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Week thirty-seven, March 27, 2009
original 8 1/2 x 11"
Words and image make a powerful connection for me. I've been dealing with the relationship between word and image since my thesis show in 1997. In english there are so many stock phrases, cliche, that have reached an entirely new level of meaning in our language. Such that when someone uses the cliche, "let them eat cake"! It summons up something far more than Betty Crocker. Although that good woman, along with Duncan HInes, the Pillsbury Dough Boy, and Marie Antoinette flash in a very vivid way through my mind when i hear that phrase. Four and Twenty Blackbirds... baked in a pie, an old nursery rhyme sprang into my mind when i discovered the piece of pie crust that serves as a dome for the building in this piece. With the little boy's faces serving in lieu of the blackbirds. Yum yum | | Dialogue with Mr. Ed
Week thirty-eight, April 6, 2009
original 8 1/2 x 11"
I bought a bunch of new books last week, the bibliophile half of me shudders that i buy more books to cut up these days than read. but, hey, small sacrifices for art, hmm. Anyway, this smiling, ever so human horse face jumped out and said use me. The original idea was for some technology based hydra headed monster; you know some b-movie, radiation experiment gone horribly astray. But, it just would not work. Well, maybe it did. Who's to say that a talking horse, ya well.... | | Bathing in Mother's Love
Week thirty-nine, April 15, 2009
original 8 1/2 x 11"
I have discovered that there are images that i keep coming back to over and over. Hands, eyes, books, all symbols that i find very powerful. I have also discovered, somewhat surprisingly that religious art has been enormously useful throughout this process. | |  | |  | |  | Breakfast at the General's
Week forty, April 25, 2009
original 8 1/2 x 11"
This is the first time that i have been completely stymied when it came to the title of this piece. I almost always work from an idea, or the first few pieces that i choose push the collage into a specific direction. Not this time. | | Homage to Tippy # 2, You Can't Make..
Week forty-one, April 28, 2009
original 8 1/2 x 11"
Unlike the last piece i did, as soon as i found the two birds on the branch, i knew exactly what i was going to do. hee-hee. | | Quality Time,
Week forty-two May 2, 2009
original 8 1/2 x 11"
It was with "Secrets", part of the winter weeks, that i discovered how much fun it was to work with buildings and their elements. Also "Secrets" is where i start to see a decided change in my overall design style; where i become less interested in enclosing space and more interested in monumental, monolithic space. | |  | |  | |  | Reading the book of Time,
Week forty-three May 10, 2009
original 8 1/2 x 11
I framed the first of the series this past week, having sold it. The piece is hanging on my wall, prior to be shipped out of state. Matting the first of these really brought a whole new level of understanding and excitement. Wow! Its ART! It's not just a piece os paper anymore. I can't wait to see the whole series up in the gallery | | The Forge of Woman's Heart
Week forty-four May 15, 2009
original 8 1/2 x 11
I suddenly realized that i have never discussed my working process. I never glue anything down until i am convinced that the composition is complete. The image process is always a meditation; a random perusal of imagery, restless leaving through books until something grabs me. Alright, i've got the first part. Now its on to finding the other elements that will create both a pleasing visual image, as well as evoke an emotion or tell a fragment of a story. A lot of them come together almost effortlessly; gelling in a few hours. Others stubbornly resist completion. Resulting momentarily in what feels like an amputation; albeit, one that is almost always for the best. | | Beat Until Smooth
Week forty-five May 18, 2009
original 8 1/2 x 11
You know the feeling of dismay when you realize that the things you thought were so ugly when you were a teenager, (how could your mother find whatever it was attractive), have a weird sort of appeal to you now. i enjoy the contradictions that develop when i use imagery from the 1950's together with art historical references. | |  | |  | |  | Indecent Exposure
Week forty-six, May 22, 2009
original 8 1/2 x 11
I've been waiting for a couple of months, at least to use the images of the wrongly exposed girl's face. I knew that they were something that i had to use in the same collage. But for the life of me did not know how it was going to work. Last weekend i made a major score at the local Goodwill. This image attracted my attention on several levels. First, as an extremely interesting image in and of itself. Northern European Renaissance, but, wow, the subject matter and the framing. Oh so different from what i would expect. The four divisions of the upper window simply screamed, use me. So i did. | | Processional From the Good Book,
Week forty-seven, May 25, 2009
original 8 1/2 x 11
The weeks have gotten shorter; well it's because i'm done with school for the semester. Like Indecent Exposure this collage contains an image that i've been hoarding. This time for well over a year. The Women's heads, like bottle stoppers in their crisp new collars came from an 1902 Delineator. Got to love those old women's magazines. The paper didn't so much cut as crumble around my scissors. I was listening to an interview with the outgoing head of N.O.W. She was talking about perceived and real issues of gender equality in this generation of young people. It seems that they have a brighter view of gender equality than is warranted. So, like visions of sugar plums dancing in my head, the idea of our position transformed to the actuality of woman's state in the world was born. Well, okay, i was thinking of Boxing Helena as well. | | With a Wink and a Nod
Week forty-eight, May 30, 2009
original 8 1/2 x 11
| |  | |  | |  | Does This Body Make Me Look...
Week forty-nine, June 4, 2009
original 8 1/2 x 11
I've discovered as i near the end of this project that the process becomes both easier, and more difficult at the same time. A couple of things seem to be happening; the initial choices that i make are, or appear to be spontaneous, while the concluding elements of the composition can defy recognition for days. I think that this is the result of a more complete narrative in my head. I spent two solid days looking for just the right window to separate the two bird women. After looking through what seemed to be every single book in my studio i finally settled for the tv. | | Alas....
Week fifty, June 7, 2009
original 8 1/2 x 11
| | Call Me.
Week fifty-one, June 15, 2009
original 8 1/2 x 11
It's hard to believe that i am almost done with this project. As i was walking to the gallery this morning i found myself thinking, what next? I'll admit it, the obsessive compulsive side of me adores these long term projects; they really get the creative juices flowing. So, the question remains, what next? I am pretty tired of the small format of this series, it is very restrictive in so many ways; that was after all the point. Stayed tuned to this channel folks. Oh ya, it's for you. | |  | | | | | Making Myself
Week fifty-two, June 158, 2009
original 8 1/2 x 11
This feels really strange. A little like seeing your child go off to college for the first time; a little lost, wandering around the empty rooms. ya! It is definitely time to clean my studio. My husband and i came to the same conclusion about this last piece at just about the same time; that i should include myself somehow in this last of the series. How Hitchcock. In a sense i am of course in all of them, but i do have a special physical presence in this one. so, it ends as it began, looking into a mirror, looking into myself. | | | | | |
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