Happy Go Lucky

Day 30 of the 30-in-30 challenge ...

... which means, this piece is the last one for now, and as you can see, I am ending on a happy note.

It was quite funny how most of the ingredients for this piece were already sitting on my worktable but I didn't see their connections before. The girl (which originally is a doll) with those bandaids on her cheeks - why didn't I see that she was trying to hide her dimples.

So, this all came together as a little story about superstition and how everyone is the architect of her or his own fortune.

Mixed media: acrylics, book clippings, yellowed edges from book pages, ink, on cradled wood panel, 8" x 10"

This Is Not Goodbye

Day 29 of the 30-in-30 challenge

The image of the little Mork figure came from a collector's guide which I like to use for this and that. The book had been published way before Robin Williams died from suicide. I hardly remember watching the Mork and Mindy show, I think, I didn't like it, to be honest. 

Until I was a young adult, suicide was a subject that didn't seem to effect me at all. I heard about it, read about it, it was a strange thought, and people only whispered about it.

And then I found out about the suicide of my friend's boyfriend. He had been missing for a week and then was found in the woods.

Another friend shared with me that her father took his life when she was a child still. She found him hours later after he had shot himself.

A former neighbor decided to end his life, he left a letter that didn't explain anything.

I was shocked when Anthony Bourdain left. He seemed so fulfilled - why did I think that? Today I was listening to some 80s charts and learned that Robert Palmer took his life 15 years ago. I didn't know.

Suicide, it seems to be the answer for the ones who are leaving, but only raises questions for the ones who are staying. I don't know what to say or think or feel about this other than sadness.

Mixed media: acrylics, inside of the front soft cover of a 70s space collector's album, book clippings, fly leaf scrap, 45rpm record sleeve, on cradled wood panel, 9" x 12"

Last Call

Day 28 of the 30-in-30 challenge.

What can I say about this piece. Two fish are having their last conversation with each other before ending up to be a feast. A chance to talk one more time about the weather, or to finally make up and sing a duet. 

Mixed media: acrylics, fly leaf, storybook clippings, ink, on cradled wood panel, 8" x 8"

Ghost City

Day 27 of the 30-in-30 challenge

I have quite a few sets of old playing cards because I like them and because they appear to be so versatile. Yet I haven't used any - until today.

My concept for this piece was to create the unearthly atmosphere of an abandoned city. The buildings are represented by playing cards, in this case old NFL merchandising cards with a simple back design. I chose yellow for the sky to suggest pollution or even a nuclear fallout that made this town uninhabitable.

I used a portion of the gray backside of an old album cover to make a street, and added gum - the Wrigley's - as relics of the people who used to live and work there and who had spit out the gum on the sidewalks.

The arrow on the gum package underlines the exodus.
 

Mixed media: acrylics, old playing cards, album cover, clipping from an antique collector's guide, on cradled wood panel, 12" x 12"

Casual Friday

Day 26 of the 30-in-30

Happy Friday, everyone!

Technically, this is yesterday's piece because I have been one day behind for a while.

Anyways - last night, I made wee little t-shirts for these well-deserving workers so that they would be all set for Casual Friday. Seems that they are feeling quite happy in them.

I assembled the colony on the hardcover front of "Colonial Living." I came across a 1964 edition at an estate sale recently and liked its very dingy and mouse-eaten look. It's one of those books which I truly enjoy taking apart, and this was a perfect opportunity, don't you think?

Mixed media: acrylics, storybook clippings, fly leaf scraps, ink; on vintage book hardcover front on cradled wood panel, 11" x 14"

You Are My Home

Day 25 of the 30-in-30 challenge.

I made this for my husband because he is.

Mixed media: acrylics, torn edges from aged book pages, clippings from storybooks and a used adult coloring book, ink, on cradled wood panel, 11" x 14"

Diversion

Day 24 of the 30-in-30 challenge.

I titled this little piece "Diversion" even though it would have been more accurate if I had added "... from the Facts." I didn't do it because that would have sounded over-the-top yet very boring.

Anyways, who would have thought that the entire controversy about creationism versus evolution theory would fit just fine into the small center hole of a 45rpm record sleeve?

I am very pleased with how this piece turned out. It is such a simple composition but it works very well in terms of shapes and colors, I think. You may also have noticed that the center makes a googly eye. Well, would you look at that!

Mixed media: acrylics, EPIC record sleeve, storybook clipping, cut-out from a science teaching book, on cradled wood panel, 10" x 10"