Out of the Past

While awaiting laptop repair, and while in the midst of making new art that's not quite ready for its closeup, I'm digging out some collage imagery from several years ago.

Bergamot Kiss

  Granny's Purse

Key to Love

Not technically 'under the wire', as there are eleven and a half hours yet till the deadline, but I've just submitted my entries for OAG's Oklahoma Friendly juried art show:

"While You're Away"

"Well-Told Tales"

Creations

Submission to Post Card Mail Art Show in New Orleans.

Two pieces for IOA's Money Talks Art Walks live auction benefit.

"Charm Kitty", mixed  media on canvas, for Sit, Stay, Art! show, benefiting Pets and People Humane Society.

Trinkets and Baubles

Red Cup Coffee House is having their annual holiday extravaganza in less than two weeks.  December 4, in fact.  While I'll have an assortment of arts and jewelry on offer during the event, today I created a new set of collaged pendants.  Here there are, before soldering.
This photo shows side 1.  Images are comprised of paper, transparencies, labels, foil, superfine glitter, tiny stars, text.

 Here you can see the reverse side of the same pendants.

I'm not fooled...

...by these past few mild, sunshiney days. All it takes is a glimpse of my photos from last year, late March I believe, of snow on the tulips, to realize winter can (and probably will) pack a late punch any time in the next many weeks. That knowledge makes these rare days even more special; I'll take them as they come and make the most of them.


In art, my two pieces for "Money Talks, Art Walks" IAO benefit found homes during the auction, which makes me happy. As submissions are suppose to be anonymous, I didn't like to share them before the event, but now it's over, here they are.



Next, a few very different commissions, and working on possible pieces for "Oklahoma Friendly" and "Biting the Apple". Nothing but ideas and loose sketches so far, but canvases have been ordered, and deadlines are only a few weeks away, so I really should get busy. Right now.

success?

I read somewhere that to be successful, a blog needs to be updated twice weekly, at the very least. well, at least I'm successful in some areas.......

Recent activities: mixed media painting/collage for IAO's upcoming Red Dot auction. I'm not too proud to admit I've become rather attached to this piece, and will set a reserve if given the option. (Click to enlarge, if you're interested in details.)

This painting is called "Miss Jeannie", after the homeless kitty who inspired it. By the night of Sit.Stay.ART event, all the animals except one had found real homes. Hooray. I just hope Miss Jeannie's new people look after her real good.

Next, a silhouette inspired by Annie and Bindlestiff Willie, for "Out of Sight", an IAO exhibit geared toward those with vision impairments. A challenge, to say the least, but an enjoyable one.


And lastly, a wee possum playing possum, after snacking on leftover cat food.

Lovely Rainy Day

When I don't have to work (Tuesdays, mostly) I get to play with my wardrobe. Today, after having spent time recently catching up on the vintage forum at Fedora Lounge, I decided to wear my new silk dress. And some pearls, because why not? After coffee at the Red Cup, I hated to go home, but didn't like to go shopping & risk spending money, so the best option was a damp stroll through the cemetery, camera in hand.

I wonder if faeries are buried beneath cemetery mushrooms?


Then there's the kitten Sara picked up in the street last week. She calls it Esther (all sounds pronounced; if you sound like Sylvester when you say it, you're doing it right.) I'm all about another name, at least one for me to use, but nothing has come to me yet, which is odd. It seems perfectly fine to call her kitten, little thing, wee thing, etc. I liked the idea of a literary name. Hopefully I'll discover it soon.

Even if you don't believe it, I really do have all sorts of works in the works around here, just nothing quite completed yet. So I took the camera and a fresh eye, & captured a few old pieces of art gathering dust around the house. There are more than this, but picnik has been freezing my computer during editing; I think my images are too big.
And before you give me grief, yes, I KNOW wings and hats are way, way overdone. Or at least they were last year. They are definitely de trop, and one can only hope maybe, finally, out of vogue. But my winged circus babe collage on cardboard was created in 2002, so maybe I'm forgiven.

Not a Valentine

But it could be. I've known a few unique souls who would delight in receiving something like this as a token of affection. This, though, is a piece created for an upcoming art fundraiser. I guess it turned out this way because of the excessive bombardment of heart-shaped romantic advertising?

Maybe not.

This is the way I'd attack my art journal pages if I could, but for some reason I can't. At least not consistently. I can do it for altered book swaps and other such projects intended for others, but it seems somehow selfish and wasteful to put so much effort into a private journal page destined for my eyes only. That's a little sad, so I'm going to work on myself. As soon as I finish all these art pieces destined for public consumption.

Helga's Art Chix Challenge

This week's challenge was 'treat yourself, & create out of the wrappers'. Easy enough, I say. Let's see - I treated myself to dark chocolate & raspberry Kisses, Ting Ting Jeh ginger candy (checkerboard borders & centerpiece), Girl Scout Samoa cookies, and a bottle of wine. It seemed fitting to add the Art Chix 'spoil me' and 'ecstasy' ladies, though those ideas are probably self-evident.

The Past

I mean the way past. While going through an old college yearbook, looking for an original photo for Helga's ArtChix challenge of making an Twinchie using only black and white, I began noticing things. This wasn't my college yearbook, mind, but one from 1926. In 1926, people were much smaller, and they were much less blonde. And much whiter. At least at Oklahoma City University. The girls all had short hair, and (at least on picture day, but I'm betting most other times too) managed that Marcel wave beautifully. The boys all looked about 40.

Here's the Twinchie I created with Miss Vivian Wright, who was the arts editor on the university newspaper. Maybe she'd appreciate being used this way decades later.



The clock gear rotates, and those skinny white things are cat whiskers.

I made a couple other, more uban/edgy pieces as well:



But what also happened, is I became somewhat capitvated by another photo in that yearbook. One fellow didn't look 40, or goofy, or quite cast from the same mold as the others. He looks a lot like a character in a story I've been working on, sporadically, about a woman who meets the ghost of young man from the late 20's.
Yes, this mysterious man is my character:

Vintage photo canvas collage

"Mac Girls" on top, "To A Good End" below.

To see clear, vivid detail, click on each photo.