A weekly collage from a few weeks ago.
A Few Good Things:
– Watching the little yellow goofball play around on my mug as he tries unsuccessfully to drink from it
– Enjoying a very relaxing and lovely Remembrance Day
– Working on my “Scenes from a Movie” shot for most of the day, and reminding myself I have excellent photoshop skillz
– Getting into the routine of writing two pages in my journal every morning
– Having my work accepted into two Holga/Toy Camera shows at the same time
The above image is this week’s collage in my moleskine sketchbook. The gold metallic, vaguely round pieces of paper are the wrappers from chocolate coins eaten by Matt. They were given to him by Travis and the left over paper made its way to me after the chocolate was gone. It’s like the circle of life of chocolate coins. 😉
This week from Free Will Astrology…
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): *Gleeking* is a term that refers to a special kind of projectile spitting. To do it, you’ve got to practice. It involves pressing your tongue against your submaxillary salivary gland when a pool of drool has accumulated nearby. I recommend this practice for you in the coming week, Leo. It’ll be a favorable time for you to be undignified, unpredictable, and even outrageous in expressing yourself. Other suggested practices: telling unruly stories concisely, speaking the truth with picturesque but disciplined extravagance, adding some vivid new slang to your body language, and skipping and hopping or even dancing as you walk. (For instructions on how to gleek, go to tinyurl.com/hn7vo.)
If you see me spitting and dancing around you in the next few days, now you know why.
This is the first collage in my new, improved, and larger sketchbook. Starting a fresh sketchbook can be both an exciting and overwhelming undertaking, and I stumbled around a bit before I was able to get going. I feel I am off to a good start with this.
Inspiration this week:
The art of cut-up books (From Kirsti)
Pop-up cards by Crankbunny.
Mixed media bird sculptures by Bird and Moon Studios.
RubyDog’s Art House, a collage and art supply store located on Main Street, has become one of my favorite places to shop for inspiring things to use in my work. Unfortunately the wonderful store is closing it’s doors this week. I will be very sad to see it go.
Tomorrow is Ruby Dog’s last day and the owner Leanne has decided to have a closing party:
Wednesday, June 25th we will be open from 12 noon to 8:00 pm. After 3:00 we’ll be serving tea, coffee and wine as well as nibblies. There will be lots of markdown specials (rubber stamps at 70% off, collage sheets for $2.00 and much more) and freebies.
Leanne has requested for people to bring in their work to show and share when they drop by. I’m planning on bringing my moleskin sketchbook, chock full of all sorts of wonderful ephemera purchased from Ruby Dog.
RubyDog’s Art House
4738 Main St.
Vancouver, B.C.
V5V 3R7
604-873-2825
A few friends have recently been asking if I’ve still been keeping up with the weekly collage in my moleskin sketchbook, and the answer is “Yes!” I just haven’t been posting them to my blog because the book has become very thick with work and it makes it difficult to scan. I have about nine weeks worth of collages to post. I will try to upload a few more this week.
I’m working on a series of collaged pieces on wooden cradle frames. This is the second in the series, and I posted about the first one last week. For now I’m not sure where I am going with these works or whether they will have a common theme. I’m mostly just doing them for enjoyment.
Things to check out this weekend:
Got Craft?
The Spot Prawn Festival
Aberthau Potters Club Pottery Sale – Saturday, 10 – 4 pm, 4397 W. 2nd Ave. (Jericho Beach area)
Soundwalks – Baba Yaga’s Journey: A Storytelling Soundwalk
This week I skipped my moleskin sketchbook and went straight for one of the wooden cradle frames that have been wasting away in my art supply box for months. I started with a page torn from a book about the sketches of Leonardo da Vinci, and slowly built the composition around it with the hat wearing male figure and butterflies. Everything else was added as I looked around my apartment and found more long neglected items I’d collected with the intention of using them for “something.” I still need to do some work on the sides of the piece, and I think I will add a bit of colour to the background using watercolours.
As pictured below, I made a huge mess all over the living room floor by the time I was done.
These are collages one and two in my moleskin sketchbook, from my arty weekend on Bowen. I collaged, photographed with a pinhole camera, light painted with my digital camera, modeled, wrote long entries in my journal and ideas notebook, and did one small digital rough for the bird series (which may never see the light of day…)
Buschlen Mowatt gallery on Georgia Street has an excellent show of work by Cecilia Z. Miguez. I saw it a few weeks ago and have been meaning to blog about it. She casts figures in bronze, then remixes them with found objects to create wonderfully whimsical characters. A larger variety of images of her work can be found here. I need to see this show again before it ends.
I have had a loose goal of creating one collage every week in my moleskin sketchbook, and I have been trying to stick to it for months. I am only now managing to make it a regular thing. I think it helps if I don’t try to rush through it in one sitting. The above collage was done over the course of last week, between gathering the first round of materials, running out of glue, buying more, and then deciding it needed small finishing touches. It doesn’t normally take so long…
The idea of working of collage within a moleskin was inspired by the lovely work of my friend Degan.