots

Yeehaw Cowgirl!!!

the talent at the st cloud post office:

The annual talent show in the St Cloud post office is not to be missed; not only does Zibelline dance with monkey’s she also arm wrestles with a contortionist named The Horned Devil. During the first match ZiB broke off one of his horns and the ensuing fracas created such drama and mayhem they were BOTH disqualified! The judge was sweet on the Spinster Twins whose talent was licking stamps and cancelling postage, but the winner was the darling Fiona McGinty -half Irish and half Swallowtail who charmed everyone when she flew around the post office singing Norwegian folk songs.

12×12 mixed media collage; digitally enhanced images from Nancy Baumiller collage sheet for week 57 crowabout. vintage images from my own collections. hand colored with pencil, pen and distress ink.