Fun Ways With Furniture.

Tambour Horizon. Your journey, connected.

white strings black beads gold stuff

White strings from sculpture by Naum Gabo.

Grandma Photo Bombs

A photo bomber is someone who either intentionally or unintentionally ruins an otherwise normal photo.

Background is a scene in a park circa late 1890s. Grandma is a found photograph.

just two pieces

Another from my archives. I admit to a certain affection for this one from 2010 because it was the first ever collage postcard I made with just two pieces of paper. (It didn't have a title.) It was one of my early collages that got me a reputation for making "simple" art.

The background is from a calendar on color in Mexican architecture. The snake was in a catalog from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

shades

Background from a 2015 painting by Lisa Alvarado. Bronze man from a 1969 sculpture by Dame Elisabeth Frink.

Why did I cut off the right and left edges of the sculpture? To keep it under six inches wide, so I can send it out as a U.S. first-class postcard. Mail art!

anatomical moonbathing & 300 million years ago

A couple of "just two pieces" from my own archives... =smile=

Goddesses

Terra -cotta figurine of Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love and beauty and Andy Warhol's Elizabeth Taylor.

Three from the Archives -- examples of how you can change the feel of the original image with just one additional piece

Musical Shed

Another from the archive. Just back from a lovely week in la belle France, staying with old chums. Hope to be getting back into some collaging soon.

THEME: A Collage Created with Two Pieces of Paper

I am sort of a minimalist when it comes to making collages. I usually limit myself to no more than 5 elements.

This week I thought it would be a challenge to try to make an interesting collage using only 2 pieces of paper.

Have fun being inventive by combining a background + ?

Think: abstract.
Think: stating a fact.
Think: embellishing/decorating

ALSO, this is the end of my month of theme picking. Anyone up to the challenge in August?

Om...

Just goes to show, how the idea of the finished artwork, and the actual result, are always completely different, at least round our house...

I was going for a calm, meditative feel to this, having found/re-pieced the word "om" from a selection of ripped-down disused billboard posters, liberated this Sunday afternoon with my friends D and H, and the help of a stepladder from the shed and a Stanley knife...

I suppose if you use source materials ripped-down quickly, the effect isn't really going to be that meditative, but there you go.... so, it doesn't really look that much like a landscape, but it does have mountains and sky, and some of the rips and tears are quite nice.

And the ink splots that the meditating woman and her reflection are sitting on, are... ink splots! And the funny lighthouse thing is from a leaflet, and everything else is little scraps from the billboard poster fragments. Phew!

Growing Memories

5 flower cuts from a gardening book added to a beautiful Maxfield Parrish like photo. With the addition of a woman reflecting back on her childhood.

monsters in the mud

My husband, Bob, doesn't get enough credit for the fun titles he comes up with. This is one of them. =smile=

THEME: Landscape Ideas/Design

Create a landscape from at least seven (or more) different elements. The sky and the ground can count as two, unless you are using an existing sky/ground that you will be adding to, then that will be one. Have fun!

fish in the city

 

Cityscape by Olivo Barbieri.

Thrush Feeding Young

A quick one whilst the cooler weather is here.

Swimming with the Fishes

Last collage for a couple of weeks, off on a break to the Highlands. Sea you soon!

Admiring the Local Catch

Two hand-colored photos plus a clipping (lower right) from a vintage magazine.

Flood

Another from the archive. Too hot to make anything meaningful. Busy with sorting archives. Phew!

lesson in fish anatomy

There are two main types of fish: cartilaginous fish and bony fish. This pinfish is a bony fish. Sharks & rays, by contrast, are cartilaginous fish.

Image of fish was made by coloring a rubber stamp with markers, then stamping it on white paper. This rubber stamp was made by Fred B. Mullett, who sells an extraordinary number of highly realistic images of ocean creatures & plants, all printed with the Japanese gyotaku technique. Fred says his cats are the best-fed in the country, because he uses nontoxic inks and gives all his leftover fish to his cats.

zowie!

From my recent archives: made in April 2018.

altered children's book about fish: rays pp. 1-2

A number of years ago I collaborated with several other mail artists in decorating a children's book about fish. I was hoping to be assigned the pages on sharks--oh well. But I didn't do so bad: I got the pages on rays and remoras. The only rule about this project is that we weren't allowed to cover up any of the original text and images of the book. This spread is the first two of my pages--it uses collaged text (made w/ an antique typewriter) of a true autobiographical story, collaged fragments torn from a U.S. Army publication (1945) about creatures of the Pacific Ocean, a finepoint marker, and rubber stamps.

Denizens Of The Deep

Fishy bits from a photo of a necklace owned by Frida Kahlo.
Background is printer paper, with added coffee grounds, Fairy Liquid and olive oil, accidentally left out in the rain earlier in the week, then washed over with Dr.Ph.Martin's ink, then spray-varnished!
Not quite dry yet, despite having been left overnight, and then all of this morning in the sun...

spots on sharks

From top to bottom these are the Necklace Carpetshark, Swellshark, California Hornshark, Zebra Shark, Leopard Shark, Whale Shark, and the heads of the Whale Shark and Smallspotted Catshark. They're not to scale: most of these fish are really small. But of course the Whale Shark is huge—the biggest fish in the ocean.

silvery objects with boxfish

From my recent archives: I made this one in July 2017.

pygoplites diacanthus

From my recent archives: I made this one in May 2018. The red lines are acrylic paint that I added.

Pygoplites diacanthus is the scientific name of the Royal Empress Angelfish, whose distribution is the tropical Indo-Pacific Ocean, from Red Sea and East Africa to the Tuamoto Islands, north to the Ryukyu Islands, and south to the Great Barrier Reef. This fish inhabits coral reefs and associated coral-rich lagoons. It eats sponges, sea squirts, and similar animals. It's 25 cm (10") long.

odalisque with fish

Nude from a painting (1740) by François Boucher. Background is Cavallini decorative paper.

Pourquoi une femme nue? Pourquoi les poissons?

Parce que j'adore les odalisques! Parce que j'adore les poissons!

Fishy Plaice

Another from the archive.

A Good Catch

Background & text taken from a book entitled 

Designers Guide to Japanese Patterns.

This pattern was produced during the Japan Edo Period (1603-1868).

THEME: Something FISHY going on here!

This theme relates to all matters piscine.

Ready for Action, Smooth Sea Captain?

Wish You Were Here

Thanks to Paul Gauguin for the Tahitian landscape (watercolor).

Endless Summer

Bringing A Little Sunshine Into Your Lives

One from the archives. Still too hot to get into my workroom - busy sorting mail art archive in the relative coolness of the downstairs.

Cooling Off in the Deep Blue Sea

Thanks to Paul Klee for the fab background!

Typical English Summer

One from the archive. Too hot to collage at the moment - in the middle of a heat wave! Hopefully it will cool down at weekend so I can make something new.

THEME: In the Good Old Summertime

It has been HOT as blazes here, on and off. I think summer is upon us. Have fun!!

Down the Pub