Little Betty Jane - Dance

I'm working on videos with Little Betty Jane. She is going to dance. I made a little leotard and shoes in black for her practice session. I made a ballet bar out of corrugated cardboard - my new favorite material. Next, I made a tutu and hairband out of a mesh bag. The fabric is would be a blue voile. This was a little drawstring bag with a sample of night cream. I got this as part of a goodie bag from the Southeby's City Arts Auction. I made the tutu and the hairband out of the bag. The skirt has a drawstring waist - using the blue ribbon drawstring to tie it in the back. I cut off a bit of that ribbon to make her head band. Here she is in tutu.


Here is a little practice video. You can see a few practice moves. It is very basic.

Somthing Different

And now for something completely different. Well, maybe not entirely different. The following collage is made from After All #21 - it's a visual culture magazine. Don't ask me what it means. That question has been troubling me while I am trying to work lately. But, I push it away because thinking about it - will break the spell.


this one is made from things I got a the National Gallery in London. And, it is after a painting of a Woman by Robert Campin. (It just began with that.) You would not be able to tell by looking at it. The large white area is a part of the bag that my postcards were put in - at the cash register.

Been Busy

After visiting the Met and their fabulous collection of medieval art, I made this paper mosaic 'Byzantine' Madonna and Child. It's 3.5 x 2.5 inches - made on an Artist Trading Card. I painted the paper on both sides and just dropped them onto the glue which was put in selected areas. I wound up putting a layer of matte medium on the finished piece because I didn't want the little pieces of paper (layers of them) to fall off.


Architectural elements and bas reliefs from churches I saw in England made me want to try to be more three dimensional. I was having a really hard time trying to figure out how to do that. I decided to use cardboard. I think the collagraphic plate made from cardboard brought that on. The above piece is inspired from a Romanesque relief of the Flight into Egypt. Notice the baby boys being rolled over by the holy chariot.


Here I am adding the tree of Jesse (Mary's royal family tree) to the Madonna and Little Betty Jane collage. I just love corrugated cardboard. But, I think there needed to be more on the collage. It is still a work in progress.

Updating my website

I have been updating my website. I felt like there were too many links on the menu list. I changed them into drop down menus with two categories: gallery and about. I does simplify the layout. I hope it does not make it more difficult for people to get around.

I like this

I printed last night at the RBPW. I made several prints of Little Betty Jane. They were just made from a paper doll that is sealed with gloss medium. I decided to cut the collograph LBJ's out and then I decided to glue them to reproductions from an art history book I found in the laundry room a while ago. I'm really liking these. The next one is the best - I think. But, I think they all work fairly well. Little Betty Jane is hanging around with ....

New Work

I made a webpage with a lot of my newer work. Recently, I felt as though I was not getting much done... but there is more than I thought. There is more than this. I will add some drawings. And, the prints are on their own page of my website.


Now, I'm just tired from doing all this web work :-(

Collographs

I took a workshop in collagraphy at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop. I think this method is a good fit for my work because I can use discarded pieces of painted paper collages as plates. Here are some of the prints I have made either in class or using the press time that came along with my tuition.

"Pears" - these pears are made from 3 pears that I made as an experiment is just how much detail was needed to create the feeling of a pear in painted paper collage. I glued these ppc pears onto a piece of styrene and then scratched in the vertical stripes. In the following plate you can see that I also painted onto the plate with acrylic gloss medium and carborundum a dish with a decorative pattern. This did not show up on the print because the pears were too thick. I plan to rework the plate and try again.



This print is made from a discarded frament of a collage I made back in 2006. I kept the fragment because I just couldn't bear to throw it out. I simply coated it in gloss medium, inked it up and used it as a plate. Here is a detail image.


These flowers were made from some painted paper flowers I had sewn together. I was thinking of making a large cloth-like piece - kind of like a drape out of these flowers but I abandoned the idea. I didn't like it. So, it was just sitting around - without a purpose. Here is a detail image.


This "cup and flower" was made by simply painting a piece of plexiglass with acrylic gloss medium and carborundum.


And, this piec is made of corrugated cardboard with a silhouette glued on top. The lower section I peeled off the upper layer. The bottom part and the silhouette were coated with gloss medium and I left the upper area uncoated allowing it to soak in the ink. Below is the plate.