in private collection

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Traveler

Repurposed shadowbox with vintage cigar and household advertising labels, a vintage chalkware depiction of Infant Jesus of Prague, Mardi Gras beads, an old lock, a cabinet card from the late 1800's, and some Christmas ornaments to round off the piece. The background is of a vintage Catholic postcard.

What Me Worry?

NFS but prints can be available

What is the What

Tin Foil Hat Tea Party

The Printer's Dream

Poison

vintage papers

Darwin Gets the Eye

SOLD

Living Room

vintage papers

Chicken of the Stars

Smell! It's Toasted!

All paper pieces are vintage

Untitled

For this piece I used some vintage household labels, a couple of dominoes, a ceramic angel, a cabinet card from the late 1800's, a cigar box that was sanded and painted black and some old vintage map paper. A circuit board from an old mouse was placed over the face of the man on the cabinet card for an added effect. Some wire decorations of red stars were used to accent the box. The men on the Kull's labels were from cigar box vintage labels.

Time Traveler

This piece continues my fascination with all things space and astronomy related. I also love old clocks and found this broken one at a local thrift store. It didn't have its housing but it turned out to be perfect to use in a mixed media piece.
The eyes are made from old glass fuses and the stars are Christmas ornaments. A medical illustration of a man shows the formation of his muscles but it is hidden by the large head, another medical illustration from an old anatomy book. Vintage map paper supplies the background.

Beneath the Surface, Wishes Do Come True

I created this piece for a dear friend of mine, Regina. She loves all sorts of motley characters: fairies (also known as fae), Dryads, Nymphs, Rhine Maidens, Sprites, Astarté (Sister Moon who runs with the wolves), Satyrs, The Green Man and Centaurs. I tried hard to come up with a theme that would somewhat fit with things she likes. Sometimes it can be difficult to do because finding specific pieces for a collage that is feasible with the interests of the person for which your collage is intended is often quite a challenge. And challenges are fun, particularly when they have to do with art and specifically collage and mixed media.

Let's talk about the background. Underneath the strange characters and the eyes watching over the fae is a page altered by a popular cleaner. The background is page from National Geographic magazine. But why does that page look so strange with its round circles that hint at some psychedelic salmagundi from the 60's? Citrasolv. Citrasolv is a cleaner that smells strongly of oranges. Sometimes the smell can be overwhelming. What is interesting about this cleaner is that it has interactions with certain types of paper in an unusual way. Someone somewhere discovered that the special slick paper that National Geographic uses in its magazines combined with an generous application of Citrasolv creates beautiful pieces of new paper. Type in "Citrasolv art" in your favorite search engine and you will find many pages on using this versatile cleaner in art projects. Even  YouTube offers instructional videos on creating pages and transfers using it.



I always enjoy making collages for others. I hope she likes this one. It's for her birthday coming up in September.

You Can't Depend on Your Eyes When Your Imagination is Out of Focus

I stole the title for this piece from the great master writer Samuel Clemens, also known in wider circles as Mark Twain. Apparently, this was a quote he made - under what circumstances we'll never know. A genius with words, Twain will always be remembered for his comedic writings, his travel stories, the interesting autobiography released a couple of  years ago and the many hours I have sat reading his tomes, immersed in his intense eloquence. 

This piece was created from an old black, beat up jewelry box that had originally been adorned with the word "Dad" on the top and a picture of Snoopy. Sorry Dad and Snoopy, you had to go. I sanded it down and painted it blue, adding a touch of black paint to accent the box.

For the medical pieces I cut out, I found a wonderful book on anatomy that had incredible illustrations I just couldn't pass up. As controversial as it may be, I had to destroy another book (I've destroyed hundreds by cutting out illustrations for collage and mixed media pieces) to get at these brightly colored illustrations. The bowling man was extracted from a 1940's Popular Mechanics magazine and glued onto the glass with a thin layer of silicone.

As with several other pieces I've put together, I couldn't resist another skull finding its way into another mixed media assemblage. I adore skulls and skeletons and brightly colored medical illustrations and am always scouring thrift stores for cheap used books with illustrations that can be used in collage. 
At the bottom of the assemblage is the quote by Mark Twain: "You Can't Depend on Your Eyes When Your Imagination is Out of Focus." 
What does it mean? It means whatever you think it means. Art is interpreted differently by everyone, just as music lyrics, poetry and other forms of communication are. 

For me, the one of the keys to art is imagination. Write what you know, create what you feel.
 

Odd Moments

Sorry for the poor photo quality. At the time I didn't have a proper camera to take a picture of this. 
Using a cigar box painted a bright devil red, I cut a hole out of the lid for the plastic frame and glued glass to the frame. The background is map paper. A graphic of a head from an older medical book, a falling boy illustration from an old Reader's Digest Condensed book (keep your eyes peeled for these as they often contain some great graphic illustrations!) and some skulls rounded out the inside of this piece. I glued the Odd Moments pieces onto the glass using a light layer of silicone - the Odd Moments labels are actually vintage cigar label graphics. The devil was cut from a comic book. If you'll notice, the 3 dice read "666."
This piece's theme was a way to poke fun at superstitious beliefs about an imaginary enemy and its symbols.

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Spectacular

Here's a shadowbox I made from an older cigar box. I cut a hole for the frame out of the lid and glued a piece of glass to the underside of the frame. The cigar box was painted bright red. A couple of spiders from the dollar store were added and little rhinestones were glued on their bodies. Inside the box is a graphic of a startled woman and a hand and arm I found in a comic book with the spider glued onto his hand. This was a fun piece to make. 

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Morris' Internal Astronaut

This is a shadowbox I was lucky enough to find at a thrift store. Shadowboxes seem to be difficult to find in thrifts so I was happy to find a couple of these.
Morris' Internal Astronaut has a vintage astronomy page as the background with a nice bright planet to shine some light on the astronaut. The anatomical man running is from a vintage book as is the moon rocks piece glued onto the glass with a light layer of silicone. The rocket was found in a science book. The astronaut in the background is from an old vintage paperback. The radio tube is also vintage paper as is the spaceship in the lower right hand corner. The toy compass was found in a Dollar Tree store. I really enjoyed creating this piece and am happy that its new owner loves it so much.

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Drink Double Cola

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Here's another cigar box modified with map paper sanded down to give it a vintage look. I used Yes Paste to glue down the map paper. It works very well and I highly recommend it for projects like these. I found a Double Cola advertisement in a 1950's Life magazine I had lying around and decided to create my own piece in honor of Double Cola. Glass was cut and glued with a light application of silicone and then the men's smiling faces were glued on, also with a thin layer of silicone.

Cabinet of Curiosities

In this shadowbox, I used a variety of different graphics to make a veritable cabinet of curiosities. The background is a vintage cover from an old 1940's Popular Mechanics magazine. Most of the other graphics come from vintage books as well except for the bat to which I glued 2 red rhinestones. At the top is a La Mira vintage cigar box label glued onto the glass. Below the anatomical man with the blue ribs and heart is an old sanding block. In the middle of the block was a hole that fit a glass lens perfectly. I attached an old graphic of an eye into the glass lens. The U.S. Club House is also a vintage cigar label.

Dial 212 for New York

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This piece's objects were placed inside a colorful cigar box. I used 2 colored dice, a New York Christmas ornament, 4 old fuses and a vintage telephone dial as the centerpiece. In the background is a vintage star map graphic. The two astronauts are actual vintage graphics as well. The heads came from a vintage medical book and were placed on the astronauts head to give them a more vintage look. The compass isn't vintage but I liked the way it is in the middle of the telephone dial. You can still place your finger inside a dial hole and dial just like the old days.

Mr. Elbert's Roach Destroyer

The background of this piece is made of old dictionary pages dyed with homemade alcohol ink. The small circuit board pieces are from an old cassette deck and a digital camera. There is a tiny bulb hanging from a wire attached to the circuit board which I soldered to attach it to the circuit board. A very old wrench, possibly made in the early 1900's (just a guess from its design and lack of a logo) was siliconed underneath the picture of the bearded fellow. A vintage pesticide label was glued to the lower part of the backing.

BLUE SEAL mixed media assemblage

Created from a small cigar box painted and dyed with old dictionary paper and alcohol ink. Also a couple of small toys, some blue Christmas ornaments, an old fuse and the centerpiece, a Brownie Starmite II camera made between 1962 and 1967. Also used a Blue Seal vintage cigar label for the top and the picture of the boy and man came also from another vintage cigar label.
Picture by my talented photographer artist friend, Kopana

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