And then the fireman rushes in...

Pheremonal Sorcery

inflammatory art by Bob May

Flaming Mamie

Welcome to Recombiner (Bob May ) who joins us today. Hopefully he'll be able to figure out how to upload his own collages soon.

Fire Magazine

The Fire of Love

                                                                   "Love is friendship that has caught fire."
                                                                                        Ann Landers (1918-2002)

Combination of 3 vintage magazine illustrations.  The glowing fire lights were part of an ad for "Afta (by Mennen) Can't Burn" - the first creamy after shave.  The fireman was part of an ad for Duracell batteries.  And the couple "in love" was for Clorets breath mints (of course)!

The road to hell is paved with works in progress.

I always loved the phrase "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." but the above title by Philip Roth is even better and a great one for collage artists!

Even more ironic, this was a work in progress for the past 2 months.

the hazards of sunbathing

Background from a Scientific American diagram comparing the atmosphere of Titan, one of Jupiter's moons, in brown, to that of Earth, in blue. The text for Titan's atmosphere includes "thick photochemical haze" & "methane"--yuk! Sunbather is from Carlos Perez Siquier's "Muñeca, 1974/2007." Devils are from an illustration by Yue Minjun.

theme of the week: FIRE

Last in the series of classical elements is fire--which, once again, you can interpret literally or metaphorically. Fire is heat and flames and burning fuel, of course--also the sun. Fire is traditionally associated with the qualities of energy, assertiveness, and passion. Some more of the metaphorical meanings of fire are discussed here and here.

Thanks for humoring me during this exploration of the four elements. =smile= Next month, our themes will be hosted by the illustrious Vivienne Strauss.

Second Flight

Focus on the horizon

I couldn't decide on the above title or Horizontal Focus

nude woman from vintage camera magazine (turned sidewise) camera lenses and arm from contemporary magazine.

Love Is In The Air

Inspired by the quote:

"People happy in love have an air of intensity"
                 Stendhal, French (1783-1842)

I found a 1957 Fedders air conditioner advertisement and a 1949 ad for Barbasol shaving cream featuring two intense lovers on a beach.'

And this is my collage for the theme AIR.

Flying Tonight

good mail day

The classical element of air is traditionally associated with the mind and nervous system, so I went for a parachute dropping a letter straight into the mind of a French gentleman, as dissected by 19th century surgeon J. B. M. Bourgery. (Lithograph by N. H. Jacob.) In response to his mail, this man speaks the Sanskrit word for inner peace or mental tranquility, pronounced "SHAHN-tee." Background is a topo map of the Black Hills National Forest in South Dakota: a map is also an illustration of air energy, because it's a mental construct about a physical space.

Flying Chickens

theme of the week: AIR

Air manifests, of course, in wind and weather, and in our lungs that bring oxygen to the blood. Air is the classical element associated with the mind, with pure ideas. A couple of write-ups on air energy are here and here. Have fun!

Summer Strike

Performance Platform

Bert And The Penguins

Perils With Pauline By The Pond

Floating

Save The Seahorse!

Seahorses are vulnerable to extinction.

Seahorses are threatened by harvesting (for use in aquariums or Asian medicine), habitat destruction, and pollution. Because they are hard to find in the wild, population sizes may not be well-known for many species.  Some ways you can help seahorses are not purchasing souvenir seahorses, not using seahorses in your aquarium, support seahorse conservation programs, and avoid polluting water by not using chemicals on your lawn and by using eco-friendly household cleaners.

Source:
http://marinelife.about.com/od/invertebrates/tp/10-Facts-About-Seahorses.htm

sweet lips

On the left is a cuckoo wrasse: males of this species are blue and orange, while females are pink. Some females change color and become males. On the right is a harlequin sweetlips: the color and movement of the juvenile mimics a toxic flatworm. Both of these fishes are evidently very cuddly.

Moments Before Delores Realized Her Boogie Board Had Been Grabbed by A Giant Squid She Imagined What Shipwrecked Sailors Thought As They Were About To Enter Davy Jones' Locker

Water = life and fun and adventure for some.  Water = death and destruction for others.

Furniture Moving In The Jungle

An old collage from a couple of years ago. I can't remember if I ever posted it on Scrapiteria.

theme of the week: WATER

Just as with Earth, feel free to interpret this theme either literally or figuratively. Water manifests, of course, as streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans—and all the creatures that dwell in them. Water is also traditionally linked to human emotions—passion, anger, joy, agony, ecstasy, melancholy, and so on.

Paul Shows Off His Bumper Crop After Reading "How To Grow a Veggie Garden in a Hostile Environment"

Ah the bounty produced by God's Good Earth!

Color photograph from a 1944 Vaughan's Seed Catalog.  Sepia background photograph from a 1958 book of Czechoslovakian landscapes.

Take Me To Your Leader

Green Man

Good themes Fi. This'll be my last collage for a week or two so I may miss a couple. I'm off for a holiday break up to the Scottish Highlands where it indeed is very green.

Earth Junk

bones of the forest

It's hard to get any earthier than bones--in the human body, at least. I think the scapula (shoulder blade) is one of the most beautiful human bones: featured are four different views of the right scapula of an adult, plus a scapula and clavicle of a newborn (5:00 and 10:00)--on a backdrop of trees, wood, leather, and more human bones. The title comes from my notion that tree trunks are the bones of the forest.

theme of the week: EARTH

I'll be doing the themes for a few weeks, so I thought it would be fun to explore the four classical elements. Listing them in order from most physical to most ethereal, they are earth, water, air, and fire--corresponding to the human spheres of the body, the heart (emotions), the mind, and the soul.

Feel free to interpret this week's theme either literally or figuratively. Earth is a planet, earth is dirt & rocks, earth is the network of physical beings that inhabit the planet...and it also has various meanings depending on which culture you choose.

Rare Glimpse of Mother Nature's Son Helping with The Spring Color

Found the image of the painter in an ad for Valentine's VALSPAR Varnish-Stain (The Delineator Magazine, May 1924) .  Page from a vintage book on garden flowers.

Terrible Puns Of All Time No. 564 - The Rail Weigh Station

How Things Work

W.O.R.K.N.O

victorian surgeon removing a rare "decorative loveseat" tumor

That thing's gonna fall on the floor, and they'll rag on the medical student for not catching it. I know this: I have been a medical student.