29 Faces - Feb 2017 01

Another year of 29 faces! This time I'm trying to actually do a face every day. I'm doing well so far with 6 faces completed in 5 days, but we'll see. I'm not going to be at my place for a little while this month and I'm planning for it with a variety of mobile supplies and a single notebook that I'm trying to make everything in, but we'll see. I'm trying very hard to do something every day for the sake of gaining something a little different from this project this time, even if it means sometimes doing something a little more rough or just forcing myself to do something even though I'm not feeling inspired.

01

2 & 3

4 & 5

6 - woke up early this morning and thought about making my face and decided against it. By the time the evening came, I realized I still hadn't done anything and wasn't that inspired. I just started grabbing things that were immediately available. Not my favorite, but I did something it, so yay!

29 Faces 2/16 - 7

Obviously, I'm a little (little?) behind on the 29 faces for February, but I'm still going to try to finish. We'll see...at minimum I would like to do some of the things I have lined up/partially finished. These 2 collages are each made from 29 pieces of 29 different faces. It's been a while since I've done collage and I was reminded by these of why I like collage and how surreal and weird things can get pretty quickly. These took a bit longer than I had hoped, but to get what I want, sometimes it takes some scouting and creativity and I messed up one of them by trying a different adhesive that wasn't as compatible with the collage pieces as I had hoped. Fortunately, to me this 29 faces project is about experimenting and trying things out, which means things don't always work.With these 2 I'm over half way there!


#15

#16

sad wrinkles :(

2/2016 faces! 6
2/2016 faces! 5
2/2016 faces! 4
2/2016 faces! 3
2/2016 faces! 2
2/2016 faces! 1

all previous 29 faces

Oral Expulsion

One of the things that I love about collage is that anything is fair game. Pictures? Random sheets of paper? Candy wrappers? Tickets, scraps, little handouts, bits of left over art projects? They can all be fodder for new ideas, juxtaposed or cut down and manipulated into deformed versions of their former selves. I learned this years ago when I first started making collages and I would just make piles of cut outs and other random things and purposely toss them onto my table. I'd shuffle them around and some days some combinations would appear and I would run with it.... Now that I have too many hobbies to count, I still do this, although things have changed a little. I have a large journal that I've using to clean off painty things... a dirty brayer, a paint smeared stencil & whatever other junk I decided to press onto the Gelli plate. And these painted pages sometimes sit for a while before things click to make the whole. This past weekend I opened one of these pages and got to town. This was the result.

It's funny though because once I looked at it for a while, I realized this was likely at least partially inspired by sources of collage material that I sometimes ignore... because not all collage materials come in the physical sense.. instead some comes from a more mental place and I realized that unconsciously, I was inspired by a recent blog post from a friend about one of her experiences with San Pedro while in Peru and specifically her experiencing her ego as a little rodent......

Election Propaganda: B.S. 2014

Collages! I haven't made any collages for a while, but this first was sitting un-glued for a while. And so today I sat down to glue it and the other 2 came together pretty soon afterward. All are made from various election mailers from the 2014 elections. I heard a story on the radio earlier this year that mentioned that mailers are still one of the "best" ways for candidates to spend money. Between the cost of things like tv/newspaper/online, etc. ads and how the resulting audiences include so many non-target viewers, including people that aren't even registered to vote, mailers are still most reliable. With all the information about you available for purchase, including whether or not you're registered comes many mailers. Many, many mailers.....

Babby Shriver

 Bibby S River

Booby Shiver

meaty lady

Nearly 7 years ago now I created this meaty lady collage with special features. Although I once upon a time scanned it or something, it's true potential was generally only enjoyed in person. Until now. Thank you free stop motion software.

paper bits

material: scraps of pages from hollowed out books used as a brayer cleaning surface while making gelli prints, later trimmed down to make books.

rules: Glue down first piece. From then on, the next piece must be placed perpendicular to and overlap the previously pasted piece and cannot overlap a parallel piece. ~ 8 x 12 inches

can you find the beginning and end?

29 Faces, part 2!

Although it's not a rule, I've started a trend of trying out different approaches/materials for each face. On one hand, I think it would be interesting to do this for all 29 faces, I also have reservations about it. For now, I'll try to keep up with it, but who knows.... Some of these techniques worked out better than others, but I'm glad I tried everything that I did! I definitely want to try some of them out again at some point.

5 - nothing but layers and layers transferred from the Gelli plate on a book page with acrylic paint. This was the better of the 2 prints... it was way more challenging than I had anticipated for the result to not turn out crazy.

6 - super quick pen drawing on notebook type paper. I did this on the bus in maybe 2 minutes.

7 - painting on top of a magazine page with acrylic paint. I kinda feel like this is cheating since I painted directly on an ad, but then again, it makes me think of use of the camera obscura, which I think is in my brain after listening to a segment on Science Friday about "Tim's Vermeer" last weekend. Once you start painting on the page, you lose some of then color/lighting cheats.... Still, I'm happy how it turned out.

8 - collage made from pieces I had laying around from some things I was recently working on. I used all of the pieces as they were and didn't trim or cut any of the pieces.

Geller

What can I say besides... more Gelli prints!

3 little birds

3 little birds, cut from the same bird shape and collaged with different ideas; nearly all collage paper from a single magazine. bright, all human hair, black and white, with brads for wings, so the wings are positionable

election propaganda - November 2012

Living in California, the presidential election isn't as big of a deal here now as it's taken as a given - the candidates show up to get money and that's about it. I also don't have a working tv anymore, so I have no idea what's going on there (although I did see a Romney ad on Youtube when watching a Grimes video.....) Regardless, I saved up my mailers (~50 total) to put together some collages for the election this November. Take the advice below. Listen to some Decode DC. Be confused and lead into moments of insight and don't forget to vote! Don't be like a friend that shall remain nameless that forgot Halloween last week after talking about their intended costume for days.

 

No on 37 - "Appearance is paid for and authorized by each candidate and ballot measure which is designated by a *"

election propaganda part 3

Here's the Truth.
more election propaganda (#4) collage from June 5, 2012 election in Los Angeles

 Murder problem solver, Jobs of Tomorrow
election propaganda (#5) collage from June 5, 2012 election; arm moves

election propaganda part 2

election propaganda #3 - Who? Will Protect Our Children; made from June 5, 2012 election mailers

collage faces

collaging today.

election propaganda

election propaganda #1 - Meg Whitman for California Governor 2012, collage paper bird-doll made from various election mailers, most from Meg Whitman, with movable wings

election propaganda #2 - no way but circles, collage from various election mailers and string, with a positionable family.

Collage Paper Doll

Collage paper doll made from various paper bits and brads, 2/20/2012. This format has different freedoms than other collages I've work with, one being the size - at 14 inches tall she's larger than any of my normal collage books.  I feel like I should give her a name. I kinda want to make a whole legion of these and put them in random places.....

Completely unrelated, my cousin was much better about posting the baby items I've been working on than I was. She put together an awesome post with pictures of everything that should have been in the Baby Items.. part 3 post! I've never really made baby items before and she and her baby were super inspiring. I learned a lot about the world of babies in the process :)

existing damage

"X indicates existing damage"
collage with found papers jan 2012

waxy buildup

encaustic collage with various plant material, lace fabric and reclaimed metal, 2011, 6x6 inches

once again, this scan can't do justice to the real depth and visual interest of this collage in person....

power to create

"power to create" - random paper collage and pencil drawing

the land between

"the land between 11 and 12" - paper collage

oh if you only knew.

Many times with art, I don't necessarily know what I am making when I begin. I stare at a blank page, board or space and start looking around my apartment, flipping through catalogs or books. I'll play with a new medium, seeing where the properties of it direct my hands. After I start though, things take clear directions and sometimes abrupt changes in direction. I'll stare at something thinking it's one thing and then due to a single brush stroke, cut or addition of a new piece, it's something else completely. Sometimes I take all the collage pieces I've collected and then shuffle them, hoping to maybe figure out a way the same parts go together in a better way. It's weird how I shift with such certainty at times without being able to say exactly where it is going up front. I think so many times in life, that seems to be necessary, or at least an implied requirement - you must be able to tell me where you are going at any moment! I don't really want to know where I'm going up front. Finding out is part of the fun part.

At a certain point, after I had gathered a few pieces of this collage, I suddenly knew what it was about. As abstract as it might be, this is so close to the reality I experienced. Art lets me say things my words will never do justice to.

encaustic breath

Encaustic collage, made as a gift for some friends. Includes paper, glass and fabric on a wood board. 6x6inches

Unfortunately encaustics never look as good in pictures as they do in person.