The Flight Of The Funzwynkle

Owl Stretching Time

The Jump

24,5 x 13,2 cm

My last piece for thos week/ theme.

The London Poor Being Haunted By The Ghosts Of Old Tories

The Kraken

 

19,5 x 25,8 cm

Untitled Creepiness

Apparently, many of the black and white Ernst pieces come from his 5 volume book, "Une Semaine De Bonte" (A Week of Kindness), 1934. These collages are mysterious, they have no titles, and there is no text.  Here's my moment of untitled creepy kindness.  It's a little scifi, and little anatomy, and a little Dore, in homage to Max.

LEVIGATOR

So this is a page from a book on how to make prints. 

A levigator is a grinder used in the process of stone lithography. 

I found the reaching arm/hand in a 1930s magazine ad for a muscle ointment. 

I covered the text re: use of the levigator with an antique circa 1900s advertisement for a New York photography studio.

Beautiful and Interesting

Guess what...I had to have a look at Max Ernst's work to see what it was all about.  I will admit that I am not a Dada/surrealist expert...other than knowing about one of my favorite artists the surrealist Hannah Hoch.

So...I found the advertisement for The Metropolitan Magazine in a March 1900 issue of Vanity Fair (that I paid $30 for!  --  time to cut it up I guess).  The x-ray hand came from an old science book.  The arrow asking you to "BE SURE TO USE THIS RECIPE" is from a 1930s magazine ad.

She's Thinking About the Pleiades

Let´s dance in the moonlight

14 x 21,3 cm

Sorry, not such a brilliant scan - can´t improve it - what a pity!

Catch Of The Day

Theme of the Week - Homage To Max Ernst

After the Homage to Joseph Cornell I thought it would be nice to move on to another collage hero of mine and I'm sure many of yours too. I was thinking in particular the wonderful black and white collages made from old engravings.  Have fun!

Aviary

#3

It's called #3 because this is only my third attempt at a "shadow box" assemblage.  One other was created for my niece and another some time ago for a friend.

8 x 8 inch frame with glass is from Michael's Arts & Crafts.

Background is an endpaper from an Encyclopedia Britannica.

All of the following elements were attached to the endpaper using double-sided 1/4 inch foam tape, allowing the images to float above the paper:

I have had the lovely antique parakeet & rose scrap in my "to use" box for years.

The Wills's Cigarette Card features singer & actress Eve Becke.  Born 1906 as Agnes Winifred Whaler in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, England.  She died 2001 in London.

The image of the big-bottom lady is from a Taschen book of Nudes.

Lastly to tie it all together a wooden game piece -- much like a Scrabble tile -- #3.

Bankrupt Stock

Dominoes box and some dominoes with cut ups - plus a rubber stamp from my collection.

Fake Rubber Stamp Set

This was a toy wooden calculator I found in a charity shop.  I used to make rubber stamp sets back in the 90's and this reminded me of some of those. I would find images like this and get them made into rubber dies by professional rubber die makers or trace them onto erasers to hand cut myself.  I also like the idea that you could swap them around to make a different designs.

homage to joseph cornell

The things that have always struck me about Joseph Cornell are: boxes within boxes, asymmetry, star charts, circles, spheres, glass objects containing things, and of course, birds. The bird is a Black-Billed Barbet (Lybius guifsobalito), native to East Africa. The upper left box contains 19th century mineral specimens. The lower left is from an educational chart about development of ants: it's an ant in its egg.

A Story Box

So, a couple of months ago I was experimenting at 3D collage, and trying to turn some of my older two-dimension pieces into three dimensional boxes.  Interesting results.  Here's one that started with an old collage called "Clarice, Raised By Crows, Was Ashamed of her Human Face."

Not very much in the tradition of Joseph Cornell, but at least it's some birds in a box...!

Mini Box

17,8 x 17,8 cm

Butterflies Of Britain

Theme of the Week - Life In A Box ( Homage to Joseph Cornell )

I've attempted making boxed assemblages from time to time - none very successful but it might be fun to try another or maybe just a collage in the Joseph Cornell style.  Or maybe just pick a theme he liked , such as Hotels, Birds or Penny Arcades.   Have fun!

Wittgenstein Goes To Glossop

Not really happy with this effort but as I haven't uploaded anything this week this will have to do. My excuse is that I have been busy with sorting and hanging work for a local exhibition ( see Collage News at foot of page ).  I will try harder next week I promise.

this palpitating inward life

This one isn't about the blues—just me playing around with some of the blue pieces I pulled when Michael announced this week's theme.  In an ideal world the big rectangle with the fish wouldn't be tipped: that's what I get for aligning it by eye instead of measuring.

The title is from William James, something that popped into my head while I was working on this. The girl is from a photograph by Jonathan Torgovnik.

Change of latitude

Feeling rather blue, all she needed was a change of latitude.

Blue-Eyed Cyclops

I needed Benicio's eyes for another project, so felt obligated to replace them for him...but he only gets one, I'm afraid.

j'ai le cafard

When the French are depressed, they don't say, "I have the blues." They say, "J'ai le cafard," which means "I have the cockroach." Strange, but true. Don't ask me to explain the origin of the term, because it's way too complicated.

As it happens, I do have the blues. I recently lost a sweet black cat to cancer.

Blue face and hands from a painting by Sarah Joncas. Abandoned sofas and chairs from Bill Keaggy's book, 50 Sad Chairs. Ocean (next to face) by Edward Gorey.

When Cynthia & Her Mom Were Down in the Dumps They Would Go To the Fabric Shop and Spend Hours Stroking Fabric

Now that's a cheery thing to do!  Background from a favorite book to use for collage called "Swatches".  The two fabric strokers cut from some 1950s magazine.

She´s got the blues, too!

27,1 x 20,8 cm

Ok, I think, this should be enough depression for the weekend! Have a nice one :-)

Another Blue Lady

2013 - 25,9 x 24 cm

Bluebird Sisters

(paper and lace fragments)

She´s got the blues

2013 - 33,4 x 22,5 cm

Theme of the Week - The Blues

This could be a musical type of blues or the colour blue or maybe just that sad feeling you get when you can't think of anything for the latest theme!

The Stamp Collector

Got this one in under the wire!  Had fun sorting through hundreds of postage stamps to pick out green ones.  Cannot remember the name of the artist who painted "The Stamp Collector" (not the real name of the portrait).

Car Boot Sale

the flexible fox

A couple of months ago a red fox (Vulpes vulpes) sauntered slowly across my suburban front lawn, as bold as brass. I've been a fan of foxes since I was a little girl, so I decided I'd do some serious research on the subject. As it turns out, the red fox is the most widely distributed carnivore on the planet. They've adapted very well to living near humans, and in fact, it's said that there are more red foxes living today than ever before.

So I thought the red fox would fit in with the green theme. I made this collage to show off its flexibility of habitat: the map strips, going from left to right, are a river/marsh area, agricultural land, a city, hills & prairie, and forest.

The Shower Of Green Stuff

Hazel reminded me of this great bit from an episode of Blackadder.

Birds Of Paradise

This needs a bit more work I think and I may go back to it at some point. Also I couldn't get it all under the scanner so missing the Green Woodpeckers tail amongst other things. Doh!

A Wearing Of The Green

tiny green things

I won't try to tell you what all these things are, and it may baffle you some, because they're all at different scales, but they include seeds, spores, and various photosynthetic organisms. It's not all happy springtime news, though, because the light green spheroids are that famous hospital bad guy: methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (aka "mrsa").

Like most of my collages, it looks better if you click and view it against black.

In the Woods (3)

2013 - 12 x 17 cm

I´m totaly on the Run with the theme....

I Try Again...GREEN Thumb Category

The Children Cultivate White Asparagus

In the Woods (2)

2013 - 17 x 12 cm

In the Woods (1)

2013 - 12 x 17 cm

Embarassing Prom Photos, Emerald City

Green, green, green...a troublesome theme for me...no ideas...feeble attempt...ah, well...

Collection Of Green Things

Theme of the Week - Green

Another broad theme that takes in green issues, recycling and the environment etc. as well as the colour green. Any other interpretations welcome!   Have fun!