Dream on ...

© Maria And Osgood Aspired To Be Among The 1% (2012)
mixed-media collage: vintage illustration and cookbooklet
cover;  recycled paint chip sample, greeting card text and
champagne ad; watercolor; ink; acrylic sealer.
5" x 5" on archival mat board. Matted & framed. (SOLD)

People wonder where my ideas come from. Generally, the best ones are not over thought; they POP into my head while I'm looking through my stash. The illustration of the couple here is a good example. The moment I saw it, I hit on the idea of a collage about aspirations.

I knew color champagne bottles were somewhere in the "drinking" bin - yes, my stash is that organized. Then, in the "cooking booklets" bin, I found the caviar cook-booklet, a 1984 leftover from my food writing days. I was already using the paint chip samples for the entire series -  I love the names of paint colors and was waiting and waiting to use the growing pile of samples - and found one with "Champagne Ice."

Most of my pieces are about empowering women and the working title for this was "Maria Felt It was Time to Introduce Osgood to The Finer Things In Life." At that point, it didn't have the text bubble. Then, a funny thing happened: I got into a political discussion with my studio neighbor, painter Frank Satogata. Afterward, I saw the collage with new eyes and a new title POPPED into my head.

That change spurred a search for words, which I thought would bolster the commentary - and add movement to a somewhat static piece. I still can't believe I found just-the-right text bubble. It's from an early 1980s set of satirical British postcards called "Life in the Fast Lane."

As to whether this is a Republican or Democratic statement, well, that depends on the point of view of the person looking at it, doesn't it?