Made It: More Experiments

I've been on a tear playing with new materials and throwing caution to the wind!

Let's start with the skeletons (all sizes are 5 x 7 inches unless otherwise noted):

matboard, tea-stained old book page, acrylic paint, vinyl

matboard, found sheet music, acrylic paint, vinyl

I painted over the vinyl and tried to scrape it off...works better on the thick black vinyl.

matboard, painted found sheet music, vinyl

squiggle time

matboard, painted found book page, vinyl

matboard, found seed catalog page, paint, vinyl

8 x 10--salvaged wood, acrylic paint, vinyl
I actually have a tentative title for this one:
"Fill My Hollow Bones"

9 x 11.5--salvaged wood, acrylic paint, fabric paper, vinyl, gel medium

Gotta finish those edges!

Hearts!

matboard, found book page, vinyl, acrylic paint

matboard, painted found book page, vinyl, acrylic paint

 I painted over the top of this and then scraped it off, sgraffito style

matboard, layers of found, painted, and/or made papers, vinyl, paint

 throwback:

matboard, found painted hymnal page, vinyl

matboard, found and painted collaged paper, vinyl, acrylic paint

domestic goddesses:
matboard, music pages, paint, vinyl

 I have so many ideas, and I'm just not going to settle for one image style.  I love the weird, macabre skeleton and heart images, because everyone brings something different to those, depending on their history and feelings about health, guts, death, life, color, whathaveyou.  And the retro images just make me happy.  More of a Pop Art feel comes from those, and having some levity in a line of work isn't a bad thing.

I have a one day show this weekend in Lee's Summit, MO, during a bike race--Tour of Kansas City-- so I'm pumping out lots of stickers and other fun cycling-related paraphernalia.  Plus, it's the first day of summer, and I love spending the solstice outside all day.

Here's to the makers out there.  Keep plugging away!

Found It: Magazines

I went down to the farm today after picking up some aluminum blanks so I can make some more clocks for this weekend's art show at Loring Park in Minneapolis.  It's my first time there and I'm really excited.  But, since I was down there I thought I'd take advantage of our freakishly mild weather (70 degrees in July?  WHAA?) and peek in the sheds.  I won't have a show until the middle of September, so I'd better collect some stuff to put up on The Retro Ranch's Etsy page in the meantime.

Today was a day for magazines! 

American Girl, July 1967//Inside advice column asking question about fixing
your hair after a 50-mile motorcycle ride with your main squeeze!



Co-Ed magazine, March 1968//Inside spread of EXCITING ROOMS.  Are you excited?



Movie Teen Illustrated, July 1967
Get me a ticket on that train!

Woman's Day, August 1966
If you know me at all, you'll know that this is my thing.

American Girl, April 1968
Quite the souvenir, darling.



Quinto Lingo, June 1966
Five languages, one magazine.

So, where did I dig these up?  Well, one of the open-sided sheds has lots of storage places, and lots of junk in those places.  Someday I hope I can get this all cleaned out so my parents can either use it as a better storage area, a garage, or tear the mother down and start fresh.  It's already sorta falling down, so it wouldn't take much to demolish.



The locker on the left was holding a box
(Right picture) That box had the magazines in it.
The red arrow is pointing to the box, if you couldn't tell.

There are hazards to picking, one being small stingy critters.  Today it was cool and there weren't many mosquitos or bees, and this shed doesn't generally harbor as many ticks as the others, so I felt comfortable not having to suit up in full HAZMAT gear to go in.  But...they always leave reminders that they have reigned over the space, even if it was long ago:

Okay, stay cool man, stay cool.

Looks good, right?
Here's one for scale:

Pretty awesome.  Glad this has been abandoned, but it was quite
a shock the first time I saw it.

I'm going to use the magazines as inspiration, backgrounds for frameables, and maybe take them apart and sell the ads (I found some nice Reader's Digests, too).  Considering they've been in a box in a locker in a shed for at least twenty-five years, they're in great shape.