On the lookout

My sister and I have a saying...whenever we are going junking..."everybody's lookin' for something different"

This scenario was absolutely at play when I visited the local Goodwill outlet last week...

The outlet was more fun when it was newly opened and relatively undiscovered...the large rolling bins of discarded stuff and plenty of room to spread out...I'm one of those who loves to dig through the piles...the thrill of the hunt...you just never know what you might find...

Now...the perimeter of the cavernous room is lined with pickers with their shopping carts...waiting for the next rolling bin to arrive...most of them with their code scanners which let them know if a certain book is worthy of resale...

I have a keen eye...I can discern an aging cover and yellowed pages among the heaps of harlequin romance paperbacks and biographies of forgotten celebrities...

The books I'm looking for no one else wants...outdated information or lack of ability to reference a textbook without the aid of Google has rendered these volumes useless to some...priceless to others...

My haul...costing me all of $2.18...old maps and dictionaries are the backbone of my collage compositions...the textbook a source of interesting diagrams and explanations (and no first electrical book for girls...what's with that!?) The blue book's deco cover design will be perfect for upcycling into a book journal...

yes...everybody's lookin' for something different...what have you found lately?

A Southern wedding

The Southern Man and I will be traveling to Atlanta this weekend for the marriage of his oldest daughter.  The romance started years ago...but the kernel of the idea for this wedding started with these two images...appropriate for two young adults...finding their way in life...while living in Georgia...and now building a future together...







and those same images inspired the invitation I designed...

I've been helping with other details of the wedding...which is taking place in a grand 1920's reception hall...connected to an historic inn where the out of town guests (that be me and the Southern Man along with many others) will be staying...

The vintage Georgia map used on the invitation was the jumping off point for the map idea used throughout the event...the table cards are named after archaeology sites where the bride and groom have worked...yes, they are both archaeologists and met while working on the same dig...

My trove of old National Geographic maps was culled for locations from South Florida to the South Pacific...the calligraphy and soft colors of the old maps seemed to lend a romantic air...

Here are three of the table cards...I used chipboard cutouts from a scrapbook kit for the base...the four points mimicking the four compass points...the dressmaker pins, snipped off to a shorter size, will act as map tacks to mark the designation of each identified dig site...and the tags are designed to stand inside the vase of flowers on each table...

 

The wedding favors are charming gold compasses...provided by Laura Hooper Calligraphy...I created the tags, keeping with the wedding colors of black, white and creamy yellow...which direct guests to their table...

And of course...the gift wrap for the present is a vintage map of the South...
with a silver star indicating their current location...

I'd better finish packing so I'm ready for my flight...
hoping to take a few pictures, give many hugs and shower a multitude of good blessings on the bride and groom...

Sharing my creations over at Knick of Time...though I didn't use Angie's free vintage map downloads (the resolution being too small for my needs), she did provide a helping of inspiration...

Holiday Cheer #2 Giveaway

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am having three festive holiday giveaways this December...just to make everything official, the Southern Man has chosen the winner's name out of a hat...and he's a former judge so I figured that made everything fair...so without further adieu, give me a little drum roll as I announce that the winner of the Holiday Cheer #1 Giveaway is

cjsrq

Congrats cjsrq!  I'll be emailing you to get your snail mail address so I can ship out those collage coasters today.

My second giveaway is an original collage ornament, certain to bring you holiday cheer...

Created with original vintage ephemera, it can hang on your tree, adorn a present or just brighten up a dreary wall.  The cover image is a vintage cocktail napkin with the addition of an old mailing label...the sides are encircled with a section of cloth surveyor's tape...and the back is finished with a piece of a 1960's British Columbia map...there's a red satin ribbon for hanging...and the entire 5" square piece is sealed with a coat of protective wax.

Again, its pretty easy to enter this giveaway...just leave a comment by midnight Tuesday, December 18 with your email so I can get back to you...FYI...several people who left comments on the first giveaway have "noreply-comment" as their email address...so you might want to check your blogger settings to change that...or remember to include your email address as part of your comment so I can contact you if you are the winner...



I'll announce the winner on Wednesday, December 19 and then post details about Holiday Cheer #3 giveaway...

In the meantime, I hope that you are enjoying the festive season...Cheers!

Here and now

My last art piece is ready for Fresh Paint..what started as an old typeset drawer...

has become one of the largest multi-media collages I have ever tackled...

I removed some of the wooden dividers so there would be a greater variety of size...which gave me 77 compartments...I left some compartments empty...because all art needs negative space...right?!

The piece took me about a month...a little bit here, a little bit there...it evolved as I worked on it...
and the theme of a passage of time emerged...

the past...

the present...

and the future...

I enjoyed tinkering with it...figuring what worked where...and how to attach/secure everything soundly...
it really is imbued with...

It will be the pearl of my booth at Fresh Paint...I hope you'll stop by to see it...

the road less traveled...

Finally...the reveal of the completed art collage that prompted the great quest for the perfect wheel...

I had the idea for this collage and constructed the box before I found all three wheels...in hindsight, should have found wheels first and then built box to accommodate...lesson learned...

I also learned a bit about wheels...smaller open spoke wheels are no longer in vogue it seems...too easily broken...thus explains my ability to find all sorts of closed wheels...but I think my trio is nice mix, all with the right amount of requisite rust...

And since I have been including quotes on the side of my collages as of late, it only seemed fitting that this one have a quote as well...

Each wheel gives its own character to the piece...

The background is a 1938 National Geographic map...the original...no copies here...I love the muted colors and the type fonts...

This collage will be for sale at the upcoming Fresh Paint Art Show in Everett.  It will be hard to let this one go...but I'm sure that someone is going to love that perfect wheel as much as I do...

Music in the streets

During the month of August, music can be heard in the streets of my town...the City of Everett sponsors 10 pianos that sit outside, waiting for anyone passing by to tickle the ivories.  Each of the pianos are decorated by local artists with imaginative themes and motifs...















My artist friend, Jody Carlson Cain, is one of the featured artists this year...her piano, The Scenic Route, resides outside of the Everett Public Library during this musical month.

Its a lively collage of old maps, decorative stencils, touches of metallic finish and handwritten words...

 The namesake of the piano, this quote, is written across the top...

If you're in the area, I urge you to stop by and view this masterpiece in person...and you can also see Jody's work at the upcoming Fresh Paint Art Festival...where she, me and 73 other artists will be showing their artistic creations August 18-19 at the Everett Marina...

There's a full spectrum of art on display this summer...come and check it out!

A collection of the heart

I've been finishing up several collage art pieces in prep for the Fresh Paint Festival of Artists show in mid-August.  The kernel of inspiration for this creation was germinated with the maps I received from Dave of Clearer Reflections...along with additional found objects that I had collected for a time...all coming together to tell this story...

I started with the title, A collection of the heart, and worked backwards (one usually titles a piece last, after it is completed).  I felt that this title guided my direction and gave reference to the story I wanted to tell...

The old perfume bottle and the broken string of pearls were rescued from the detritus of an estate sale...the needlepoint home has been hanging on my studio bulletin board for 8 years, just waiting for its time...the locket flips open to reveal an silent sigh, my own editorial input...

A Sucrets box from my outside rusting area is easily transformed into "secrets", with a key kept safely inside...foreign stamps and vintage pen nibs convey thoughts written...but never sent...or perhaps they were set free...on a wing of a bird...

A collection of the heart...

see it firsthand at the Fresh Paint Art Show, August 18 & 19...for show details, click here...

Oh, the places you'll go...

I recently received a large mailing tube...and inside was an extensive collection of marine and topographic maps...my artist friend Dave from Clearer Reflections is cleaning out his studio...and thought I could make good use of these.
Of course, he is exactly correct...I love maps - in all of their forms and permutations.  I gave a copy of the book Maphead by Ken Jennings to the Southern Man for Father's Day (rather, Calvin gave his dad the book...) and I am anxious to look at the book myself.











an aside...the Southern Man and I are huge Jeopardy geeks...when Ken Jennings was on his winning streak, I don't think we missed a game...and many years ago, I tried out for Jeopardy when they were in Seattle looking for contestants...I tripped up on Mary Baker Eddy...but I digress...

I find maps fuel my curiosity and my creativity...all the different places one could travel to...and what would one do there...what would one see...

And from an artistic standpoint, the colors, lines and shapes are wonderful background elements for collages...






























In the newspaper this week, I read an article that paper maps are on the decline...everyone is using their smartphone and/or GPS to get from point A to point B...which is expedient but doesn't do much to fuel a sense of adventure...

Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon is a travelogue of his adventures of following the blue roads on a paper map...the less traveled roads...off the main highways.  Its a book that I read in college but has always stayed with me...the sense of what one might discover when the pace is a little slower.  The Southern Man always chides me that if there are two routes to a destination and one is the interstate, you can bet that I will take the alternative...

So this newest map gift was the impetus for my latest collage...this snippet of a Maine coastal community is perfect background for my "collection of the heart" piece...and has spurred me on a whirl of tearing/gluing/nailing/waxing with relish...

and to wonder what it would be like to visit Maine...I've never been there...I'll have to go some day...