Out On A Limb: 20

© Out On A Limb: 20 (2012)

mixed-media collage: antique illustration

 (Birds of New York, Vol. 2, New York State Museum, 1914);

 recycled catalog covers and wrapping paper; watercolor; ink; marker; 

acrylic sealer; acrylic varnish. 6" x 6" on birch panel. $85 (SOLD)

Talk about a struggle. Aieeee. The stormy main section of the background was created with the intention of using another pair of birds - one color, one black-and-white - and some text. I cut, repositioned, painted, cut some more, colored, repositioned again. But it wasn't working. So I set it aside and continued other collages in the series.

Then, I came across these cool falcons perched on rocks. Perfect. After additional background layers and a fair amount of painting on both the rocks and feathers, it was finished. The absence of leaves and trees makes it a departure from the rest of the series - and although it is numbered 20, it was completed after 24.

Shout-outs from CityBeat & Aeqai

© The Grand Tour: One Small Step (2012)

mixed-media collage: hand-painted fashion plate (Godey's Lady's Book, Dec. 1842); 

antique maps (Guyot's Physical Geography, Scribner's, 1872;
Natural Advanced Geography, American Book Co., 1901);

 vintage illustrations (Whole Earth Catalog back cover, fall 1969; 

Harter's Picture Archive, Dover, 1978); watercolor; ink.
 8" x 11" on archival mat board. Framed. Price: $185. (SOLD)

I've been in Philly for a few days now visiting family and friends - and just found some time to catch up on things, including last week's issue of CityBeat and the March edition of Aeqai. Both include flattering - whew - reviews of Expecting to Fly.

"In Expecting to Fly, on view at 5th Street Gallery downtown, Pearce’s whimsical worlds do not disappoint," writes Alan Pocaro in CityBeat. "The mischievous characters that inhabit her small-scale works are always clever but never cloying. In addition to the many series’ curious juxtapositions and sheer visual delight, Pearce’s labels catalog the intriguing origins of her disparate source materials, a herculean task in its own right.

"A quick first take on Sara Pearce’s Expecting to Fly at 5^th Street Gallery downtown shows her a words person as well as a visual artist," says Jane Durrell in Aeqai. "And no wonder; words were her trade during her Cincinnati Enquirer years, when she reported on restaurants, books, sometimes visual arts, and was a features editor. What collages require, however, is a good eye; Pearce has it. If word play is essential in the way she shapes her work, it should be said that her words are sharp, funny and slyly pointed."

I hope you get a chance to stop by the gallery to see the show, which is on view through Saturday April 7. Oh, by the way I'll be there 2-6 p.m. on Saturday March 31 and would love to tell you more about the work - and the papers used to make it!
 

Out On A Limb: 24

© Out on A Limb: 24 (2012)
mixed-media collage: recycled wallpaper sample & publishers catalog;
vintage John J. Audubon calendar illustration (1990); ink; chalk; acrylic sealer;
acrylic varnish. 6" x 6" on birch panel. $85 (SOLD) 

Hmmm. It may be time to stop numbering these and write real titles. In any case, it looks like the series will go on for some time. I am enjoying making these and coming up with new versions of the black & white/color bird combo.

As usual, this changed a few times - mainly the birds behind the cage. What I really like about it - beyond the striking color combination - are the three layers of birds and how they echo one another.

Out On A Limb: 19

© Out On A Limb: 19 (2012)
mixed-media collage: antique and vintage illustrations
(The Chatterbox, 1899; Audubon calendar, 1990); recycled
glass catalog; chalk; watercolor; ink; acrylic sealer, acrylic varnish.
 6" x 6" on claybord/hardwood panel. Price: $75. (SOLD)

I noted earlier that I've begun making slightly larger Out On A Limb collages - 6"x6" vs. 5"x5" - which doesn't sound like much of a change, but it's amazing what difference an inch all around can make.

This is one of eight finished recently for my show, Expecting To Fly, at Cincinnati's 5th Street Gallery. I opted to include them - along with five new 5"x5"s - because there is a sense of anticipation in the series, as though the birds might take wing at any moment.

These are the first owls in the series. The pair in back were accompanied by a poem that began "Laugh not at our grimaces, Nor call us dull and odd, But come and watch us sailing, When the dew is on the sod." The swirling, colorful barn beams they're resting on are from a glass catalog retrieved from a recycling bin in the glass school adjacent to my studio. I was wowed by the variety of glass and its collage potential.

Thanks!

A quick note of thanks to everyone who attended Friday night's The Art of Food opening at The Carnegie. It was a crowded, over-the-top spectacle with live performances, "living dolls" modeling fantastic, food-themed dresses created by Cincinnati artist Pam Kravetz and baker/artist The Bonbonerie, and dozens of area chefs dishing out amazing food. Did I bring a camera? No. Sigh. Lesson learned.

If you want to see my work, now's the time. When I left the exhibit, 12 of the 16 collages had sold. So, once the show ends, they'll disappear into the collections of the purchasers. It was exciting to watch people look at the collages and to hear them laugh. I did a lot of work on the labels to explain where the papers came from, which a few people commented on. As you know, the paper itself is important to me, as is letting people know that it is the original paper - not photocopies.

© Mad Women: Joan - Tired of the Glad-Handing, Good Ole' Boy Network -
 Planned A Corporate Takeover (2012)
mixed-media collage: vintage cover illustration (The Delineator, Dec. 1934),
metal button, price tag and foreign currency; recycled parking lot ticket,
ledger paper, and Champion Paper sample; ink; watercolor.
7.5" x 9.5 on archival mat board. Framed with conservation glass.
 Price: $175. (SOLD)

Now, on to Expecting To Fly, which opens 6-9 p.m. Friday at the 5th Street Gallery. I've created new Mad Women, Grand Tour and Out on A Limb collages that all speak to the idea of freedom and empowerment in one way or another.

Low-Hanging Fruit

© Low Hanging Fruit (2012)
mixed-media collage: antique illustration (The Gibson Book, Vol. 2, Scribner's, 1906),
vintage clip art, recycled gift bag and children's book proof, wallpaper sample,  ink,
 watercolor, colored pencil, acrylic sealer. 11.5" x 5.5" on archival mat board.
Matted & framed. Price: $150. (SOLD)

Surreal. That's the first word that popped into my head when I found Çharles Dana Gibson's illustration, "A Peach Crop." So, I opted to make it even more bizarre by adding male hands plucking the ripe fruit. I selected pears rather than peaches, simply because I liked the colors. In truth, either fruit works, since women are compared to both. Some of the hair was colored to accent the fruit, and all of the women's cheeks and lips were painted to help draw attention to the smaller heads.

There are a lot of shadows being cast since every piece is not completely glued down. I hoped to create the illusion of depth by letting some sections of the drawing float. I'm doing that more often with pieces that will be framed and under glass. The "sky" is a wallpaper sample that includes pears, but they are covered up for the most part. The "ground" is composed of handmade paper - a recycled piece of a nice, gift bag - and a children's book page proof.

Gibson could be highly critical of the upper classes and surprisingly wry about both sexes. I'm not sure whether he was being ironic here or not. But, that's good. I like art that makes me think.

Smile, and say "cheese"

© Jonathan Found Juggling the Cheeses To Be
The Most Daunting Aspect of Menu Planning (2012)
Mixed-media collage: recycled paint sample,
 vintage illustrations and menu planner, ink, watercolor.
5"x5" on archival mat board. Matted & framed. Price: $90 [SOLD] 

The man in this vintage illustration looked like he ought to be juggling something. And why not cheese? Actually, I made that decision because I'd been thumbing through a book about French wine that also had terrific photos of cheeses. That got me thinking about cheese courses and picking the cheeses for them. The menu in the background is from a hang-it-in-your-kitchen menu planner published by Volland, circa 1920. Love the inclusion on the menu of "Mock Cherry Pie" - whatever it is. [SOLD]

Hot Plate

On Valentine's Day I wrote a post on my Paper With A Past blog about our family tradition of "strange cupids." That is, Victorian and Edwardian images of cupid that are disturbing enough to make my husband and daughter cringe. I'm on the hunt for them all the time. The weirder, the better.

So, you can imagine my delight at finding this Charles Dana Gibson illustration in "The Gibson Book," a fantastic, over-sized, two-volume collection of his drawings that Scribner's published in 1906. Looking at it, well, I just HAD to make yet one more, new collage for The Art of Food exhibit at The Carnegie.

As you can see below, the image is pretty much intact. I wanted to keep his signature - on the bottom left - but it didn't work out. To my family, the most unsettling part of the image is the steam rising from Cupid. So, of course, I had to add to it. I found a vintage scrap of hearts afire, then, added more flames from a vintage tarot card and painted the steam a smokey grey. Now, they are even more unsettled.

© Hot Plate (2012)
mixed-media collage: antique illustration; recycled invitation &
  wrapping papers; vintage sheet music & scraps; ink; watercolor;
acrylic sealer. 7.5" x 7.5" on archival mat board. Matted & framed.
 Price: $125. (SOLD)

Reshaping "Shape Shifting"

Shape Shifting: BEFORE

A few days ago, I wrote about reworking pieces that had begun to bore me. Well, here's another one. The original(top)  was on wrapped canvas with the collage extending onto the sides. I liked it ... that is until a friend gave me a pile of Italian papers that she'd been using as gift wrap. One remnant had colorful, hot air balloons that were far more fanciful than the antique engraving on the collage. A glance at the balloons, then, at the collage and - ta da! - a new balloon was flying into the picture.

I also decided to take it off the stretchers to crop it. I did that by holding different-sized mats over the image. It had more graphic power at a smaller size - the original was 12"x12" - so, I trimmed the left side. Ouch. It was painful to lose a section of the beautiful antique Guyot map and so many of the tiny corsets that I had scoured 19th century magazines for, but still worthwhile.

In the end, I decided to add the collage to The Grand Tour series, so it's been retitled to reflect that. Oh, one more thing: though the background colors appear different, they haven't changed. The top image is a photo; the bottom image is a scan - and it's that scan that's true to life.

© The Grand Tour: Shape Shifting (2012)
mixed-media collage: antique magazine ads, antique map,
watercolor & acrylic paint, colored pencil, ink.
 7.5" x 11.5" on canvas. Framed with conservation glass.
Price: $185. [SOLD] 

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?

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)

Food, glorious food!

© For the Twins, Cocoa Was More Than a Beverage,
It Was a Lifestyle (2012)

mixed-media collage: recycled tissue paper,

vintage illustrations, antique ads, ink,

 watercolor. 5.5"x11.5" on archival mat board.
Matted & framed. Price: $150. (SOLD)

You know you're having fun in the studio when you find yourself laughing out loud. That's been the case during the past two weeks as I've worked on new collages for The Art of Food, an annual exhibition at the Carnegie Visual And Performing Arts Center in Covington, Ky.

You would've thought that as a trained chef, and former restaurant critic/food editor & reporter, this would have been, well, a piece of cake. No. I struggled with ideas for weeks and weeks after I was invited to show. I've loved this exhibition from the get go and wanted to make striking pieces that equaled my strong feelings.

I landed on an elaborate, decoupaged glass idea that would combine anatomy and food. Problem? I'd never done decoupage on glass. I researched, read, tested and retested before coming to the conclusion that I wasn't going to master it in time for the exhibit, which opens March 2 but is being hung a week or two earlier.

So, back to my original idea for a series of narrative "Food for Thought" pieces. This is the first one and it's part of my effort to scale up. I'm not sure that I'll post every piece in the series, after all, there should be some surprises left for exhibit goers - as well as an enticement to get you there. [SOLD]

Out On A Limb: 16

© Out On A Limb: 16 (2012)
mixed media collage: recycled print &  catalog cover,
vintage illustrations, India ink, watercolor, gouache,
acrylic sealer. 5"x5" on wood panel (SOLD)  

Just the other day, I was debating whether to use the beautiful images by artist Arthur Singer from Golden Press' 1961 edition of Birds of the World. Well, the die was cast when I paired a trio of Singer's vivid parakeets with a vintage, black-and-white illustration.

The latter's from Vol. I of the Encyclopedia of Source Illustrations: A Portable Picture Library of 5,000 Steel Engravings (Morgan & Morgan, Inc., 1972). The 2-volume book reprints the amazingly detailed engravings created for the multi-volume Iconographic Encyclopedia of Science, Literature and Art (1851). Expect to see more of the engravings cropping up in coming months, because they're my new obsession.

Touring again, but having more fun

© The Grand Tour: Airborne (2012)
mixed-media collage, recycled book cover,
 antique circus poster reprint, vintage illustration,
watercolor, India ink. 11.5" x 8.5" on archival mat board. Price: $185. (SOLD)

The Grand Tour is back but evolving. I'll continue using the fantastic, hand-painted 19th century fashion plates from Godey's Ladies Book and Peterson's Magazine, but am not limiting myself to them. Something clicked when I created pieces for last fall's Cincinnati Dreams Italy exhibition and the series was suddenly lighter and cheekier, with women who were less passive.

The pieces are also becoming larger, not enormous, but bigger than they've been. I'm excited and working like crazy on these, as well as other pieces for my March show - "Expecting to Fly" - at the 5th St. Gallery downtown (link in side rail). Well, it's off to the studio. There's lots of work to be done!

Mad Women: Iron-Willed

These 1950s-era women appear so confident, determined and modern (for the time) that I couldn't resist pairing them with images of antique and vintage irons. The working title was "Unlike their grandmothers and mothers, Sue and Joan never ironed." But I wanted to imbue them with more power than that.

Of course, the irony is that every item of clothing required ironing in the 1950s - or at least seemed to - and a woman dare not step out in a wrinkled ensemble - or allow her children to. I spent enough time standing at the ironing board to know how lucky I am not to have to do that these days. 5"x5" on archival mat board. [SOLD]

Ten little Santas ...

Ho! Ho! Ho! 9 [SOLD]

Ho! Ho! Ho! 10

Here they are, the final Santas in the "Ho! Ho! Ho!" series. That's it - at least for this year. I'm moving past the holiday to new series and extensions of some past ones - Out on a Limb, False Sense of Security - for exhibits I'll be in during the spring.

Ho! Ho! Ho! 9 features an engraving of a DIY pinecone Santa from Godey's Lady's Book that I scanned to use on a postcard promoting last week's open studio and this month's extended studio hours. Isn't he splendid! Behind him: 1950s greeting cards, a sliver of a map of Ohio (yeah, the same Harper's map from 1877 that I've been using every last inch of during the past month) and a strip of wood veneer. 5" x 5" on claybord/hardwood panel ready to hang. [SOLD]

Ho! Ho! Ho! 10 is strictly '50s/'60s via recycled cards from the era and, yes, authentic Christmas seals. I lucked into sheets and sheets of vintage Christmas seals last year.  5" x 5" on claybord/hardwood panel ready to hang. $55 + $5 shipping/handling.

It's here: the first Collage 365 calendar!

The Collage 365 calendar caps my first year as a full-time artist and is my way of celebrating. At the suggestion of my baby sister, I super sized the image so you can see the images more clearly. It features a selection of the many collages made during 2011. It is a signed, limited edition of 50 that was printed and hand assembled by me. 5.5" x 8.5," punched at the top, with a silver ball chain for hanging. The chain can be snapped open to remove - or save - pages. It's packaged in a clear box and ready for gift giving. You could wrap it but I think it looks too good to cover up. I would think that, wouldn't I? $12 + $2.50 shipping & handling. [SOLD OUT]

* Still available: original artwork for October (Jane and Isabella Shed Their Inhibitions on All Hallows' Eve") and November ("Autumn's Arrival Gave Venus the Perfect Excuse to Cover Up").

 

   

Out on a Limb: 11

I took a break from the Santa series to return to Out on A Limb, thinking I'd pick up where I left off. Ha! The piece ended up markedly different. I still was going with combining color and black-and-white images of birds but wanted to use an engraving of a robin I've had for some time. It's from a series published in The Chatterbox throughout 1871. The British children's magazine was big on nature and education, and there's no better proof than its beautiful engravings of flora and fauna. I scanned the original, below, in case I want to reproduce it some day. Luckily, I have two sets of the magazine from that year, so there's still another original to play with.

Some of the trellis is missing at the bottom of the collage, a casualty of the knife. I know that I probably shouldn't point that out. But, well, I was determined to cut out that intricate trellis at all costs to expose the background, which includes a piece of veneer from my friend Laura Chapman (I love that it's labeled veneer and wanted to show that) and a sliver of an 1877 map of Ohio from Harper's School Geography.

The vibrant robins were clipped from an antique Christmas postcard. Birds were a common holiday motif and the Christmas theme is carried out subtly in the holly and mistletoe on the trellis. 5" x 5" on claybord/hardwood panel. [SOLD]

Down through the chimney ...

Ho! Ho! Ho! 1

Opps! Meant to post two Santas today, but just realized that I didn't scan one of them. So, this Santa is solo. Well, not quite, since there are two Santas on the collage. The central image is from a vintage Hallmark postcard that reproduced an antique image. The Santa in the background was printed on an envelope for a newsletter. The other background elements are (from left to right): antique book spine lining, recycled greeting card, a border from the "Intertype Book of Intertype Faces" (1928) and recycled marbled wrapping paper. 5" x 5" on claybord/hardwood panel. [SOLD]

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Ho! Ho! Ho! 4 [SOLD]

Ho! Ho! Ho! 8 [SOLD]

Two more depictions of the Jolly Old Elf from the new Santa series. The top collage is a recycled greeting card that, in turn, used an antique illustration. The background includes a brochure that featured Edward T. Hurley's 1911 painting "The Midnight Mass," which depicts Cincinnati's Mount Adams' neighborhood on a snowy night. It's quite beautiful and can be seen in the Cincinnati Wing at the Cincinnati Art Museum and they offer it as a poster; (although the image on the web site does it little justice). 5"x5" on claybord/hardwood panel. [SOLD]

The bottom collage also is a recycled greeting card. I just loved that Santa being doted on at the salon. The bingo card was a long, paper one. I topped it with dotted vellum rescued from an invitation and a sliver of a gorgeous, screen-printed envelope liner from the 1920s. I found it in a cache of letters and greeting cards that were being sold years ago at an estate sale. 5"x5" on claybord/hardwood panel. [SOLD]