Deconstructing to reconstruct

A few collages have been sitting around the studio for a little over a year and, to be honest, I'm tired of them. Unlike many other artists, I don't like to stockpile work. So, little by little, many of the pieces are being reworked. "Spring," above, which I blogged about last February, is the latest collage to be given a new life.

I cut it in half, added paper to the left side, then a Victorian scrap butterfly that happened to be on my work table at that moment, and - voila! - "Out on A Limb: 17," below. The bottom half of the original will find its way into another piece, while the new collage finds its way into my "Expecting to Fly" exhibit at 5th Street Gallery next month.

© Out On A Limb: 17 (2012)
mixed-media collage: antique French postcard & text,
vintage print, recycled catalogs, acrylic gel transfer,
watercolor, acrylic sealer, acrylic varnish.
 5" x5" on Claybord/hardwood panel. Price: $75. (SOLD)

April

This is the first of the collages on the wrapped canvases I posted last week - and it is one reason I haven't posted anything since Tuesday. I had a lot of trouble with the paper wrinkling atop the initial layer and it ended up taking me two days to finish. Okay, I did a few other things while waiting for the layers to dry and flatten but I became obsessed with making this work.

The head was cut from a book called "Wire" that my studio neighbor, painter Frank Satogata, gave me. Inside it are recycled greeting cards and publisher catalog covers, and a section of a Johnny Jump-Up seed envelope (one of three packs purchased years ago from The Nature Company for the images, not the flowers).  10" x 10" on canvas, with watercolor, acrylic, ink and pencil. [Not For Sale]