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.

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.

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….

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.

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).

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!

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