Random Acts of Kindness

Vintage postcard from Rock City, with collage elements from a school science text and National Geographic.  I visited the Fairyland Gardens with my grandparents in about 1961.

Part of a larger collage cut into postcard size, including maps, vintage ad, wallpaper, text and personal photos from long-ago summer vacations to New York and Tarpon Springs.

Recently several friends have given me gifts of old magazines, calendars, and printed material from foreign countries, all because I've been fascinated with cutting and pasting.  I have fashion catalogs, travel brochures, golf calendars, vintage Post, Life, and National Geographic magazines, and a couple of French newspapers.    This is in addition to the old postcards and children's books I've bought for pennies from my friendly consignment shop.  The challenge is starting to be how to organize, store, and easily access the material.  I have oversized manilla envelopes in hanging files stored in a plastic milk crate, but it will soon be too heavy to lift easily.  

These two little postcards are examples of different ways I've been experimenting.  The top card adds completely unrelated elements to an old linen postcard.  This one is of a place I've actually visited, though often I choose old black and white cards whose subjects, such a relatively empty street scenes, have room to add other elements.  This time I added a figure from a Mexican mural and the painter.  The bottom card is very different, and perhaps not so effective.  I did a larger random sort of collage for a workshop last fall, and while the large collage didn't appeal to me, when I cut it into postcard or bookmark sized pieces, I liked the challenge of working with the little bits.  It doesn't show very well, but after I glaze over the whole image with either diluted burnt sienna or burnt umber acrylic to tie the elements together and age the image, I add touches of gold leaf.  The sparkle of the gold draws the eye immediately.

At any rate, I'll send these cards as thank you notes.  I just wish the postal service had postcard stamps with something beside tropical fruit.