ArtiphyTheHeart

Thinning The Stack

As I've said many times before, collage is dialogue.  Image speaks to artist, artist listens, interprets, talks back to image with scissors and marks, reinterprets and so on, until the conversation is finished.  

It takes going through a lot of images and pulling only those that strike a chord.  It's a very "of the moment" kind of thing.  The rest get tossed.  Or sorted and saved, if they have potential.  After a while, the very act of tossing and saving becomes instinctive, bypassing conscious thought and becoming more an extention of the limbs than an activity of the brain.

That's what I'm doing today.  Weeding my garden.  Thinning the stack.  Out with the old to make room for the new.

Happy New Year!

 

 

 

The Forgotten Page

This is only a backdrop.  It's a beginning.  A bare-naked  journal page.  

I just finished binding another book and I did a flip-through video of the raw pages.  It's just to inform me.  It's what the signatures looked like in the book upon binding with the minimal prep that was done before they were stitched into the spine.  The video isn't pretty or interesting.  The lighting is bad and it was taken with a cell phone in one hand while manipulating the book with the other.  

But I want a complete record to look back on, and I don't want to do the video over again, so here's the page I flipped past.  Now I can compare my before and after as soon as the after is complete.  

For the curious--those hell-bent on self punishment--here's a link to the flip-through:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfVkAEfGSbc  

You'll need the link if you want to see the video because it isn't public on YouTube.  Don't expect to be impressed.  Even the cover is bare.  At some point it will be collaged, or printed, or something. But for now, it's all just bones.

 

Koulourakia

Creativity isn't just about artwork.  Today it's about cookies.  For the Greeks, koulourakia is a traditional Easter cookie.  But being half Russian and half German, I make them all year round.  Especially at Christmas time.  Very yummy butter cookies with sesame seeds.  Not too sweet, and with a teaspoon of ground Mastiha, or Mastic from Chios.  It takes a while to grind the resin into a smooth, white powder, but it's worth the effort, and it smells wonderful!

Page In Progress

Another sketchbook page with freehand stitching.  Images from Nancy Baumiller's Collage Play With Crowabout sheets, wing from Laura Kirste Campbell's "Old World Flourish" Layers Of Color collection.  

If I decide to do much more to this than just finish the border, maybe I'll repost.  Otherwise, you get the idea.

Adding Stitches

 

Just playing.  I wanted to see how hard it would be to add some hand stitching to something in a spiral sketchbook without ripping out the page.  Not difficult at all.