Altered Papers

So today I got out on my flea market purchases, and thought I would at least make a couple of small collages. Wrong. I thought they needed a little marking up, so I started spraying, painting, sponging and in general messing with them. People always ask me how I do a certain portion of a painting, and sometimes I cannot remember. Sometimes I think they feel I am being evasive, but truly, once I get into the zone, I just start making shit up and I don't record it for posterity. I couldn't tell you everything I did today, but I tried to take pictures, even though I lost my phone at some point under the papers! This is so much fun, I complet

ely lost track of time- which is s good sign..! I feel like I could do this forever, but I suppose at some point I would want to try and assemble them. And that is the next task. But for today-a lot of fun was had marring up an Encyclopedia Britannica from 1911, poetical works, and the "Secretary’s Desk Book" from 1933, which cracked me up with everything included that they considered imperative for a secretary to know....  

Here's some of the ways in which I "altered" the papers I collected..........          

I pulled out some stencils I had forgot about to get me going ...   

Then pulled out my new favorite- walnut ink!!  Gorgeous sepia tone I couldn't get enough of....

 

Picked up the excess...

Then, feeling on a roll, pulled out even more potential papers.  

These are prints that I made that didn't make the cut for various reasons- but are on gorgeous printmaking papers and still have portions that are printed well...-so- lets muck em up! 

Start out with some subtle pan pastel...

Sprayed ink...

and walnut inks! 

What the hell- lets throw some acrylic ink on there...

OK, maybe too much...

Use another print to pick up the excess....

and an encyclopedia page as well (apparently I overdid it!)

Then- I had bought some marbled paper that I just loved the pattern of- but just wasn't my color palette exactly- so- put on another layer on them as well! (or 3...)

Little too much- so- lets transfer it to another (a monoprint by some standards- I think not so much...)

                               

OK- not much room left!! better give it up for the night...

Fun in foraging for collage fodder....

So in keeping with my renewed interest in collage, last weekend I went to our wonderful local source- the Kane county flea market- in search of some new material.  We had to bundle up a bit for the unexpected early fall weather-but was well worth the effort!   I haven't been there in years, but garnered the help of my experienced friend Jackie, who lives nearby and knows the layout and vendors and where to go for what (including lunch!).   She helped me navigate and find old natural history books, encyclopedias, prints, maps, and boxes...

 I had to leave before I couldn't carry my backpack any longer!  

And here is the curious thing, depending on your worldview.... I went looking for what appealed to me- old text, diagrams of natural phenomena, good literature that is beautifully patina-ed in its old age.  And when I delved in further at the studio- Scotland, which I visited recently, kept showing up.  

The "poetical works" I picked up was of Robert Burns! Robert Burns widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland or "the ploughman poet"  (the term I love) was the son of a tenant farmer, though his father had made sure he was really fairly well educated for the standards of his day.  He found time for his art and enjoyed all that life had to offer despite the demands of his life!   

And then, when I randomly opened a very old encyclopedia of Britannica, 

Countless Scottish earls showed up!  

And then- Mary queen of scots!! 

Had to bloody up that page, knowing her story....

Regardless off how you look at "coincidences"- what it says to me is that I need to go back into the photos I took there and spend some time bringing them to the studio...

 ( I don’t envy the time spent in front of the computer during my favorite season), 

but it'll happen....

and, of course, I need to go back to Scotland (and Ireland) again! 

Re-discovering Collage

So I had had a bit of a clunker day in the studio, so the next day when I went back, I allowed myself to try something completely different instead of trying to finish pieces that I’ve started over year ago. A new book had come in when I was on vacation, and I was chomping at the bit to take a look at it. The Art of Expressive Collage: Techniques for Creating with Paper and Glue by Crystal Neubauer

http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Expressive-Collage-Techniques/dp/1440335850

I have admired Crystal’s work for a long time for its subtle color palettes and always stellar compositions.

I have so many processes and techniques in the studio, I forget about some for a while…. and while I’ve been incorporating different papers and material into my recent encaustic work, its been a while since that was the main component.  I forget how much fun it is to forage through my collection and start tearing, cutting, ripping and burning edges! One of her projects was to assemble a collage within five minutes, not really thinking logically about it, just pulling together what intuitively felt right. A lot of my work involves research for the imagery, the text, and the process, and while I love that, sometimes it can be restrictive.  It felt very freeing just to pull together what I felt like. Even though these didn’t have a lot of forethought, I am looking at them now and thinking that they still relate. Anything that I collect that comes into the studio usually has some type of relationship with nature.  Its like everything gets filtered through a natural history perspective.   And so the title for this series will be nature ephemera, (ephemera being my new favorite word that refers to found paper bits). I let the color of a fossil inventory book from the 1800s determine the color palette of the piece, and then I built around that. I tore up an old bird book that led me to pulling out old screens of nests and making new ones of leaves and eggs. I spent an afternoon just poring over all the different types of bird eggs there are, and the patterns and sizes and colors that they come in. Very fun. I carefully considered the shape and arrangements of the pieces, and then I countered that with some very loose painting and writing. I finished it up by working drawing back into and highlighting the change in value in certain areas. 

Here are some of the in process shots.

just muddying up the panel a bit....

 playing around with what and where...

 

inserting my interpretation in writing...

gluing flat is imperative! 

       

  

"auditioning" silkscreens....

 

contemplating...

 choosing eggs...

 

lining everything up before screening...

adding more? 

highlighting what is already there ...

 all done....