Traces Left Behind

Joe and Kate and I went to an antique mall yesterday, Gristie's in Buck's County. I was excited, because, not only had I never been to this place, but I had been itching to go antiquing for a while. I wanted to find some interesting ephemera for my collages. I found this little book with the name of a club on it, kind of like an record of dances with people. I believed that I had something from a country club, maybe with some record of this archaic ritual. The handwriting looked old, and the graphics in the book looked old. When I got home, I realized that the entries in the book started in 1982. That's not too old in my world. It has to be from before I was born to be considered old. I was reading the entries, and some of the people who signed the book had rubber stamps of themselves! One guy had glued a mini picture of himself. He seemed to be on stage with a microphone.
I Googled the name of the club, which is The Century Club in Westfield, MA. So, get this. The century club is a square dance club. Here is a quote from the website:

"The Century Club was introduced to Square Dancers at Ralph Sweets Powdermill Barn in Hazardville, Conn. on August 26, 1960. It was the idea of two couples who had graduated in May of that year. After having danced to twenty callers already they deemed it possible to dance to 100 different callers and perhaps get other dancers to circulate and dance to other callers at different clubs."

So, you send them a couple of bucks and they send you this little book, which is like a passport, and you get signatures of the different callers. It is designed to encourage people to travel and meet different square dancers. It says on the website that after you fill one book with 100 callers, your next book is GOLD! Well, my book is gold and it does indeed start with number 101. It's got the couple's name right in the front of the book, Lyle and Helen. The first 2 pages have signatures that were written on a separate piece of paper and glued in. I am thinking that this was done because they had to wait for their new book. I pulled one of the separate pieces of paper off, it was Lyle's business card. He was a travel agent. When you look through the book you can see that these people did indeed travel far and wide to square dance. Milner, North Dakota, Aurora Colorado, Bethlehem, PA, Los Angeles, California, Abilene, Texas, Altoona, PA.

At the bottom it says, "Song about a Pig."

The entries stop abruptly in 1992, at number 175. I was wondering what happened, so I Googled Lyle. I did not find an obituary for Lyle, but I did find one for Helen. She was a school nurse at Metuchen High School, and she died in 2008 at 85 years old. Lyle died in 2002.

I find this fascinating. First of all, that you can find this little thing that someone left behind, and  that you can discover a little snippet about their life just with a few keystrokes. I wish like hell I had a picture of these folks. As it is I am excited about making a collage with these pages. I've also figured out that this is why I am so interested in old things. People used them in their lives. Everyone dies, life is so short, what is left of us? Just these little traces. If we haven't done anything amazing, there is maybe a tombstone, some photographs, and now digital records.

I'm Probably ADD

I've always found it hard to focus on just one thing. It's not really a matter of not being able to,. I could be down in the studio for hours working on something. It's more a matter of there being so many cool things to try that I can't stop myself from trying them. Case in point. Over Christmas, a group of local crafts people got together and had a show of their work in a gallery in town. (I'm going to try to get in with these people next year.) anyway, there is a person who was selling greeting cards. She had sewn contrasting paper onto a blank greeting card and rubber stamped something over that. They were very nice, yet I said to myself, "I can do better." So I went home and gave it a try. Next thing, I am going through magazines looking for mixed media ideas. I am looking through piles of supplies that I haven't looked through in ages. Then I started making valentines. Then I was looking online at videos artists made of themselves demonstrating mixed media techniques. So now I'm making mixed media collage. Yikes! My head is all crammed up with stuff, but I am enjoying it.

I was thinking, "Should I sell these on Etsy?" Then I decided, "To hell with that." I'm just going to share them with friends and family.

 

Bad But Exciting

As some of you know, my daughter, Kate is developmentally disabled. She takes a public transport bus to her job at a supermarket every day. So far, this has been working out really well. Kate is always relating the stories of her busmates. Generally, there is some kind of a problem if you are on this bus. It  is usually a mental or physical disability, but can also be anything that keeps a person from getting to a job, such as a DUI conviction (That's how it is in the US. If you don't have a car, you have a problem.) She usually calls me when she gets out of work to say she is on the bus and all is well. Yesterday, I missed her call and she left a message that went something like this: "Hi mom. I'm on the bus. Call me when you get a chance, I have to tell you what happened. It was bad, but exciting."  So, I called back. She launches into this story about a guy on her bus. She has mentioned him before. Once he asked her to marry him. She declined, telling him she was already married! Kate is really cute, so she has a lot of guys after her. She said that yesterday, this guy wanted to take her picture, and she refused. He immediately got all belligerant. He started calling her a witch, and began to make threatening remarks. He said he was going to corner her and take her picture anyway. When it was time for her to get off at the supermarket, he went after her. This is not his stop. Kate pushed on the bus doors so he could not get out, and the bus driver forced the doors closed.

Kate ran inside and got herself composed and ready for work. When she went to the front of the store to punch in, there were police and an ambulance taking this guy away. Apparently he continued being crazy after Kate got out.  My son, Drew, volunteers for the rescue squad in that town. He was on last night and asked about the situation. They know the problem guy at the squad, and he has a history of this kind of behavior. Kate says she heard that he was "normal" once, but something happened and now he is crazy. Who knows what that is about, but I have called the people at county transportation to find out if he is going to be on the bus again. No one has called back yet. This is a big headache for me. I can drive Kate to work on the way to my job, but the bus thing is better for all of us. We'll see how this shakes out.

Meanwhile, good things are happening. Kate says that on that same day she asked if she could ever help out in the floral department at the supermarket. It is Kate's dream to do this. She was told they would train her to work on the holidays, and she can get some extra hours. She is thrilled! She said that between the incident in the morning and the news that she could work in the floral department, she was dizzy.

In other news, another sale on Etsy. No joke, man, isn't that crazy?  This time it was a few collages. No big money made, but it still makes me happy. Every sale is a kind of validation, you know?  I have to run back to work, lunch time is nearly over. A couple more things. I received the art I ordered from Seventh Magpie. So incredibly cool. And I have been escaping into the world of a new blog I am following, Self Taught Artist.

Ever fantasize about what it would be like to chuck your entire life and start over? Check it out for her on- going experience.

Not Afraid

Here you see the latest collage in my learning series. I think this is number 4, and I am ahead of the "class." Meaning, I don't think I should have 4 already, as I just received my second set of instructions. (They show up in your e-mail every other day if you subscribe to the course)
I feel that these would be completely different collages with out the words. The words really act as statements about the piece, or even titles. The first image I came across was the chain. Loved that. The the words came next. The original set of words said, "SOME things shouldn't be that difficult." I took off the "some." Then I was finished searching through Automation Whatever Magazine, and had to move on to a different publication. The next thing I came across was the sexy babe behind the key hole. Not really sure why that caught my eye, but it could be because it was red and went with the rest of the collage. That's the conscious reason, anyway. I decided that if I kept going, I might find something better. But, that's not how this is supposed to work. So I took the babe. The last thing, sort of a cartoon butterfly, was on the back of the fragments from the babe, and I liked it. I've got this collage next to me as I write and it occurred to me that the X around the keyhole echos the X that is formed by the chain. Interesting.

I just recently created the journal that I am doing the collages in. I have glued together every three pages of a book that no one in this house is likely to ever read. Somebody got it as a gift and it has languished, dust-covered, ever since. After gluing every three pages, I went back and gesso-ed each side of what are now very thick pages. It's a fair amount of work, but good way to recycle. I've posted a picture of the cover. It comes from a statement I found and always have magnet-ed to my fridge, "What would you do if you weren't afraid?"

It would be hard to not mention the celebrity deaths of the past 24 hours. All I want to say is I think Farrah is really getting ripped-off. Within hours of her death she's become a foot note while MJ is giant banner news. I can tell you, I never once in my life wished I looked like Michael Jackson! No matter how rich and famous you are, you always end up dead.

I knew something was wrong.

Thanks to Idaho Beauty For commenting on yesterday's post. She says she can see me in google reader, and she commented, so obviously my blog is available. However, I have a 3rd day in a row with no hits. I guess something is wrong with Google Analytics. Trouble shooting computer stuff is NOT my favorite thing. Maybe someone at work can help.

**Later that same day**

Thanks to Marty for also confirming my existence! (and saying such nice things) I spoke with Mustafa, the tech guy at work and he said that by changing my template I nullified the google analytic thing. So I just have to get around to finding the code and inserting it back into... the code of my blog. I have only a cursory understanding of all this.

OK, back to normal. (No F-word)

Here is the third collage I have made. The first 2, I kind of knew what they were about. This one is pretty random. The text, "hang on, I'll make you a copy." came from an article about internet piracy. I was attracted to it, because a lot of what we do around here is make copies. There is an ink bottle spilled over and dumping rainbow ink. I think that gets lost in the crease of the book so I wanted to explain. I will meditate on this today and see what I think.

What I love most about this kind of collage is that there are just endless images available to us in all of this printed media that's hanging around. The ways people will choose and combine them is infinite. I have scored myself an issue of Automation World Magazine. How's that for obscure? Someone from the mailroom gets it and immediately throws it away. I'm going to use that for tonight's collage.

I swear that today I'm going to find the blog that originally led me to this collage exercise. I 'll look in history.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=66559

Collage Lessons

No one has looked at my blog for 2 days. That hasn't happened since I started the thing in December. I always say that I am suprised that anyone looks at it. But when this happens, it makes me think something is wrong, like people can't get to the blog any more. It could not possibly be that everyone has decided that this is boring crap. Right?


Then I think, if no one looks at this blog anymore, what would I do? How would it change? I would definitely say fuck now and then. I say that word pretty regularly, but not on the blog. It seems rude. Maybe not everyone likes to hear or see that. But if no one ever looks, what does it matter?


I've changed my template. I made this little embroidered thing with buttons sewn on that says Frenchtown Fiber. I wanted to find a template that kind of went with that new header I made. I just felt like having something new. Maybe everyone hates it. They will not look at this blog anymore until I change back to my original template. Well too bad! I'm not going to do it. Don't look, see if I care.


I started doing this free online collage class thing. I found it in someone's blog. I thought I had book-marked her, but I can't find it. I wish I could find it because she was showing us her progress and I wanted to see. I do have the link for the collage site:
http://www.collageforself-discovery.com/





The first collage (above)


In case you don't feel like clicking on this link, here is the gist. Make a quick collage every morning. Make the collage in a journal. It can be a small journal. Look in a few magazines and grab the first three images that "speak to you." also, one line of text. The whole thing should be done quickly and spontaneously. Then you meditate on the collage throughout the day, and see what it is trying to tell you about your authentic, inner self. The first collage I did was not really by the book. I cut the images out. You are supposed to tear. I think this is so you don't get too precious about it. I understand that. I did pay too much attention to the images, tried to make a theme. This collage makes me think of the Beatle's song PIGGIES. Then I wrote anxious declaratioins all over it. I seem to be constantly fighting a bad mood. Is that coming through in these collages, I wonder? (ha) My husband says, "Honey, you're 'pausin." (His word for menopause.)

The next collage followed the rules a little better, except I am doing my collages in the evening. Then I meditate on them the next day. Actually, I just look at them a few times. Maybe I should try harder. Even though I am generally skeptical of this kind of thing, I still think it is fun. Right now I have pledged to only work on one quilt, so I m not starting anything new. And I have been steadily working on the one thing, but I do feel like a diversion occasionally. This is perfect. It's junk food. It's like chocolate.




The second collage. I think I will write on that one tonight, before making the next collage.

Oh Crap! I just got a CNN alert!
S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford -- after days when his whereabouts were unknown -- says he has been unfaithful to his wife.

Oh Jeez, not again. I don't ever watch TV, but I know I will still see this guy all over the place, apologizing to everyone, with his wife standing besides him, looking like a beaten dog. I hope she doesn't do it. I hope she's "'pausin," and tells him, "Go stand up there yourself, you big Jack-Ass."

Holy Crap, a Sale!

I haven't had a sale on Etsy in 3 months. That is, until yesterday. I have sold some strange stuff on Etsy. Art that I have made, that I like, but I know that most people would think is weird at best. I think this just-sold collage is a good example of that. Why, out of all the things on Etsy, did someone come across this and buy it?

This collage comes from a set I made back in 2006. My boss is an adjunct professor at the local community college (of which I am an alumni) and he set up an art show for all of us who work here. Understand, I work in the creative department of this big ol' corporation. Pretty much everyone here went to art school. Amazingly, almost no one here makes art on their own. Most don't go to art museums either. Last year I went to a Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Philly Art Museum. I was trying to tell people about it and NO ONE KNEW WHO SHE WAS.

So anyway, we were having an art show. We ended up having to ask people outside our department to participate, but, whatever. I had been known for making art. After I graduated from college I started making large collages and had some small gallery openings and a lot of shows in coffee shops and restaurants. I was selling work. Then I went back to college briefly. That stalled my personal art making. I dropped out of school, because I could not handle that, and the new job I had just been promoted to, and the house I just bought. Oh, and I was a single mom with 2 teenagers. My creative outlet became the house, and the garden.

So there I was trying to figure out how to start making art again. I could not just pick up making the same collages that I had been. I felt I was past that, anyway. So, I began with little exercises. I would take an 8.5x11 piece of paper, and dig through my huge stash of clippings and just start doing it. I was not even too worried about how I was gluing everything, because I would take the collages to work and laminate them. It was very free and easy and I was really enjoying myself. I was using images that I had been hanging onto for years. After I finished around 20 of these collages, I realized that this was, in fact, the art. I just kept going until it was time to hang the show. I had over 60 collages, and I just tacked them up en mass on the wall. I noticed that people spent a lot of time looking at them, there was a lot going on in that body of work.

So that is where these collages came from. I have kept some of my favorites, and gave some to friends that specifically asked for them. I have managed to sell quite a few on Etsy. In fact, my first sale was one of these collages.

Supply List

Supply List for Mixed Media Textile Surfaces Workshop

We will use hand or machine stiching as needed. You may use one or both. I emphasize experimentation, so feel free to bring materials you have never worked with that you find interesting. With all materials, bring more than you think you will need because we will start with quick experiments and work our way toward a completed work.

Bring the following:
A collection of images to transfer

• Black and white laser photocopies (From photographs, your art work, or magazine pictures; look for imagery you consider to be interesting, rather than generic)
• Magazines, such as National Geographic or Smithsonian
• a yard of pre-washed 100% cotton fabric
• a jar of Golden Gel Medium
• Optional: sewing machine if it is a basic tool for you, plus an assortment of thread
• embroidery floss for hand stitchingsewing needles, assorted sizes
• Scissors
• fabric glue
• straight pins
• embroidery hoop
• Sketchbook
• pens and pencils for sketching
• 2" foam brushes, and paintbrushes, assorted sizes
• a few jars of textile paints
• Apron or work shirt

1. A collection of fabric (bring some from every catagory, a few yards of each)

thin fabric, such as cheese cloth, nylon, lace

medium and heavier fabrics, such as cotton, linen, canvas, burlap

industrial "fabric" such as naylon window screen and woven plastic

• "found" textiles, such as old pieces from your family or from a flea market, upholstery or others, such as clothing that may have sentimental value, all should be suitable for cutting up and redeveloping, such as paintings on canvas or photographs.

you may also bring needlework, weavings, hand made felt, or found objects in any textile mediums to deconstruct/construct into collages. (this is a good time to clean out your art/textile/sewing supplies and bring them with you)

More Art Club

Yesterday was the second meeting of Art Club. This was the day that everyone assembled their collages from the images they had collected previously. I didn't really know what to expect, although I did know what I was hoping for. I guess I was hoping for undiscovered genius! What I ended up with was a lot of cool collages and a group of people that really seem to be having fun.

I learned that I should not let people take their projects home, because they may not come back again! A couple of people had to start from scratch, but no big deal.

I set apart a special table as the glitter station. I love glitter, and so does everyone else, but Jeez, what a mess. I have 4 ARC employees helping helping me when I do this, and I am so grateful. Two of the helpers made collages themselves, and I loved that they did that. (I will save those images for another day.) One of them says she paints, but I think the other guy does not normally make art. Once you get out of school, I don't think there are many opportunities for the average person to make art unless they are really driven to do it. I want to make art club for the whole world!

Now that we have assembled collages, next week we will adhere them to black presentation board and have a mini show. I'm hoping to get everyone to be able to talk about their collage and tell why they picked certain images. I expect this to be a challenge, as it was in class critiques in college! I think it is hard to put into words some of the things that go on in our brains.

I have been saving large pieces of paper from work, I mean the ends of paper rolls, so that if we are done early, we can have a group draw, like we had at Kate's Valentines day party. That seems to go over well.

I decided to make a separate blog for Art Club. Have a look if you get a chance.

ART CLUB!

Art club went down pretty well. Everyone seemed to get what I was talking about. I showed them some famous art, (Mona Lisa, American Gothic, The Scream, Andy Warhol's Marilyn.)

I gave everyone a large envelope to hold their works-in-progress. Then we talked about collage and different ways we could make them. Most of my students seemed to go with a theme. Two women have horse themes going. One woman likes witches. A man named Matt was completely taken with a map of Nova Scotia I had out there with all of the magazines. He cut out a bunch of flowers and a man and woman to go with the map. I'm looking forward to seeing that collage finished. Another man cut out pictures of flags, soldiers and diamond jewelry. Eric, known as Eric Scissorhands, sat down and went right to work doing what he likes to do, cutting out letters and words. He made an art club sign for me! I asked him if he would like to try cutting out some pictures and he very politely declined. I said that was fine because this is Art Club, not Make Your Collage My Way Club! However, by the end of the night, he was cutting out beach scenes.
The aerial view is a picture of Kate with Jimmy, who laughed like a hyaena when ever he saw a picture of a toilet. I could not get over how many toilets he managed to come across.

The problem I see coming is that I needed two days to do this, but I have three. I will have to come up with another project, but I think I can. My next class is April 28th

I Teach My First Class Today!

Here is the description of the class I will teach as it appears in the Hunterdon ARC recreation newsletter:

"In the first session of Art Club we will be exploring collage. Collage is great because you can use pictures of things instead of drawing. There are so many printed images in all of our magazines and newspapers, just waiting for us to use them in new ways! In class #1 we will be looking at the collages that other artists make to get inspiration. We will also be searching for images we would like to use. In class #2 we will assemble our images and add other elements, such as glitter, stars, paint, colored paper, or anything else we can think of. In the final class, we will finish assembling the collages and mount them to black board for display. We will have a mini show and admire eachother's work."

I have been daydreaming about this class and preparing for it since January. I can't really tell if I am actually ready or not. Guess I will find out.

I decided to do this for 2 reasons. Kate would come home form a craft activity at the ARC and say to me, "I could have done this better, but we ran out of time." Because of this I wanted to propose a 3 day class so that these people would have enough time to really do what they want to do. The other reason I decided to do this was because of a visit I made to a career counselor recently. We talked about what I would rather be doing with my life, and I know I would love to be a teacher. I know it really isn't too late, but I just don't feel like going back to college AND working AND taking care of everything Kate needs AND trying to have a life with my husband and making art. So, this a way for me to get some experience teaching, and maybe getting a foot in the door at a non-profit like the ARC.

I have visions of the people in the class creating fascinating examples of outsider art. One thing I would like to do is scan in all of the collages and creating a set of note cards that can be bought by the community and would benefit "Art Club." Eventually I will become creative director of a place like Creativity Explored. A person can dream, can't they?

First Saturday of Spring

The weather is reasonable today, for March. Supposed to be sunny and in the 50's. I think I can get some things done. My week was a little crazy. Monday my parents came over for dinner, Tuesday was ARC talent show rehearsals, home at 10 pm, Wednesday we sat down and did our taxes, 'nuff said, Thursday is Kate's social group, and yesterday she went to a St. Pat's day dance. It went from 7:30 to 9:30, so that broke up the evening just enough that I didn't really do much. On top of this, work has been very busy and that feeling of rushed insanity is not easily shaken off after I leave.

Enough whining. I have already straightened up the downstairs and I think I'm going to take a sewing break. I want to finish up the Gee's Bend Poseur quilt and get that on to Etsy.  I haven't put anything new on Etsy in quite a while. I also want to re-take some of the photos of  merchandise that were taken inside during the winter. When I sell a quilt I am inevitably told that it looks much better in person. 

I might have a conflict this year between my garden and my sewing. I am an avid gardener, and I think it really adds to our quality of life during the summer. It's nice to sit outside and look at flowers, not to mention all of the creatures it attracts. I directed a lot of my creative energy towards gardening when I wasn't making art. A couple of summers ago I turned our garden shed into a project. I painted the inside, then I collaged the ceiling. It became this major undertaking as I searched for images that suited the theme. I have some older pictures of it, fortunately, because right now it is jammed up with lawn furniture. I'm afraid to open the door, it will all fall out on top of me!

PS You realize that the garden doesn't look like this now. This is probably June.

Kate's Project

When I came home from work the other day, Kate was in the studio. She was raiding the scrap bin for scraps with WonderUnder on them. She was making a collage on a little tote bag.

Peter's Valley has put up their course listings for the year. http://www.petersvalley.org/ They always have interesting classes. The two I am most interested in are Mixed Media Textile Surfaces and Deeply Layered Images, which has to do with printing on fabric. The first one is over Memorial Day Weekend, the second is Labor day weekend. I'm wondering if I should have Kate come along. It will be fun for her, and I would not have to worry about who will take care of her over the weekend, but on the other hand, I will spend a lot of time during the course helping her. I've never even been to P-Valley, but I've been hearing about it for years.

I am going to teach a Mixed Media art class to the ARC that Kate belongs to in the Spring (I can't wait to blog about that!) Thinking of that, maybe I can take some time just for me for a change.