On the Wings of Summer

This is another of the seasonal collages in the long-format series (to view the other one: click here) and it includes antique endpaper, the faded cover of a vintage Little Blue Book, an embroidery pattern courtesy of Godey's Lady's Book, an illustration from the 1905 Prang art education manual for children I'm so fond of and butterflies cut from "The Butterfly Book" by W.J. Holland (Doubleday, Page & Co., 1902), which I nabbed at the public library's annual used book sale.

The series is at the framer's being matting. After finishing, I realized they wouldn't fit pre-cut mats. Yep, another lesson learned. They will float on the backing board with space between the collage and the mat opening. This way, they can be viewed to the edge, which is critical on these. 4.5" x 11.5" on canvas.

Tea time

I made this for my friend Ann Hicks, who has an extraordinary dollhouse. The central image is from the same 1905 Prang Educational Co. art instruction manual mentioned a few days ago. Below it is a section of a dollhouse from a 1920s French school primer. The top border's from a 1940s elementary school penmanship text while the bottom one was clipped from the back cover of a mechanical drawing manual (whose date I need to check). The dolls are acrylic gel transfers from an image in the Dec. 1895 issue of The Delineator, a magazine published by Butterick as a vehicle to sell its sewing patterns.

By the way, the splotches of blue ink on the dollhouse were not put there by me. I left them in, because I liked the idea of a child using the book and spilling ink on it. 4" x 6" on acid-free watercolor paper

Dream house: before & after

This collage on paper took off from the central image of the doll's house, which came from an elementary school art manual published in 1905 by Prang Educational Co. I strive to use images out of copyright, which I own the rights to or which someone has given me permission to use. This was an attempt at layering - and there are quite a few, composed of vintage geological survey maps, endpapers,   engravings, diagrams and, topping it off, a section from a vintage yard stick. 

The original (top), excluded the girl (below). She was added at the request of the client. I was unsure about the addition. I wrestled with various images until landing on her. In the end, she adds a touch of humanity to a work that was a bit sterile. She also opens up thoughts - at least in my mind - of daydreaming and gender roles, which were only hinted at via the "residence for Mr. & Mrs." label in the top left corner.