Two Left-Over Pieces on a Background

Under the Dome 2

untitled

From my archives.

THEME:2 or 3 pieces

2 or 3 pieces of paper—no more, no less. Subject of collage wide open.

His Appearance Is So Highly Respectable

Another Off The Production Line

Cuddle Up

Sorry, y'all...

My mother just died, down in Texas. So I have to take off for Texas soon, and I won't be able to do the July themes. Can someone else volunteer, please?

(I will have a theme ready tomorrow, the 30th.)

The Wilderness

Call for a Giraffe

Alphabetical Gymnastic - An Absurd Memory Game

And here you can see them all together:

Closet Cove

I was going to call it "Sea Closet" but then I thought "Closet Cove" was more suitable. The painting is an oil on canvas by George Bellows entitled "The Sea" 1911.

Playing With Our Little Boats

Winter Garden

if it isn't one thing, it's another

I'm pretty much back on my feet—not a whole lot of time spent vertical, but a few minutes here, few minutes there. I'm definitely going to dig into making new art in this theme! In the meantime, here's a silly one from my archives.

Josephine has the original of this. That gives me no end of pleasure, knowing that it lives now in Holland. =smile=

Flat Screen TV

Target Practice

THEME : non sequiturs

non sequitur = does not follow

Collage elements with no relation whatsoever to each other. Visual nonsense. Maybe the nonsense is funny. Maybe it's creepy. But mostly: it makes no sense.

Have fun! Be weird! Remember the words of le Comte de Lautréamont  "...as beautiful as the chance encounter of a sewing-machine and an umbrella on a dissecting-table."

The Butterfly Collector

Obsessed with Bubble Play

Girl and bubbles from a piece of antique sheet music "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles". Jumping Fox Terrier from a vintage Time/Life book about domesticated animals. All pasted down on a found photograph.

Laser Lies

diatom collector has a disconcerting dream

 

One from the archives... I'm afraid I'm having a rough time with my legs this week, so I can't get upstairs to my studio. Don't worry, it's just part of "two steps forward, one step back."

Rick Astley Spotting

Portrait of a Sock Monkey Enthusiast

Yard Sale

"One sherry for me please"

Hanging out with the girls on a tea/coffee break .... gossiping around about politics, knitting and embroidery ... to name a few of my interests ;))

This is a mail art card I just recently made and that's a real hobby: making nonsense collages.

THEME: Hobbies / Interests / Obsessions

Different Ways To Travel

One from the archives.

Pizarro Discovers Milton Keynes

This won't mean much to our American friends but Milton Keynes is a fabled "new town" that was built in the 60's like so many others on green belt land to meet the demands of growing population and housing shortage after World War 2.

'Auf Wiedersehen'

That's me on my daily meditation 'journey', diving into the great unknown woodlands, always accompanied by a few of my beauty cases and the little Schnauzer.

home stomping ground

This collage is autobiographical: the journey depicted, from Los Fresnos, Texas, around the Laguna Atascosa ("lah-GOO-nuh ah-tahs-KOH-suh"), and back again, actually happened, In late February, 2005, my husband and I drove down from Houston, stayed in a little motel in Los Fresnos, and spent several days exploring, observing plants & wildlife, and soaking up the atmosphere of this beautiful area, the southernmost tip of Texas. The weather was fabulous: clear blue skies, bright sun, and temperature around 70 degrees F. (21 degrees C.). We went to a number of places, including the Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge—which isn't on this road map published in 1948, 'cause the refuge didn't exist yet.

To get you oriented: the Gulf of Mexico is to the east, on the righthand side of the map, the snaky blue line at the bottom is the Rio Grande, and the blank area underneath it is Mexico.

We saw lots of different species: the five in this collage are particular favorites of mine. Starting in the upper left and going counter-clockwise, you're looking at
(1) Spanish dagger (AKA trecul yucca)
(2) green jay (bright green on its back & tail)
(3) chacalaca (named for its loud repeating call at dawn and dusk: "CHOCK-uh-LOCK-uh")
(4) javelina ("hah-vuh-LEE-nuh") (AKA collared peccary; a small wild pig)
(5) aplomado ("ah-ploh-MAH-doh") falcon (once prevalent throughout Texas and nearby states, then it was wiped out; now, through the efforts of people from the Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge, who brought eggs up from Mexico and re-introduced it, it's rebounding)

The aplomado falcon is a gorgeous bird from all angles: the photo doesn't really do it justice. See those black-and-white bars inside its wing? When it takes flight, you see those striking bars all over the feathers of its wings and tail.

I grew up in Houston, and spent a lot of time all up and down the Gulf Coast of Texas. So this is indeed my home stomping ground. =smile=

Time Travel!

The Great Age of Dinosaurs

Meandering River Dance

I just can't quit cutting up my small book of the ballet! Background is a watery highway -- a tributary of the Amazon River. Head of woman which I thought blended well with the landscape is a portion of John Paul Jones (1924-1999) charcoal & pastel entitled "Head" 1960.

Explorers ATC's

THEME: A Journey

A journey can be in space, or in time, or both. A journey is simply Point A to Point B.

Your collage can be about the whole journey, or just a few moments of it.

Or a portrait of a traveler, or more than one traveler.

Or a map of a journey.

Have fun, my fellow wanderers! Remember the words of  J.R.R. Tolkien: "Not all those who wander are lost."

Sillier Aces

A frame within a frame within a frame.....

Away To Hell

Fairy Dance

Took me a bit of time to find the pamphlet entitled "Priscilla Netting Book" 1923 which was published by Needlecraft Publishing Company, Augusta, Maine. Nice frame, eh?

Movifoul Eye

dancing for dionysus

Dancing man from a marble relief showing a celebration for Dionysus, the god of wine (ca. 1st century A.D.) Colorful background from Pepin gift wrapping book: "Psychedelic."

gulf coast landscape

The water oaks with Spanish moss inside the frame were photographed in the Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge in far southern coastal Texas.

You've Been Framed!

A Frame of [Lying] Words, Perhaps...

It's Easier...

A Vile Vile Skin Oil

almost blessed

From my archives: this is approach #1 (see below)—a "simple" frame.

I almost feel blessed these days, just as the hand in the image is almost in a position of blessing. I'm still going through kind of a dark time, but the light streaming from the exit is getting brighter every week.

Cross-sectioned cadaver hand is from the Atlas of Topographic Anatomy (1911) by the flamboyant & controversial French surgeon Eugène-Louis Doyen. Large postage stamp (astronaut) is from Dubai. Smaller artistamp (boy) is by C.T. Chew.

THEME: Put a Frame Around It

This is a technique I sometimes use: I'd like to do it more often. When I say "frame," I'm not talking about a narrow decorative border, but rather a significant part of the collage. Yet it's impossible to define how wide or what shape the frame should be, because both collages & frames come in all sizes & shapes. They definitely don't have to be rectangular!

Please humor me while I spell out a few different kinds of frames made of paper. (1) One is simple, as in an image (I used photos, here & above) of a frame one might use if the collage were hung on a wall: here's an example. (2) Another is more complex, actually another collage: here's an example where the collaged frame has spooky faces to go with the spooky content of the collage itself. (3) And a frame can even float just inside the outer edge of the collage, as in this one.

Note: a frame that's a collage itself doesn't have to relate, in content or form, to the inner collage. It can be any kind of "extra" collage at all (like #3 above).

I hope this will be fun to do, and maybe a bit of a challenge... =smile=