Mini Collage Number Nine

Babes, Bumpers, and Birch
magazine cut outs, ink, matboard
4 x 5 inches

I do not know if that is really birch.  Probably not.  No apologies.

Big Things Are Happening...

I've been making BIG CLOCKS.

30 inch diameter; weighs 5 lbs.

All hand-cut salvaged vinyl, naturally!  And sanded aluminum behind.

24 x 24 inches; probably weighs about 5 lbs., too...

PAINTED aluminum (and sanded twice) with hand-cut vinyl scrap!
I love the look and will be making more with this technique.

I've been making BIG ART.

Close Your Eyes 'Til You're Blue in the Face
Salvaged 100+ year wood flooring, paint, 1960's
Prevention magazine paper dots, vinyl
16 x 35 inches

There are still some nails in the wood, too.

Big Smoke
Two panels salvaged wood shelving, paint, hand-cut vinyl, hand-cut paper
23 x 37 inches

I've been preparing for a BIG SHOW.

Oklahoma City Festival of the Arts!!
Sixth year running, crossing fingers for zero storms/high winds/clouds of locusts.

I have a million different ideas and have been discovering new ways of making art, fumbling my way through, as usual.  I'll be showing both types of mixed media (abstract and imagery) as well as clocks at my season opener in OKC starting April 21st.  Pushing my scale has been fun and scary, and hopefully it won't literally push away the kind of customers I usually enjoy while there.  The smaller versions will be with me as well, so there's something for everyone!

How Long Does it Take?

First thing's first--here's what those two pieces from last time turned into:

This one had the green base.  I added blue vinyl and pink paint,
sanded it to perfection, and here we are.
18" x 7ish" (it's not square, so one end is a bit bigger than the other)
"Blue Hills"

Here's the one with the blue base.  I liked the color and
vinyl combination without an additional layer or paint and sanding.
7" x 17.5"
"Spring Skies"

Now...it's Time time.

At the OKC Festival of the Arts, we are swarmed with school kids visiting the show who talk to artists, eat food, and remind me that being a teenager was the worst.  But lots of the kiddos have a list of questions (same every year--let's update that, teachers!) they're supposed to ask the participants in each category of the show.  I fall firmly into 2D Mixed Media, aka "What IS it?" (Trying to explain vinyl to anyone, young or old, isn't the most clear-cut exercise.)

Anyway, one of the questions is, "How long does it take to complete a project?"

Well...I began by saying something like, "It depends, but....(example of a particular piece and how long it took)..."  This means nothing to them, because they think an hour is a long time if they have to wait for their dad to finish his whatever before they can whatever.  An hour can be nothing when you've monetized it.  Like, LITERALLY NOTHING.  Or a  really long-ass time if you're trying to find your measuring tape.  WHY IS IT ALWAYS MISSING?

So I'm going to start saying 200 years for the new work on wood--which is probably not long enough because that tree had to grow large enough to get milled down, be used in construction of a house in 1900, hang there for a while, then be salvaged by me, who has spent 30+ years living an artful life and learning techniques to make that thing they see.  Not to mention the sanding, de-nailing, cutting, painting, thinking, applying vinyl, cutting vinyl, photographing, uploading, packing, and hanging involved.

For the clocks I don't really have a snarky thing to base my time on, because what does it take to smelt aluminum after it's mined (or whatever?) and turn oil into plastic into vinyl I salvaged?  Fifty million years or something?

I'm looking forward to it!

New Anatomical Hearts

I made more hearts!  I really enjoy playing with this design and was happy to have an excuse to work on more (because I delivered some to a great shop in Lawrence called Essential Goods!).  I've been able to add more pretty textures and salvage pages from original texts.

3.5" x 5" painted fence wood, paper, vinyl

5" x 7" painted fence wood, paper, vinyl
You can see where these started here.

I will try to have them all up on my Etsy site in the next few days, but computer work really bums me out, so I have to go in shifts...

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!

Made It: From things I found

Too many things in my brain and at my fingertips...my sculpture background has been barking at me lately and I thought, well...let's try out some stuff.

There are plenty of doodads out at the farm that aren't really sellable (boxes of rusty nails, bolts, washers, etc.) but the idea of just chucking them is painful.  So I thought I'd try to make something using these "trash" items.

Here's my thesis piece:

Piece of wood from my basement.

Page from a French textbook, 1921.  The verb seemed too perfect.

Piece of wood found in the shed, cut up and pieced together.

Found a way for it to fit together without much effort.

Perfect frame!

Turn it over and nail that sucker!  This way no nail heads show.

Proof that the nails worked.  Nothing falling off!

Junk to choose from for added flair.

Funky, rustic tacks.

Laying it out.  I thought about using the washers and nuts but decided against it.

Uh oh, unfinished side!  Naked edges are a no-no.

Cadmium Red Light Nova Color mural paint left over from a former job.

Blue and green mixed with white for a  "folksy" addition to the top layer.

Day two: I sprayed the whole thing (except the paper) with a few
coats of lacquer.  I don't want any more old lead paint flaking off than
 is necessary, plus I like the shiny look.

After adding the tacks.

I rather like the shadow play here.



Super close-up!





I have it now leaning on a shelf above my computer in the studio.

Looks like it fits right in.



For the work I make in this vein going forward, I think I'd A) use glue in addition to the nails, and B) put a hanger on the back in the early stages.  There are many options to hang anything, and if I eventually want to sell these, this is a big consideration.  I had to actually sit and think about my process while making this, which is different from my normal brain activity when making clocks (I did all my thinking about that process years ago).

I'm really excited about going forward with the found objects, but right now I need to focus on my upcoming shows!