Year In Review

Well, I don't know about you but I am ready to end this year right now this minute. I think I've been good about my attitude. I lost my temper a few times but I enjoyed myself doing it (I did not shoot anyone). I'm finishing up a massive cleaning binge. . . found all manner of cool whatnot to inspire new collages. Here's a few things I'm thinking about for 2009:

1. Collage Pins - I got this idea from (and commented about it on) self taught artist so I have to follow through. There are witnesses.
2. "Hell and Time Tied for Favorite" - Title of collage inspired by Gillian Welch
3. Animation (cont.) - What a tangent this is turning out to be. I don't know where it is going yet but I will eventually figure it out. It's exciting to learn something new.

And I should give myself credit for my accomplishments in 2008:

1. Acrylic Painting - I started painting in acrylics in March. I've explored painting on watercolor paper and canvas. I've created grid sub-structures using masking tape on canvas as a preliminary step to collage. I've also used acrylic glazes on the surface of collages to add color. And my last two pieces were what I would consider "mixed media" paintings on paper collaged to canvas.
   
2. Collages - I completed 27 collages this year, more than any year previous. (2007 - 11 collages; 2006 - 14 collages; 2005 - 3 collages; 2004 - 16 collages) Well, I'm cheating a little because 5 paintings have been included in this year's count as well.
   
3. Anita's Beads - I finally advertised my bead shop and have a Shop Directory ad coming out in the February issue of Bead & Button.
4. Toad Hollow - Pages added to the web site for Minerals; Herbs, Incense and Essential Oils pages back up and revised.
5. Animation - Began research to develop idea about creating animated collages.
   
6. AnitaNH Weblog - I got a late start on this weblog business but here I am!
   

Of course there's lots of stuff I dropped the ball on, too. But I'll just roll the important items over to the 2009 List. As George Elliot said: "It is never too late to be what you might have been."

Book of Secrets

I just sat down with the new Blick Art Materials catalog and a cup of Earle Grey (I drink Red Rose to get the neat little animals). On page 176 they show a great how-to for making a "Book of Secrets" with four drawer-like compartments made from match boxes. I really like this idea and as you can see, I have my little boxes all ready to go. Cover size will be approximately 4x4 inches. Thanks, Dick Blick.

Art Quilts

I just clicked over to visit my friend in Vermont at self taught artist where I learned about Nellie Durand and her wonderful quilts. Nellie's album page on the development of a design for a spiral themed quilt is worth a study for insight into the design process. Look how she transformed this wonderful dots fabric. She has a blog called Exquisite Corpse Textiles, and is a follower of Fibermania.

Nwahulwana

While I'm getting into good music here, I want to mention what is my favorite song of the year: Nwahulwana by the Mozambique's top singer, Wazimbo. The language is Ronga and I find the song is great for playing first thing in the morning to clear the energy in my shop. It's available on CD from Piranha Musik and you can check it out on YouTube. I first heard the song while watching the film "The Pledge" staring Jack Nicholson. But don't waste your money buying the movie soundtrack because Nwahulwana isn't included!

Gillian Welch

I watched The Revelator Collection on DVD four times yesterday! Gillian Welch's voice is just so fine and her songs (most written with musical partner David Rawlings) are sublime and haunting. Included also are three great cover tunes: Bob Dylan's "Billy," Neil Young's "Pochahontas," and Townes van Zandt's "White Freight Liner Blues." This film of performance clips from their 2001 tour made me realize that David Rawlings is not just some guy on guitar. Here they are on YouTube playing "Look At Miss Ohio."

I have four Gillian Welch CD's on Acony Records: Revival (1996), Hell Among the Yearlings (1998), Time (The Revelator) (2001), and Soul Journey (2003). They are all terrific, with Hell and Time tied for favorite.

Collage Paper Sorting

Look at that face. . . he knows he's the favorite cat!
Mica took possession of an empty box in the library this morning. I don't think he plans to relinquish his spot any time soon! I'm still in the middle of my major sorting and reorganization of vintage book pages, contemporary found images, plus book jackets and covers. I've used book covers in a couple of my collages: Curious? (the second half of my first Divorce Diptych) makes use of a nice one. And there are two in "I" Before "E". Book jackets are also fun to collect. I like the older ones that don't have a plastic-like coating. The paper is nice and thick, the color combinations are usually eye-catching, and you can find some unusual fonts. The word 'new' (or 'men' depending how you look at it) in Unequivocation is a nice example. And it wasn't until the dump yielded up the book Physical Attraction and Your Hormones that my second diptych A Sad Infatuation came together!

Clay Animation

Michael Frierson's Clay Animation: American Highlights 1908 to the Present is an interesting read. Clay animation was made possible by the invention of plasticine around 1900. A precursor is the flip book of sequential drawings brought to life through the phi phenomenon: the optical impression of motion created when objectively stationary images are presented rapidly one after another. One of the earliest known women animators, Helena Smith Dayton (b.1879) produced "motion picture comedies in clay" and was written up in Scientific American (16 Dec. 1916). But by the 1920's, the cel system was the dominant mode of animation production. The amateur filmmaker, Leonard Tregillus (a chemist for Eastman Kodak) produced two notable clay animated films: "No Credit" and "Proem." Clay animation finally began a resurgence in the broadcast medium after television's first period of growth in 1948.

In the search for new children's programming, clay animation reestablishes an audience with Art Clokey's Gumby which first aired on The Howdy Doody Show on 16 June 1956. Children's advertising spawned name-brand recognition for toys beginning with Mattel's "Burp Gun" released for Christmas 1955. Clokey credits avatar Sathya Sai Baba with Gumby's later comeback in the 1980's. "Some models had the Sanskrit word for love emblazoned on the chest" [p122].

Clokey was a protege of Yugoslavian artist Slavko Vorkapich, best known for the experimental film The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra (1928). Vorkapich applied graphic art principles to filmmaking. "Like lines, colors and sounds, different motions have different emotional values. . . there are many such fundamental expressive motions and their possibilities of combination are unlimited." In filmmaking, Vorkapich was a montage expert and contributed sequences to many popular films including 1937's The Good Earth and The Last Gangster. A montage can be defined as a panoramic effect in which the events covering a period of time are condensed to a succession of rapidly paced interlocking flashes. Vorkapich refers to it as "film ideagraphy."

In Clokey's opinion, Vorkapich "got down to basics. . . motion and the illusion of three dimensional objects created by use of shape, shadows, color and motion." The influence of Vorkapich is evident in the abstract animation of Clokey's early work titled Gumbasia (1955), interesting for its "visual shorthand of fundamental shapes." Clokey believed that a character's external design should directly objectify its inner state. His work is notable for his use of screen vectors: the angle and direction that a character moves through filmic space. Remember how Gumby was always skating across the screen diagonally on one foot?

Much is also written about the "claymation" artist behind the 1974 Academy Award winner Closed Mondays, Will Vinton. The book closes with a chapter on "new visionaries" of the 1990's (Bruce Bickford and David Daniels) and includes a bibliography and selected filmographies.

Burp Gun Digression
A bit of trivia about the Burp Gun from Images of the Child by Harry Edwin Eiss: "The Mattel Burp Gun became the first televised toy to become a sensational hit, selling more than a million, each priced at $4.00, by Christmas. . . The company even received a personal letter from then President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who requested a Burp Gun for his grandson, David." Here's a 1958 model now priced at $350.00 at Mom & Pop's Vintage Toys. I never had a Burp Gun but I did have this Flintlock cap pistol!

Cold Moon Morning

Here it is this morning, Sunday 14 December 2008 at about 7:00 am. The moon is still pretty full. How convenient that we had a full moon the night of the blackout. All the trees were casting shadows in the yard.

We lost quite a few dead trees that were standing across the meadow, and a bunch more across the street in front of the house. Limbs breaking sound like gunshots.
Here's my old friend covered with frost. I was thinking about Nicholas Roukes and "selective cropping" when I took this one!

Another Nicholas Roukes Book

Before I delve into the new animation books, I want to mention one other recommended title by Nicholas Roukes. Acrylics Bold and New (Watson Guptill, 1990) is the perfect how-to guide to provide inspiration to someone like me who has no formal art training. The 5-page introduction provides a nice overview of the qualities and characteristics of acrylic paint including: how and when to apply gesso and varnish, the use of acrylic emulsions in collage including two transfer methods, and some tips on hard-edge painting. The bulk of the book consists of 64 experiments. Each experiment is a chapter covering a different composition, concept or technique illustrated by an acrylic painting. Chapters begin with a general how-to and definition of terms followed by a discussion of the painting and the specific application of the technique therein. Of particular interest to me are: Paint With Stencils, Integrate Transfer Images, Use a "Stage Set" Format, Combine Abstract and Figurative Motifs (love the example byRobert Hudson), Hybridize the Subject (ditto by James Marsh), Use Serialized Images, Use Selective Cropping, Compose with a Grid, and Use Geometrical Abstraction. Now that I've learned about visual closure, equivocal visual fields, figure/ground relationships and rhythmic transition I am ready to choose one of my favorite experiments and apply what I have learned. I think I will create a painting based on hybridization, and a collage composed with a grid.

James Marsh and Robert Hudson
James Marsh has a wonderful web site. Don't miss his print show for many clever examples of hybridization. And his fine art slide show features nice abstract designs, some based on dots. Others using flat stones remind me a little of Andy Goldworthy's work! Robert Hudson's work is somewhat elusive on the net, but you can see two of his assemblages on the site of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. You can also browse SAAM by artwork type. Collage yields 597 hits. . . oh boy!

Animation Hit List

Wow, I might need Evelyn Wood's help with this. I have a total of nine books on animation. I will list them all here and then describe each one in a separate post as I finish it:

1. Ablan, Dan. Digital Photography for 3D Imaging and Animation. Wiley, 2007.
2. Chapman, Jenny. www.animation: Animation Design for the World Wide Web. Watson-Guptill, 2002.
   
3. Frierson, Michael. Clay Animation: American Highlights 1908 to the Present (Twayne's Filmmaker's Series). Twayne Publishers, 1994.
4. Kerman, Phillip. Macromedia Flash 8 in 24 Hours (SAMs Teach Yourself). Sams Publishing, 2006.
5. Milic, Lea and Yasmin McConville. The Animation Producer's Handbook. McGraw-Hill, 2006.
6. Mohler, James L. Graphics, Animation & Interactivity with Flash 4.0. Delmar/Thomson Learning, 2000.
7. Patmore, Chris. The Complete Animation Course: The Principles, Practice, and Techniques of Successful Animation. Quartro/Barron's, 2003.
8. Priebe, Ken A. The Art of Stop-Motion Animation. Thomson, 2007.
9. White, Tony. Animation From Pencils to Pixels: Classical Techniques for Digital Animators. Focal Press/Elsevier, 2006.
   

Situation Normal

OK, printer snafu averted. Got the C64 running but I think the C84 is trash. Got the Netfick that was stuck in the player out and off the post office via a friend who also stopped by the library to pick up some books on animation that just came in for me. I sense I am about to embark on a dangerous journey. Some of these books talk about software that I will probably decide I need despite the fact that I can't run it on my present hardware. I know that my days of 54.6 Kbps are numbered as well. The last thing I did before the blackout was to join Pandora which I just learned about from Cecil Touchon's Collage Group on Yahoo, but I can only get sound intermittently because of my lack of modem speed.

Boo-Hoo My Printers Died

Well, it seems I lost two printers (Epson Stylus C84 and C64) due to the power failure. I can't get power to them. . . keep getting an error message and there is no green light. All I can do is unplug everything and try again. I am really clueless when it comes to the mechanical end of things.

Back on the Grid!

Hooray, the power is back on. Folks were saying that it would be "several days" but it has been only a day and a half. Seems longer than that. First thing I did is make myself a cup of Earle Grey. Then I turned the furnace on in the shop. Now I am here on the computer, waiting for the hot water tank to heat up so I can take a bath.

Things to remember for next time: Fill the bathtub any time the weather starts getting weird! The well pump doesn't run without electricity. Always have blank discs and a fully charged camera! Otherwise I waste a good photo op like yesterday with the ice coating all of the trees. It's a blessing that the tamarak pulled through without major damage. There's a big limb down from the second big pine tree. I'll have to investigate that this morning.

The birds were on the suet feeders like crazy and now that the seed bell is gone they are back on the sunflower feeder. And the big brown woodpecker was here twice! That prompted me to put out a second sunflower feeder to replace the bell, and a third one outside the library window. I need to look up that woodpecker. I've seen a picture . . . OK, "Familiar Garden Birds of America" by Henry Hill Collins, Jr. (Harper & Row, 1965) on Plate III shows its a yellow-shafted flicker (male) which belongs to the woodpecker family. That's him! He's beautiful and bigger than a blue-jay.

Superstitions

Well, here is something I learned about bad luck while organizing my collage books (from the Daily Guide to Funk and Wagnalls New Standard Encyclopedia). "The ladder was a legendary connection with the Crucifixion. It is said that as a ladder was erected to bring down the Body for burial, Satan went underneath and tried to push it over; consequently, to go under a ladder is to associate oneself with the Devil."

Soul Collage

I'm two days into a collage area cleaning binge. Absolutely every pile, box and bin is being moved, sorted, and checked for dampness and (heaven forbid) mold. My collage area keeps growing. I have the studio (a room off the barn/bead shop) which doubles as my gallery space. All finished work plus work in progress lives there in addition to all of my art supplies and semi-sorted bins of this-and-that. Half of the office space upstairs has been taken over by my cutting library of books and my vintage pages clipping file (loosely grouped in transparent sleeves by subject or source). And now the big library table downstairs is covered by my contemporary clippings file. I started a system of subject folders some time ago which has grown to five bins worth. I'm still finding boxes of images "to be filed" hidden away in corners here and there. Good thing it's a sturdy table because it's quite an impressive pile. (Note to self: Put up pictures to document this stupendous accomplishment.)

One of the things I found were a few Soul Collage card readings from 2004. Visit the page and get a four card spread. Click on the individual cards to learn their meaning. All of the cards are found image collages by various artists.

More Digital Galleries

The research library of The Art Institute of Chicago has published a great annotated list of digital image collections from around the world. While some are limited to subscribers, there are many "free and open to the public" that would make Andrew Carnegie proud!

Egyptian Dots

I discovered Design*Sponge just in time to see a guest article on Egyptian Design by New York Public Library reference librarian Jessica Pigza. I love all the dots in the images she has selected from Gustave Jéquier's Decoraton Egyptienne (1911). Be sure to check out their project called Design By The Book featuring artists work inspired by the NYPL Digital Gallery (it's a wonderful resource. . . I could spend hours online just looking).

And another Design*Sponge post not to be missed is this how-to on making paper garlands for the holidays. Cool fun!

In Wakefield, New Hampshire

Today we are getting a little snow. It's not our first this season but as you can see there is not much to speak of yet on the ground, only enough to make the downed tree look picturesque. The tree was still standing when I moved here over 12 years ago. Its top had been destroyed by a lightning strike some years before and it put all of its energy into one branch that became the tallest thing around. It was unbalanced, however, and the stiff wind blowing across the meadow toppled it a couple of years ago. I was sad to see it go.
There have been a number of lightning strikes in my immediate area, and my house came with lightning rods on the peaks of all of the roofs. The Congregational Church (built in 1816) right up the hill from me was destroyed in a fire started by lightning on 2 September 1956.
It was re-built, although its spire lacks some of the original architectural detail. Below is an aerial photo showing the new church. That's my street and my house is about 1/4 mile down on the left.

The Synectics of Nicholas Roukes

In his preface to Art Synectics: Stimulating Creativity in Art (Davis Publications, 1984), author Nicholas Roukes states: "The term Synectic. . . means 'bringing forth together' and 'bringing different things into unified connection.' This is a form of creative thinking that combines imagination and analogical thinking in order to transform commonplace, familiar elements into new and unusual structures." Yes, yes. . . this, to me, is what collage is all about! I just received the book, along with its companion title Design Synectics: Stimulation Creativity in Design (Davis Publications, 1988) and I'm so glad I have both. There are concepts, suggested projects and numerous illustrations and my head is spinning already. I'm going to start my reading with Art Synectics since it was written first. Roukes suggests using his design book as "a springboard for personal experimentation and . . . excursions into realms of fantasy and free association. . . [keeping] an open mind for emerging ideas--and happy surprises". I am a former librarian who believes the right book has the power to change a person's life. I suspect that the way I approach making collage art is about to be enhanced forevermore! The links section of Roukes' Artful Jesters! site connects to a number of artists worth a look. Here are a few of my favorites:

Tony Fitzpatrick (an amazing collage artist discussed here last week).

Po Shun Leong creator of intricate wood constructions which are the subject of the book Po Shun Leong: Making Art Boxes by Tony Lydgate (Sterling, 2001).

Norman Catherine (I love "Pandora's Box" and Group Therapist").

Liz Mamorsky's Functional and Dysfunctional Art (Click on one of her Iconic Abstractions and see what happens; I love her sense of humor and her wall sculpture called "The Good Time Fairy of Honest Weight").

Literature Review: Parallel Botany

Some posts back in a discussion about children's literature I mentioned that I had ordered a book called Parallel Botany. I have been enjoying Lionni's illustrations of his invisible imaginary plant kingdom but it may be some time before I get around to actually reading the book. And to tie up one more loose end, I should comment that Quiller's book "Color Choices: Making Sense Out of Color Theory" gave me more information than I can use right now. My most pressing urge is to figure out animation and I have recently submitted my "hit list" of interlibrary loan requests to my local library. If you have any favorite books on animation to recommend please leave a comment.

Media Review: Frederick Back
Last night I watched Disc 2. of The Man Who Planted Trees (Deluxe Edition) featuring the animation of Canadian filmmaker Frederic Back. If you have been searching, like I was, for a copy of his fabulously heartwarming short titled "Crac!" on DVD, here's where you can find it! "All Nothing" and "The Mighty River" also come on the disc. I saw them for the first time, and thoroughly enjoyed both, but there is something about "Crac!" that attracts me more. I think it is the musical sound track. Plus I really love the scene in the art museum showing the different reactions to modern art. It also made me think about the price we pay for progress, and of course, "The Mighty River" and "All Nothing"did that too.

Literature Review: Jorg Muller
And to digress a bit on the "price for progress" theme, another illustrator who excels is Swiss artist Jorg Muller. His two books, The Changing City and The Changing Countryside are actually unbound collections of seven 13x35 inch tri-fold prints of paintings depicting a particular locality through sequential (and dramatic) effects of modernization from the early '50's through the early '70's. Catagorized as wordless picture books, these two are winners for kindergarten through any age!

Kunstkammer & Keith Lo Bue

The December 2008 issue of Art & Antiques contains an interesting article about kunstkammer by Joscelyn Godwin titled "The Wonder Years." Kunstkammer are cabinets of curiosities mixing art, science and a little magic to create a marvelous world in miniature. Godwin mentions the "genius [of Joseph Cornell] for enclosing the most disparate objects in minimal space" and brought to my mind the fantastic assemblages and wearable art of Keith Lo Bue.

I've been a fan of Lo Bue for some time. I first admired his jewelry and later came to appreciate his work as assemblage. His web site is also a work of art. Lo Bue contributed to Assemblage 100 (curated by Dale Copeland) where you can find a characteristically unusual portrait with necklace. My favorite of his contributions is the macabre Unknown Female Head.

The Kunstkammer was the first museum in Russia, established by Peter the Great in 1718. The introductory page to this site has an intriguing photo of a room full of cabinets. (Hover near the extreme right or left side of the photo to extend the view.) Francesca Fiorani speaks of kunstkammer as "memory theater" in an article from Renaissance Quarterly (Spring 1998).

Spoiled by Technology?

Yes, I definitely have been spoiled in some areas, though in others maybe not spoiled enough. What I am getting to is a contrast between how beautiful images look when displayed on the computer screen (where you can make them look even better with the help of Photoshop and view them in a slide-show with square corners nicely matted by black) and how annoying they look on a cheap rounded television screen masquerading as a DVD player (where they have been cropped beyond your control and their original recognition) ! Despite this, I look forward to viewing subsequent discs of The Lawrence Jordan Album. My favorite on Volume 1. (even with the annoying buzzer) is Our Lady of the Sphere followed by Duo Concertantes, Gymnopedes, Orb, and Carabosse (in no particular order) . One thing I learned was how interesting these are when viewed in Forward x2! It's easier to study the scene changes when the pace is picked up a bit. My least favorite is the ponderous "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" which was read by Orson Wells, dedicated to Wallace Berman, and funded by a grant from National Endowment of the Arts.

Wallace Berman was known for his verifax collages. Two of my favorites are this one and this one.

Surfing Bruce Pollock

Now here's a man that knows his dots. I went from Larry Jordan to Wallace Bergman (I'll get back to Jordan and Bergman in a future post) and discovered the amazing monochromatic quilt-like (grandmother's flower garden, specifically; see above) paintings of Bruce Pollock now at the Santa Monica Museum of Art in a show titled Bruce Pollock: Circling West (September 13 - December 13, 2008). Pollock's paintings, created for this show, are oils on 24x24 inch canvas. My favorite is the violet one for the way it makes me feel when I look at it, but the rest are pretty nice, too! Pollock's web site affords a larger view of Red Square as well as a sampling of pen and ink drawings, my favorite of which is Trinity. I love this quote about his work from the curator of the Virginia Museum of Fine Art: "These are images of transformation. They reward prolonged looking with a slow unraveling of their secrets and with a sense that through them one is contemplating larger issues of creation and existence." Bruce Pollock lives in Philadelphia and is represented there by the Fleischer/Ollman Gallery (a 1996 show was reviewed in Art in America) .

I am reminded of the acrylic paintings by Linda Darling. I just spent a half hour or so scanning through my image files (not as well-organized as they could be) to find her name. I love the way she paints with different sized circles. A nice example is Kaleideometric (Acrylic on canvas; 40x37.5 inches) . I'm sorry I can't give a credit for this photo (below) of another Linda Darling painting which could very well have been from Artnet; I do not know the title either.

Larry Jordan's Collage Animation

My latest Netflick is Disc 1 of The Lawrence Jordan Album. The description mentioned animated collages so I figured it would be right up my alley and so it is! I tried to watch it last night with a friend who is not "into animation" and stopped it before the end. I need to watch it alone. There were a couple that really grabbed me, and a couple of others that seemed too long. So far my preference is for the ones accompanied by soothing classical music. I have found three good sources of information on Jordan: Bright Lights Film Journal has a nice article by Garry Morris, Canyon Cinema has an annotated list of over 40 Jordan films, and Animation World Network has Jackie Leger's illustrated tribute which mentions the numerous artists who have inspired Jordan's "fantastic landscapes of the mind."

Celebrating Today

This blog has been up for a month and I have kept with it. . . I am so proud. Plus I'm having so much fun! Another thing I am celebrating is the introduction of Firefox into my life. That whole tab thing is so cool. And no more of those annoying little windows asking me if I want to de-bug someone elses code!

Tony Fitzpatrick

I've been spending a lot of time looking at the collages of Tony Fitzpatrick. I admire his work so much that I've added his site to my list of favorite artists. Most of his work is small for all of its wealth of detail: 6x9 inches or 10x13 inches usually. All feature his characteristic pasted up patterned borders, somewhat reminiscent of the style of Felipe Jesus Consalvos. There is frequently a dominant symbol in the center: sometimes as a flat single colored silhouette, other times an object stylistically decorated. In some pieces, a message spelled out in letters cut from different colored ephemera is the main focus. The work frequently includes poetic handwritten words arranged vertically and flush with the left and right borders. The backgrounds are always a flat color upon which a myriad of small objects are arranged. There is usually some reoccurring pattern like a dotted line, a string of beads or the suggestion of a constellation of stars that provides visual unity. A background consisting of a ruled grid can be seen in most of Fitzpatrick's later pieces. All of his work makes use of bright color contrast, interesting vintage found imagery (sheet music, matchbook covers, advertising and the like) in combination with painted elements that invite closer scrutiny.

Here's a link to a 2005 interview with Tony Fitzpatrick at Reader's Voice (he likes James Ellroy). I've just ordered a book of Fitzpatrick's art called The Wonder: Portraits of a Remembered City -- The Dream City and I can't wait to see it!

Magik Glasses

I found a funny animated collage called Peeping Tom's Peep Show at Julie Sadler's site called Magik Glasses. A man points to a center disc and when you click on it, curtains part above it to reveal a colorful collage of vintage nude women. The collage rotates when you click and hold the center disc. "Opportunity is knocking" it reads. It took a while to load on my computer but it was worth the wait. Most of the piece is black and white illustration in contrast to the little moving show which is in color.

On the same site is InsEktikA, another animated collage. Click on the moving insects with human heads to advance the story of "uniform non-conformity". A third piece called As I create, I also daydream, is also worth a look. There's lots of movement involving insects and other creatures in this two act drama. Click on the center of the first page to advance to the second.

Sadler has created a book of collage art titled Dreamiverse ("I dream in collage, don't you?" she asks) and also a collaged pop-up book. I learned about The Movable Book Society from Magik Glasses and at the bottom of the home page are many more tempting links that I'm off to explore right now!

New Collage Materials

I found one half of a beautiful old etching this morning at the dump, as well as a Ladies Home Journal from 1914, and C.J. Bulliet's Apples and Madonnas; Emotional Expression in Modern Art (1930).

How Long?

Ok, the bottom line is that it takes 10,000 hours to get good at anything, any "cognitively complex pursuit" that is. Like drawing or painting. I'll never get my hours in for drawing but I just might try to cram near the end. Collage has a shorter learning curve especially if you start with sharp scissors. Do the math: that many hours amounts to three and a half years of practice for eight hours a day! (Thanks to Robert Genn for bringing this fact to my attention this morning.)

Found It!

I can't believe it. My first photomontage. I've had this for 35 years, maybe. Now I have a copy in case I misplace it again. I should collage it into something. Maybe combine it with an old family photo to honor my Canadian heritage.

My grandmother, Blanche is the first woman seated on the right. To her left sits my great-grandmother Clothilde (of recent dictionary fame) . Now if I can just find the film reel and the little envelope with the paper pieces. I may have to light a candle for this!

Faith In the System

I feel like I'm doing live commentary today but I just got my first NetFlick in the mail today, two of them, in fact. I was mildly shocked at first to see how little packaging is involved but the system involves little waste. (Those labels they put on the sleeve will no doubt be like catnip to Mica.) I have just watched Chris Landreth's homage to animation pioneer Ryan Larkin. There are others but I had to stop after Ryan to let it sink in. Amazing and timely on more than one level. The theme music is very hypnotic. I am listening to it now. Wow, I can't believe what I just saw. . . I'm going to watch it again.

Oh, yes. . . and my second flick is an older compilation from the National Film Board of Canada. I've seen at least two of the selections: The Cat Came Back and The Big Snit were favorites back when my daughter was young.

Writing With Images

One of the most informative resources for critical discussion of contemporary collage on the web is Writing with Images: Toward a Semiotics of the Web by George L. Dillon who is professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Washington. Here is a link to the Table of Contents although starting with the Conclusion is not a bad idea. His section on Animated, Interactive, Multimedia, and Randomized Collage is of great interest to me due to my latest tangent. From here I have explored the work of Ian Campbell whose ambiant multimedia collages combine inspiration from Kurt Schwitters and Joseph Cornell in his own richly surreal textural reality. I especially like Push (click the lens to view the series) and Glimpses of an Afternoon (make sure you have sound on for this one). I had to look up "semiotics." Good word.

Collage and Animation

My mind is racing about the possibilities for combining animation and collage. A whole new world is opening up. I remember little exercises that I have done in the past. One was my first photomontage done on a xerox machine. I was working in a library at the time and was afforded the luxury of being able to feed the same piece of paper back through the machine a second time. The images I superimposed were black and white photos: a woman lying on her back with one knee bent up, and a row of trees standing separately. I lined it up so she's lying in a forest with one of her hands holding a tree. I still have the original xerox, very yellow. It was once adhered to a backing with spray glue. I know it's around and if I'm careful not to seek it directly it may turn up.

My second exercise was actual animation shot frame by frame with a 35mm camera on a copy stand. A library school assignment. I had just begun working for a large engineering firm and was adjusting poorly to the corporate environment. I used cut paper shapes from patterned wall-paper, plus letters and small birds printed with rubber stamps. (I found a manila envelope containing all of the pieces not long ago, and the actual film, packaged similarly, is hidden in some drawer.) I can't remember the title but I remember cutting out the individual letters. There is a man in a drab suit and tie and suddenly some birds fly into the frame, flutter through his brain, and he sheds his jacket and tie and adopts bright colors. I loved working on the copy stand and recognized it as a brightly lit stage upon which my true feelings could be exposed. I had created individual slides before, but this was my first experience with animation. I had a picture in my mind of what I was hoping to attain but had no idea what to expect. Everyone in the class shot their project on the same reel of film. The professor ran the film and when my short bit played by I felt like I had created magic. He played the film maybe two more times and that was it. Nobody wanted their work back except for me and I got it back on a little reel but I haven't viewed it since that class.

Collage Progress Report

I guess it's safe to say that with all of the intense reading and personal evaluation that has been going on, I haven't made much measurable progress in the collage arena. Last "week-end" I did not accomplish much aside from making a nice organized studio space but at least that's something. One idea has been growing stronger, that of achieving animation in my collage. And my first candidate for experimentation may very well be the piece shown above. A close friend of mine finds it offensive, by the way, and that knowledge has interrupted my progress with it. Maybe I should stop revealing work while it is still in progress.

The animation idea started with my discovery of the enchanting web site of Bruno Mallart and was further fueled by my revisitation of The Dot and The Line. And I have to mention the surreal Gumby cartoons of the late 50's and early 60's, another childhood influence. I've learned about an interesting film about Gumby's creator, clay animation artist Art Clokey. Unfortunately, Gumby Dharma appears to be available on DVD only in Australia right now. But there are lots of interesting examples of animation art which can be seen on DVD, so many that I have finally joined Netflix in order to be able to enjoy them all!

Re: Stigma

I have been engrossed in this book for two days. I've been giving a lot of thought to my identity by which I mean how I perceive myself rather than how I consciously project myself in front of others. I have re-created myself: re-named myself, and allowed myself to be the artist I always secretly wanted to be. I wonder if re-creation is really correct here. Perhaps I have merely dropped the people-pleasing fascade that hindered my personal, creative and spiritual growth. The more I focus on artistic endeavors, the less time I waste worring about how I appear to others. And as a result of reading Erving Goffman's book, I will no longer blame myself and feel stupid for taking so long to wise-up!

"The fear that others can disrespect a person because of something he shows means that he is always insecure in his contact with other people; and this insecurity arises, not from mysterious and somewhat disguised sources, as a great deal of our anxiety does, but from something he knows he cannot fix. Now that represents an almost fatal deficiency of the self-system, since the self is unable to disguise or exclude a definite formulation that reads, 'I am inferior. Therefore people will dislike me and I cannot be secure with them.'. . . Lacking the salutary feed-back of daily social intercourse with others, the self-isolate can become suspicious, depressed, hostile, anxious, and bewildered." [p 13.] "By staying indoors and not answering the phone or door, the discreditable individual can remove himself from most of those contacts in which his disgrace might be established as part of the biography others have of him. . . One method of disclosure is for the individual voluntarily to wear a stigma symbol, a highly visible sign that advertises his failing wherever he goes."[p 100.] My collages sometimes serve the purpose of similar disclosure. Damn the biography; it's the autobiography that matters!

I see my own childhood self in this next statement: "One day I sudddenly realized that I had become so self-conscious and afraid of all strange children that, like animals, they knew I was afraid, so that even the mildest and most amiable of them were automatically prompted to derision by my own shrinking and dread." [p 17.]

The author speaks of ". . . advocated codes of conduct. . . for an appropriate attitude regarding the self. To fail to adhere to the code is to be a self-deluded, mis-guided person; to succeed is to be both real and worthy. . ." but allows that ". . . this advice about personal conduct sometimes stimulates the stigmatized individual into becoming a critic of the social scene. . . [becoming] 'situation conscious' while normals present are spontaneously involved within the situation. . ." [p 111.] Hmmm, collage art as indicator of critical situation consciousness. I like that concept. I also like this statement: "Whenever an occupation carries with it a change in name, recorded or not, one can be sure that an important breach is involved bewteen the individual and his old world." [p 58.]

In the last chapter, Goffman finally arrives at the term "deviance" saying: "One such deviation is important here, the kind represented by individuals who are seen as declining voluntarily and openly to accept the social place accorded them, and who act irregularly and somewhat rebelliously in connection with our basic institutions. . . These are the 'disaffiliates'. . . Prostitutes, drug addicts, delinquents, criminals, jazz musicians, gypsies, carnival workers, hobos, winos, show people, full time gamblers, beach dwellers, homosexuals, and the urban unrepentant poor--those would be included. Then there are the folk who are considered to be engaged in some kind of collective denial of the social order. They are perceived as failing to use opportunity for advancement in the various approved runways of society; they show open disrespect for their betters; they lack piety; they represent failures in the motivational schemes of society." [pp 143-144.] He makes special mention of ". . . the quietly disaffiliated hobbyists who become so devoted to their avocation that only a husk remains for civil attachments. . ."

Coming Soon to a Collage Near You!

I am frequently amazed by the interconnectedness of the items that I find. I can't read French any more and I almost passed this one by but decided in favor of taking it because of it's beautiful aged cover. Le Martyre De L'Obese translates "The Fat Man's Troubles" and was made into a film in 1932.

Stigma

Here's another dump find that should be an interesting read. I was drawn to the typographic design and also to the word itself: "Stigma." It's a powerful word, to be sure, and not a positive one, but a word I understand from personal experience. I grew up with two: one physical, the other social. Today I have learned to embrace the concept and boldly flaunt mine in the face of those who would judge me. It has become an important personal element in some of my art: stigma as symbol!

"The Greeks, who were apparently strong on visual aids, originated the term stigma to refer to bodily signs designed to expose something unusual and bad about the moral status of the signifier. The signs were cut or burnt into the body and advertised that the bearer was a slave, a criminal, or a traitor--a blemished person, ritually polluted, to be avoided, especially in public places. Later, in Christian times, two layers of metaphor were added to the term: the first referred to bodily signs of holy grace that took the form of eruptive blossoms on the skin; the second. . . referred to bodily signs of physical disorder. Today the term is widely used in something like the original sense, but is applied more to the disgrace itself than to the bodily evidence of it." [Chapter 1, paragraph 1.]

Dump Literature in Review

I found a great Tom Robbins novel at the dump recently: Skinny Legs and All. Lots to think about there regarding the creation of art, like when Boomer asks, "How do people go about making pieces of art?" and Ellen Cherry replies, "Artists hardly ever start out to make significant art. And if they do, it's usually a flop. . . Maybe thay do set out to make something significant, in a roundabout sort of way, but its not like setting out to make something practical or useful. For one thing, it's more like play than work. On the other hand, they don't have a whole lot of choice in the matter. The good ones make art because they have to make it--even though they probably won't understand why until after it's already made."

"But how do they know what to make?" Boomer asks. And Ellen Cherry says: "Listen, it's really pretty simple. If there's a thing, a scene, maybe, an image that you want to see real bad, that you need to see but it doesn't exist in the world around you, at least not in the form that you envision, then you create it so that you can look at it and have it around, or show it to other people who wouldn't have imagined it because they perceive reality in a more narrow, predictable way. And that's it. That's all an artist does."

Earlier on, she realizes: ". . . a person has not only perceptions but a will to perceive, not only a capacity to observe the world but a capacity to alter his or her observation of it--which, in the end, is the capacity to alter the world, itself. Those people who recognize that the imagination is reality's master, we call 'sages,' and those who act upon it, we call 'artists'. . . Or 'lunatics'."

". . . but the true idiot is distinguished from the 'idiot' sage or 'idiot' artist by his or her lack of control. The idiot's twisted perceptions of the world are not voluntarily or imaginatively altered, they are merely faulty. Lunatics are at the mercy of misunderstool and unmanageable perceptions. When it comes to their reality, artists call the shots."

Happy Birthday, Mica

Yesterday was Mica's birthday. He is six years old now and in his prime. He is the smartest cat I have ever known. In celebration he received a package of six catnip mice, some party mix cat treats (shared with Miss. Pearl) and new litter in all 3 cat boxes.

Re: The Dot and The Line

I found a site called Design for Freedom where you can download the animated version of The Dot and The Line. It took me a whole afternoon at 54.6 Kbps and I never did get the very end but it was fun to see the film again. It brought me back to the junior high classroom where, sitting in one of those orange Melmac desk chairs with the wire bookracks underneath, I was first so totally enchanted by it. This time some of the background patterns made me think of the colorful psychedelic work of Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes . She is represented in NYC by the James Cohan Gallery where her show closed just five days ago.

More on Felipe Jesus Consalvos

Those of you who admire the art of Felipe Jesus Consalvos may be interested to know that one of his collages was used to illustrate the music CD cover of "We All Belong" by a group named Dr. Dog. I found an online inverview with lead singer Scott McMicken in which he describes how he discovered the collages when painting the walls of the Fleischer/Ollman Gallery. There is a nice reproduction of the cover art and one other Consalvos piece about three quarters of the way down the page. I should warn you that on the actual CD cover, the art is printed somewhat darker. It was interesting to note that a Campbell's Soup can has been discreetly covered by a red dot. The CD comes with a folded lyric sheet/poster featuring a Consalvos paper doll cut-out of George Washington in drag. This, for me, made it worth the purchase price.

Also, there is the full text of a 215 page master's thesis by Brendan Greaves titled: "Dream the Rest" On the Mystery & Vernacular Modernism of Felipe Jesus Consalvos, Cubamerican "Cigarmaker, Creator, Healer & Man." available online. Greaves also wrote an essay "The Art of Being Disagreeable" included in the exhibition catalog published by the Fleischer/Ollman Gallery.

For Paula

I thought I would put this picture up for Paula of self-taught artist fame who is in "puzzle exile" in the hills of Vermont! I, too, live off the beaten path somewhat (there are no taxi cabs or bus lines in my town and the trains run only to haul sand and gravel) so I understand her situation.

Christmas Cactus

My Christmas Cactus plants are in full bloom. The one that sits in the alcove next to the shop door is happiest. It probably enjoys the fountain and the company of other plants.

Sneaking Up On Perfect

I've been in a funny sort of restless mood which I have learned to recognize as a need to immerse myself in art again. For the past five days or so I have been working on my Toad Hollow Minerals site and I've made pretty good progress there but my productivity has been dropping off which is a sign that I need to switch to another activity. Today is Monday so I am approaching my "weekend" as Anita's Beads is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I have a big table in the middle of the room which, right now, is covered with trays of beads. This evening, when the little hand hits 5 I will clear off the trays and start making a collage mess. I have my previously mentioned dedications to Neil Welliver and Lenny Bruce, in addition to assorted gems in the Archive of Indecision. Plus I have in mind a new series called Clothilde's Alphabet which will make use of some pages from that lovely French dictionary I recently found. And then there is the painting. I need to ease myself back into that as well.

I call the process "sneaking up on perfect." I turn the ringer off on the phone, put some Leonard Cohen on the CD player and start moving materials around, pretending that I am straightening up so that I don't scare myself into thinking I'm actually involving myself in the process of creating something important! Here are some works in progress:

The one above will be called: When Ravens Circled Over the Woods (For Neil). This next one below has been sitting around for ages. I keep changing the size of the board. This is the tightly cropped version but I'm thinking that the reason why I can't finish is because it needs a border of some sort. The four colored "stars" are test squares that I did in batik back in 1980.

And below is another one from the depths of the Archive of Indecision. I've lost my train of thought on this one! There are too many images here for one piece so I need to edit them down or maybe start thinking of this one in terms of a series.

Valerie's Got a Gun

Today I attended the artists' reception for The Art Group. First prize went to Charles Kartsonis of Lynn, Massachusetts for his collage (pictured above) titled "Valerie's Got a Gun." Valerie Solanas, a feminist writer, gained noteriety for shooting artist Andy Warhol in 1968.

Above is an installation shot. Sanbornville artist Dawn Rancourt's assemblage "The Future is Back" attracted a lot of attention, as did Norman Royle's mixed media "A Garden Palette".

Pictured above is Mabel Doyle's oil painting titled "Autumn Leaves. And the watercolor below titled "Homage to Malevich" was done by West Newfield artist Peter Abate. Peter organized the show. Thanks for all of your hard work, Peter! There are 35 pieces in all. I wish more of my photos came out but it was a difficult assignment to shoot with interior lights and windows reflecting off of the picture glass! So you will have to visit the Gafney Library in Sanbornville to see all these innovative works. "Constantly Risking Absurdity In The Realm of Abstraction" will be on display through December 5th.

Minerals as Art

I have spent the better part of two days photographing fossils and other minerals specimens to add to my Toad Hollow Minerals site. I'd like to do a mineral collage with some of the concretions, they are so beautiful. Pictured above is a pair from Utah, cut and polished. The fossil teeth, would make powerful focals in amuletic necklaces. The coprolite takes the prize for ugly, but makes a thoughtful gift for boys of a certain age!

I'd like to share the work of a couple of painters who have make minerals the subject of their art. Michigan artist Susan M. Robinson's acrylic of this candle-lit cave features a nice azurite/malachite specimen. Her vanadenite looks like strange flora from another planet. I also like the work of Leroy de Barde. Entirely self-taught, he was recognized as a virtuoso while still in his 20's. His Minerals in Crystalization, watercolor and gouache (1813), exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1817 and is in the collection of the Louvre Museum, Paris.

Save the Date

This Saturday (November 15th) is the artists' reception for The Art Group's abstract show "Constantly Risking Absurdity" at the Gafney Library featuring the work of 19 artists. The reception will be held from 11:00 to 2:00 and I hope to be there at least part of the time. Last Saturday was a busy one at Anita's Beads and I hate to be closed too long. With luck I'll be able to arrange for a friend to fill in at the shop for me. The library is less than a mile over the hill from here so come up to Wakefield, New Hampshire before the snow starts flying!

Vermeer and Glazing

One DVD that I find myself watching again and again is Girl with a Pearl Earring. The incredible artwork of Johannes Vermeer, the historical setting (Delft, Holland, 1665), and the sensitive performance of Scarlett Johansson make this film adaptation of a best-selling novel a winner for me. I especially enjoy the scenic shifts in color dominance from yellow to blue to scarlett. . . red making a perfect backdrop for the envious green of the wife's gowns! What brought Vermeer to mind this morning was Robert Genn's newsletter about glazing techniques. I tend to do a lot of glazing in my abstract acrylic paintings, and lately I have applied his technique to some of my collage work as well. The Atomist Confronts the Infinite Void is an example. I was interested to learn Genn's formula for his thin acrylic glazes: 5% pigment, 45% acrylic medium (gloss or matte) and 50% percent water. So far mine have consisted only of pigment and medium and, especially with the heat on, I have learned to work fast to avoid the clumpy mess that results from over-brushing. Vermeer was a master of the glazing technique.

Felipe Jesus Consalvos

I just received in today's mail a copy of the exhibition catalog: "Cigarmaker, Creator, Healer, & Man": the artwork of Felipe Jesus Consalvos published by the Fleisher/Ollman Gallery in 2005. It contains 29 full color plates (a few with detail views) and photos of the artist as a young man. In addition to masterful cigar stamped collages, there are also decorated objects including a typewriter, a dress form, a clock, a wastepaper basket, a chair (decorated with a skeleton), a guitar, a violin with case (and another skeleton, this one holding a bunch of "Great Seal" balloons cut from the back of dollar bills), a bureau, and a boat model.

Much of the work is quite large. One piece titled Foil Temple, featuring numerous postage stamps and architectural details, is just over 41x34 inches. Opium Eaters ("Make Your Ladies Happy") is one of the smallest at 7.5x11 inches. I would be hard-pressed to declare a favorite without further study of all of the intricate details, but Home of the Nature Freak and The School For Future Mothers (with a man sporting a "Souvenir World's Fair" phallus) are on the short list!

Leo Lionni and Eric Carle

I've been thinking more about children's literature and what an influence children's book illustrators have had on me. One of my favorite illustrators employing collage was Leo Lionni who created some memorable picture books including: Let's Make Rabbits! ("Let’s make rabbits,” says the scissors to the pencil. . . and I always did like the scissors' rabbit best!) and Little Blue and Little Yellow (dots. . !) Lionni also wrote and illustrated a rather surreal sounding book for adults called Parallel Botany which I only just learned about today. First published in Italy as La Botanica Parallela, this illustrated fictional work is presented as popular science outlining the oddities of an elusive, frequently invisible, and wholly imaginary plant kingdom that coexists with botany as we know it. Lionni's botanical drawings were shown at Lehman College Art Gallery (Bronx, NY) in 1990, and in curator Nina Castelli Sundell's insightful essay I learned that as an adolescent he showed his paintings with the futurists. His work for children can be seen at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Mass.

Eric Carle, perhaps most famous for his book The Very Hungry Catepillar, is another magical collage artist. His not-to-be-missed official web site includes photos of Carle in his studio (with flat-files of paper filed by color, paint on his sleeves and everything!) and video clips showing how he creates his pictures.

The Dot and The Line

Thinking about school filmstrips reminded me of one of my all-time favorite short films and books: "The Dot and The Line" by Norton Juster. I couldn't get enough of the animated version. As children's librarian in Topsfield, Mass. I frequently borrowed the 16mm film from the Boston Public Library to show as an after-school short-feature. I recently found a copy of the hardcover book at the dump. As soon as I saw it I realized it had been my first exposure to the collage technique. What a big influence it has made on my collage work!

Kurt Schwitters

"Kurt Schwitters: An In-depth Look at the Life and Works of the Great Master is indeed a satisfying view of the fascinating work of collage artist Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948). Aside from a few production issues which were tolerable, this is a pretty great educational DVD, compared to the old "Eye-Gate" filmstrips from my classroom days! The best thing was the art, of course, and seeing so many of Schwitter's collages and assemblages for the first time. There are lots of detail views along with interesting commentary. Just recalling it makes me want to purge my desk of clutter and try my hand at transforming the refuse into little gems like Schwitters!

Optic Nerve

I just received a copy of Joe Houston's book titled "Optic Nerve: Perceptual Art of the 1960's." The book was published in 2007 in conjunction with an exhibition at the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio. Pictured are the works of a number of forerunners: Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Wassily Kandinsky, Robert Delaunay, Paul Klee. (I've never seen the Delaunay painting, "Portuguese Woman" before and it's fantastic!) The link is to a slightly different version. The one in the book, from the collection of the Columbus Museum of Art, is better, in my opinion. The woman is looking towards the left a little more and her face shows more detail. And of course I like the dots!

All my favorite Op artists are here: Victor Vasarely, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Frank Stella, Bridget Riley, Tadasky (Tadasuke Kuwayama) and Ben Cunningham. And there are many others I haven't heard of. . . over sixty in all are listed in the Artists' Biographies section. The book measures 10x11 inches and contains numerous full page color illustrations, as well as '60's cover art from Vogue, Life and Look. Online you can see some beautiful Tadasky targets and Anuszkiewicz squares as part of the "Optic Visionaries" show at D. Wigmore in NYC.

Mauritanian Conus Shell

The latest issue of Ornament magazine (Vol. 32 No. 1) contains an article by editor Robert K. Liu titled: "Mauritanian Conus Shell Disks: A Comparison of Ancient and Ethnographic Ornaments." An important attribute of these shells from the marine gastropod Conus is the amuletic power to promote fertility. A bibliography of three dozen or so references concludes the article.

Clothilde's Dictionary

Yesterday I found a wonderful old French dictionary that could have belonged to my great-grandmother, Clothilde Simoneau (1877-1950). The little illustrations are marvelous and there are lovely chapter headings for every letter of the alphabet, plus some color plates and full page diagrams. The back cover is missing but the front cover was still attached and it is a thing of beauty!

Collage Progress Report

OK, Excuse No. 5 is this blog. It has become the index to all my projects. Toad Hollow Minerals is up on the web at my old bead site with links to Botanical Information on Aromatic Herbs and Essential Oils. "About Stones" is back and I'm in the process of photographing fossils and crystals from the shop. (Anita's Beads and the Jewelry pages need major work as well) . . . so as far as collage work is concerned, I have one major piece dedicated to Neil Welliver which could be done in an afternoon if I applied myself. (I'd rather tempt the cats with the pieces a little longer!) And perhaps a triptych to Lenny Bruce with a great book cover or two and something else very cool. No excuse not to be working on that one. And then there is my Archive of Indecision. Some potentially great stuff in there including two for my Tits series, and Feng Shui Mishap No.23 with a beautiful oriental ginger jar and my favorite orange paper that looks like silk. Used as a dot on The Atomist (Study No.2) above where the intensity of the orange has been diminished somewhat by the purple behind it.

I'm Not There Yet

Last night I started watching the second of my new DVDs: "I'm not There." I wanted to view this mainly because I had heard about Cate Blanchett's eerie performance as Bob Dylan. I didn't know that so many other actors also portrayed Dylan in this film. The music was great, and it was interesting to travel back to the '60's and early '70's of my youth. But I was too tired to get more than half way through so I will reserve my final opinion for a later date. The film was a New York Times Critic's Pick and Wikipedia provides an in-depth article on Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) if you want to reminisce about his songs and artistic achievements. I wish I still had a turntable!

...(one day later) Cate Blanchett is absolutely amazing. I'm starting to think that this is a really great movie although I still haven't seen it through to the end. It's a collage, really... of charachers, of images. Director Todd Haynes also did Far From Heaven starring Julianne Moore (who also plays a friend of Dylan) and if you want to digress, here's an ArtForum article that I found interesting. It discusses the director's use of color in Far From Heaven, and his skill is very evident in I'm Not There... like watching old news clips and looking at color-shifted photos from the 60's.

The Artist and Her Cat

Here I am dressed in dots with my surrogate cat. It is one of those awful fakes made of rabbit fur adorned with little pink felt ears. Back then I was denied a real one so I made do. Today I share my life with two wonderful live ones: Miss Pearl (age 12) and Mica (age 5). Last night I was talking with a new friend about cats and their energy and I tried to describe the painting by surrealist Remedios Varo (couldn't for the life of me recall her name!) called "Sympathy." I'd like to paint my own version of Varo's work (originally titled "The Madness of the Cat") picturing myself and Mica. A few years back, I did a collage of my grandmother Blanche and her cat Mickey (shown below). Poor cat probably hated me as a young child. I was always trying to get him to sit on my lap! For more about Varo, Into the Mystic - Surrealist Painter Remedios Varo is a lengthy article, originally published in the April 2001 issue of Art in America, that you can read online. And I recommend the book "Remedios Varo: Unexpected Journeys" by Janet A Kaplan for an in-depth story of her live and art. The illustrations are fantastic!

Movie Time

I live in a small town, miles from any movie theater. (My house is down in a swampy valley just about a half mile away on the other side of the hill shown in the the picture above.) Also, I don't have a television. So, what do I do for entertainment, you might wonder. Watch DVD's! And I just got five new ones in the mail this afternoon: The Rape of Europa; Kurt Schwitters; I'm Not There; Crimes of the Heart; and Issue 6 of Indie Arts: The DVD Magazine. So this will be short... I'm off to the movies!

...(one day later) The one I picked to watch last night was the only one of the bunch that I have seen before: Crimes of the Heart. Diane Keaton, Sissy Spacek and Jessica Lange are the Magrath sisters. Based on a Pulitzer Prize play by Beth Henley, the dialog is riveting, tragic and hilarious. Love the architectural details of their victorian southern house. I most identified with the oldest sister, Lenny (played by Diane Keaton). Must be her wardrobe which could have come straight from my closet!

Feng Shui Mishaps at the Library

Two of my latest pieces, both combinations of collage and acrylic painting, are part of "The Art Group" show now through December 5th at the Gafney Library. They are spin-offs (I'm not sure if I actually like that term) of one of my earliest collages, "Feng Shui Mishap No. 20" . The first, "Feng Shui Mishap No. 665" (8x10 inches) is pictured above. It was done more or less as a study. I figured I'd start with a little corner first, and if that worked out OK, I'd go for the whole thing.

The second piece (16x20 inches) is called "Avaricious Transgressor (Feng Shui Mishap No. 666)". I have to admit that I surprised myself with this one, and although that big red cross in the middle started feeling like a big mistake, by the time I finished I was glad I kept it there. I went slowly, learned a lot in the process, and even managed to sneak in a few dots!