sketch-age

I have been working on my sketchbook for the Sketchbook Library project for the Art House coop. I know - if you go to that link - you will see some sketchbooks that make mine look lame. But, I really like mine. So much so, I don't know if I want to send it in - when the time comes. I had such a good time working on it. I have been collecting things for a while - things that I find interesting visually and conceptually. I have been somewhat inhibited about putting them to use. But, today - it just flowed. Here are three of the spreads I like. There are detail shots. I could post them if anyone is interested.

Chain of Paper Dolls

Today, I decided to attach the dolls by their hands. Duh! That's pretty obvious. Not that I did it, but that I should have thought of it sooner. Now, I have a million ideas about how to dress them. But, I think....she wants to be a geisha. I feel like she is leading me - I think that is how novelists feel - like the characters are really telling them what will happen next.

Today's work

These LBJ collages are not what I set out to do at the studio today. I had other work I planned to work on. But, for some reason, I find it irresistible to stick Little Betty Jane onto whatever - mostly religious imagery. You can see here that she is moving on to being an equal opportunity blasphemer.




I like the cup. It is a postcard from my trip to London. Zurburan's "Cup of Water and a Rose." LBJ is coming through a slit in the card. Then I collaged on some black hair, eybrows, eyes, nose, mouth.
This is probably not completed. I don't know what else will happen - but something.

Really Weird Thing

I'm working in the studio today - this morning - I am home now writing this while I should be preparing my classes (which start next week - yike!). Anyway, I'm working away and I suddenly think - this is a really weird thing I am making. What is it? Is it a collage, an assemblage, appropriated nonsense? I really don't know. Somehow I don't stop making it - I go along. Here is the piece that inspired such thinking. It is a collage with a collagraph print of Little Betty Jane on a page from an art history book - an image of the Madonna and Child - Betty Jane is now in the position of the child. Then I put it on corrugated cardboard and starting making these tree and leave forms around it and then I added some praying monks and lastly there are two angles who will be down on the grass- one strumming an instrument, one picking flowers. The monks and angels are not yet completed. The first image is a bit blurry, but you kind of get the idea.

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.