More Little Collages

Making problems only to create solutions...

This doesn't look like much, does it?  Art in process is often boring to observers.  I make art because I am trying to figure things out.  I make problems for myself on the page and then create solutions.  Sometimes.

Sometimes, I make things simply to shock (not to often anymore) and sometimes I make art to watch the paint dry.  Sometimes.

Those things up in the photo are the raw material for collage postcards.  As soon as they dry, they will be trimmed to the size of the index card, flipped over to the text side and I will add elements to the page.  Simple.

Usually, I make the little collages for play...for shits and giggles.  That is their prime purpose: to entertain me. Truthfully, though cutting out images and playing around helps me think about the problems I create for myself on my larger, more "serious" paintings.

The secondary purpose of the little collages is to send them out in the Snail Mail Event.  This is a lovely little way to send art (mail) out to folks, receive mail and perhaps build a little art collection.  Also, it supports the USPS which I personally think is a very cool thing.

Finally, the creator of the Snail Mail Event, The Actor of Random Art, will be at the Five River Arts Alliance Arts and Science Festival on September 9 (Sunday) to host a table on creating recycled collage postcards.  In addition to our gig, there will be lots of other art, music, maybe food and hopefully fun.  Oh and there will be SCIENCE...art AND science.

Would you like a postcard?  Comment below, send your address deets to bridget3000(at)live(dot)com, and maybe share this blog with someone you like.

Thanks.

This happy child collage will fly off to someone else tomorrow...



8 little collages drying on the board...

Fox boy  

My Flamboyant Dog and Cross-eyed Cat

Jackal (Work in Progress)

Phyllis Diller was on Scooby-doo?

Phyllis Diller

I think Phyllis Diller was on Scooby-Doo in the 1970s.  I think that is where I remember her from.  She was funny and made everyone laugh not just the men and not just the women and not just Scooby and Shaggy.  Everybody got her.

Yeah, she made fun of people but she made fun of herself making fun of them.  She was flamboyant and over the top.

My Aunt Kitty used to come and watch me sometimes when I was over at my grandmother's (her sister).  Aunt Kitty smoked and drank and cursed.  As a child she scared me.  She lived alone in Philadelphia and she said she liked it.  I used to think that she knew all the people on the television because she would say that she loved so and so in a very familiar fashion...and she was so old just as old as the black and white movies that she made me sit through.  She hated Shirley Temple- called her a brat.

All these things about Aunt Kitty scared me as a little child.  Aunt Kitty and I think had I not first seen Phyllis Diller consciously as a cartoon character, the same could be said.  Both women took life on their own terms and refused to be defined as a woman by a man.  I wish I understood that about Aunt Kitty.  I also wish she didn't smoke so much.  Although because she smoked her gruff laughter is stuck in my head 30 years after her death.  Just like we will always her Ms. Diller laughing at her own stories.

Embellishing my Uterus: The Uterus Flag Project

My flag waiting for me to work on it...

Social Media and Networking can be a good thing...Such is the case with this link to the Uterus Flag Project.  I can't remember which spool of thread I unraveled in order to find my way to Terrilyn's project but I glad I followed it.  

I love the United States Postal Service...I'll plug the Snail Mail Event later...

Terrilyn writes: "I chose the symbol of a flag, thinking of Tibetan prayer flags, and the way they carry messages and prayers on the wind." 

Opting in to this project is as simple as sending Terrilyn a message asking to join.  Then she sends a beautiful little package.  The package contains a shear piece of cloth with a uterus painted on it.  She also encloses a bunch of thread which serves as merely a suggestion.  Terrilyn states that :

The Uterus Project is a profound body of work that allows me to share my creativity and my social concerns regarding the overmedicalization of women and include others in the art process...My mission is educating through the power of art integrating the ideals of feminism to change the consciousness about women's health.

Terrilyn includes simple embroidery techniques in her package and some gentle encouragement. Simply put the flag can be embellished as the artist chooses.  All genders are invited to participate.  

And today on the 92nd anniversary of the passing of the 19th Amendment which granted women the right to vote, I think thinking about healthy, educated and happy uterii is a good way to celebrate. (In addition to exercising one's right to vote by electing folks who will work for the good of the WHOLE community, who are inclusive, and who recognize that differences of opinion are part of a healthy democracy.) 

My flag in the embroidery hoop.

Green Spiral Ovary bead surrounded by red and amber beads with green and red thread...

Beads hoping to be sewn into my flag.

My flag almost done...

Beginning and Completion

Walking Cage (WIP)
currently (as of August 11, 2012) graphite and watercolor on paper
Dimensions: 22" x 30"

Gas Baby (almost done...I think)
watercolor, acrylic, wax crayon, collage on paper
Dimensions: 30" x 44"

Fun with Manduca Sexta

Having Tobacco Hornworms on your plants is the pits.

But sometimes they like to pretend to wear dresses...

And do a little community theater.

Things got a bit strange at the cast party...

and that "tomato" was not what the critter expected.

More of these images can be viewed here as we made the whole photo conversation into a blurb book.