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.
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.
