vintage postcard of Berlin, with collage
Lately I haven't been in a mood to paint or draw much, but rather have been having way too much fun cutting and pasting. It probably started when I read a book this winter on altered art, which led to other books about collage artists, and then on to the Griffin and Sabine trilogy. It isn't only all the reading; I'm also a life-long collector of odds and ends. When I was a child I was interested in the stamps and coins Mother collected, and I had my own collections of shells and rocks and minerals. At other times in my life I have collected other things: milk glass plates, marbles, dolls, pottery, old photos and even vintage post cards. My some of my favorite shopping has always been in thrift shops and antique stores. One of my favorite ways to spend an hour or so is at a local consignment shop called Carousel Consignment, where I can have a cup of black coffee, catch up on local news, and forage for old postcards or paper ephemera. If I'm lucky I my finds are paid for by household goods I've sold at the shop.
I've been playing around with recycled materials too. I have a series of framed pieces made with recycled styrofoam trays melted with spray fixative, and I've been making collages with recycled magazine and vintage book images on scraps of recycled mat board. All of this combined has led to my experimenting with some postcard collages. Many of the things I like come together with these, foraging, vintage imagery, words, recycling and the element of chance. I'd like to mail some out, but I'm not sure what people would make of the strange and dreamlike juxtapositions of images that are appearing on my work table lately.
5 comments:
Sherry, if you liked the Griffin and Sabine books and are interested in altered books, you might like the books of Barbara Hodgson. Her books are filled with maps, tickets, lists, sketches etc that help to tell the story. The Tattooed Map is my favorite, as well as Hippolyte's Island.
What fun! I have always enjoyed collage but haven't worked that way in a very long time.
Cool image--very enigmatic!
I collected rocks all through my youth, heading out alone after school with my bag and hammer. I still pick up rocks wherever I go. (Richard Eberhart wrote a great poem about rocks; I'll search for it and send you a link.)
Used to love going to consignment shops in the Bronx with my aunt; here in NJ there are NO bargains left.
I collect one thing: the happy Buddha.
I loved the Griffin and Sabine books and have them nicely on my bookshelf. You are tempting me into playing in a new media; collage. I recently found a stack of postcards from Europe from a German penpal when I was about 14. Might be fun to start there!
When I first looked at this image, I thought it was a giant rat scampering across the collage. Time to get my eyes checked I guess.
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