Music Dots Series #1

Welcome to fall time here at Eighty Acres Art!  

After a 7 week run of art shows, I had some time to regroup and prepare for a busy holiday retail season.  I've been making some popular simple-yet-fabulous pieces out of antique piano music and paper dots on a grid.  Some grids are straightforward squares, others are off-center, diagonal, or on arches.  Please enjoy the new pieces and contact me if you are interested in purchasing!  I'll be taking a majority of these to the City Arts space at the Wichita Art Museum for their Gifts in the Gallery Holiday Boutique.  Others will travel with me around the KC and Lawrence area to the pop-ups perfect for cold weather shopping.

A family friend's mother was a piano teacher for decades and she generously donated many books to me for art purposes!  I have enough paper to live several life times and not use it all, and I keep all the little bits and pieces from various applications.  Trying to use them up, I found my trusty hole punch from the early vinyl clock days and started at it.

Without further adieu...

Four Most Popular
antique sheet music back cover (1908), pencil, misc. paper dots
approx. 11 x 14 inches

Four Most Popular detail

Don't forget, I'm on INSTAGRAMMMMM!!!

Anatomical Heart Shadowbox #4

found wood, paper, paint, vinyl
8 x 10 3/4 inches

Inside the heart here is a reproduction of found fabric from the farm.  I think it's got a certain sophistication.

Lessons Learned in the Kitchen

Lessons Learned in the Kitchen
found wood, wallpaper, vinyl, paint, paper
9 x 26 inches

This new-old stock wallpaper looks like it could be in any grandma's kitchen left over from the '60s.  Maybe she taught you how to make cookies there.  Probably not in heels, though.  That's ridiculous.

The flowers cut out here came from a found greeting card.

See this piece in person, as well as many others I've recently posted, at the Smoky Hill River Festival in Salina, Kansas, this weekend.  It's my first showing there, and I'm looking forward to tapping into my inner Prairie Girl and enjoying a weekend of sweet breezes and cool art!

Magic

Magic
salvaged wood, paper, paint, vinyl, colored pencil
19 x 10 inches

 Layers of hand-cut papers with vinyl and highlighted with colored pencil.  This flower is called Indian Blanket and it's red and yellow when found in the wild.  The dots were all cut out in open spaces left over when cutting out larger pieces over the years.  No waste!

Four Seconds

Four Seconds
found wood, newsprint, paper, paint, ink, vinyl
10 x 26 inches

Everyone has really enjoyed the first piece (One and Four Girls) that used this series of a woman doing eye exercises from the 1930s, but it's a rather large commitment, so I made a smaller version in a neutral palette...and I love this image so anytime I can use this woman I will!  

The base is found wood, of course.  To that I glued (pH neutral/archival glue!) several pages of "Used Equipment Directory" from November 1969--the Craigslist of its day, I suppose.  Then I drew petal shapes on with my favorite roller pen (uni-ball eco, FYI), sanded it, painted it white, sanded it again, put on digitally cut vinyl and filled in with more grey paint.

I think we can all relate to her expressions here...just imagine what she just heard to get this reaction.

Shifty!

You can really see the pattern here, and I love the chippy edges and layering!

Mixed Media Quickie Number Twenty-Eight

Believe It or Not
painted newspaper, catalog cutout, found ads, paper
8 x 10 inches

I don't believe it.

Mixed Media Quickie Number Twenty-Seven

Secrets in Innes
found envelope, painted paper, painted found newspaper, magazine/book/
greeting card cutouts, vinyl
approx. 14 x 11 inches

This envelope is so worn it almost feels like cotton.  FYI, I think this newspaper clipping is from a paper in Hastings, Nebraska.  It's also from the '60s--big thanks to a neighbor for holding on to these until I was ready to walk by and take them (not that they knew that).

Mixed Media Quickie Number Twenty-Three

Peeping Tom
black on white photo on matboard,
cutouts from books/magazines/calendars/posters, vinyl
10 x 13 inches

His name probably isn't actually Tom.  Probably Herald.

That parasol, though.

Mixed Media Quickie Number Twenty

Social Niceties
photograph on matboard, fabric paper, vintage wallpaper, magazine cutouts
10 x 13 inches

So...this woman was the foremost movie critic of her time (1960s) and she was in a double-page advertisement for feminine deodorant spray.  EW.  Please, pass the frosting, I'll bury that knowledge eating directing out of the can, thanks.

Mixed Media Quickie Number Eighteen

Small Dreams
photograph on matboard, magazine and catalog cut outs,
atlas
10 x 13 inches

That's a map of Wales.  Seems dreamy under the right conditions.  

I will be taking these collages (and the mini collages framed!) to my first showing at the Vintage and Made Fair in Des Moines in May.  Since the theme of the show is reusing/recycling materials I figured this would be a great place to debut this line of work.  Spread the word if that's your thing.  Thanks.

Mixed Media Quickie Number Twelve

Snacks
cardboard, magazine cutouts, vinyl, painted paper
6 x 9 inches

So!  I made more in this series, adding backgrounds that aren't just packaging but still leftovers from the past.

Mixed Media Quickie Number Seven

Box 381
found envelope, catalog and magazine cutouts, painted papers,
poster paper
approx. 11 x 14 inches

I used a guy!  Men/dudes/boys don't work their way into my art very often because I obviously connect with the ladies more, personally.  And as soon as you put a male and a female together there's a whole new narrative there and it can get in the way of the pure design.  But, whatever, interpret it however you want!  

Mixed Media Quickie Number Two

Sleep Walking
craft paper, book cutout, magazine cutouts, painted paper scrap,
catalog cutout, wall paper, vinyl
approx. 11 x 14 inches

You can see that the craft paper here was on the back of a framed piece because the framer smartly labeled it with their sticker and info.  I like to think this one is a collaboration with the person who placed that sticker there from the Colony Bistro Art Gallery and Frame Shop sometime in the '60s or '70s.

Mixed Media Quickie Number One

Traveling Light
craft paper, book cutout, magazine cutouts, painted paper scrap
approx. 11 x 11 inches

Here's a new series!  I made the next ten collages (plus this one) in a short amount of time with mostly scrap I had or images I've already cut out along the way.

A friend gave me several 11 x 14 framed head shots of old dudes that were being removed from her office.  The frames weren't anything special and since it's easier to stash a bunch of paper flat, I worked on removing the pictures from the frames.  These were professionally framed over the last 50 years, so there was a thin back cover of craft paper on most of them.  As I do, I kept the pieces I thought were large enough to do something with.  This sparked something in me, and as I had a little pop up this weekend in town I decided that I needed something to do for crunch time, so started on these collages.

My idea was that they could be collage starts for another artist, or stand on their own if that's how the beholder eyed them.  This forced me to work quickly and edit.  Sometimes I clam up if I start thinking too hard about themes and filling the space.

I'm glad I did this and might continue--stay tuned!  I'll be posting a new collage everyday, but you can get a preview on my Instagram feed of a few from the weekend.

Hello, Spring!  

Mini Collage Number Forty-Five

Green Rio
salvaged art, vinyl, book page, paper, greeting card paper, matboard
4 x 5 inches

Is this it?  I might come across some other pre-cut 4 x 5s, because stuff just turns up around here.  I do have, however, a plethora of smaller pieces of paper which I will probably start on sometime.  I have no excuse not to be working.

Mini Collage Number Forty-Three

Circaflo
vinyl, paper, matboard
4 x 5 inches

Mini Collage Number Forty-One

Gravitea
ink, magazine cutouts, matboard
4 x 5 inches

Here comes my last five mini collages, folks.  I have run out of old pieces of 4 x 5 inch matboard pieces--I can't believe it!  I'm so glad that I was able to use up some old stuff and even incorporate it into some designs.  I would have had more if I'd not left them out in the rain for a few days, therefore causing a bit of mold to grow on some of the paper.  They were mostly protected in little clear envelopes, though.

Today I'm installing larger mixed media work at Parisi Cafe in Union Station, through the Now Showing program--!  Very excited!  Pictures to come.

P.S. I'm sorry the title to this one is a pun.

Three Small Collages

So, these aren't "mini" compared to what I have been making, but many other artists would be happy to label them such, because they're only 5 x 7 inches.  Therefore, my distinction for them is "small."

Drops No. 5
hand cut scrap papers, ink, matboard
5 x 7 inches

Dyed
found and cut magazine papers, matboard
5 x 7 inches

Shake Before Using
cut and found vintage wall paper, magazine cut outs, matboard
5 x 7 inches

You guys, I have so many magazines now.  IT'S RIDICULOUS.  However, they are in neat stacks in my studio or in tubs in the basement, so it's not a hoarding situation, technically.  Also, I'm using them.  Recently, I have helped a friend with her attic (so much left!  so many goodies!), found a tasty hoarding house down the street, came across some sweet nudie mags at an estate sale, and started in on a spot at the farm that I'd not discovered until a couple months ago.  I have a nice cache of found photos and other weird ephemera, too.

Guess I better make some art, yeah?

Mini Collage Number Thirty-Seven

Clues
painted paper, found paper, vinyl, metallic marker, matboard
4 x 5 inches

Mini Collage Number Thirty-Six

Small Ideas
vinyl, French textbook page, painted newspaper, found
magazine images, matboard
4 x 5 inches