COVID musical tribute

The lyrics of this song were written by my friend and collage art mentor Jonathan Talbot. Here's to all the healthcare workers on the front lines, helping us through these trying times.

Exploratory phase

At this point, during the "lockdown" of the COVID-19 pandemic, I am still in the "cleaning out and organizing" phase of working in my "studio". My "studio" is my basement, and it is quite a sight to behold (perhaps I will post photos of that soon); in that it is quite chaotic. Some collage artists have their elements filed in drawers or envelopes by color or subject or smoother organizing system. I tend to exist in a creative world of chaos. It has served me well; and perhaps represents the "accidental" and emergent properties of my work. I like to experiment and discover or "re-discover" elements without premeditation. Anyway, I also like to simply explore -- to peruse vintage publications; to discover; to contemplate. And oftentimes, I will explore further, using the internet to learn about vintage products or people. I came across this 1947 advertisement for "Muffets" the other night.

I was particularly intrigued by the fact that the artist signed his work for this advertisement. So I looked-up "vintage Bill Fleming" using Google. I anticipated that I might not get any meaningful results -- that the artist might just be an obscure "ad man" with no notable web presence. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Mr. Fleming WAS in the internet ether and that images of his vintage work are still available on posters and other products. Here is a cover he did for a pulp fiction book back in the day:

Collage... always interesting and stimulating for me... even in the clean-up, organizing, and exploratory phase!

Colored eggs

Once again, not collage-related, but art-related nonetheless. One of the things that has changed dramatically for me during the COVID-19 pandemic, is the amount of time I spend in my house (which is, effectively, almost ALL of the time... I do go fo daily walks). Normally, I spend a lot of time socializing in one arena or another. Yesterday, I decided to try to hand-paint some hard-boiled eggs. These are a bit rough around the edges; but I like them anyway. SO, here's to wishing EVERYONE a happy day and wishing EVERYONE hope for more beautiful days in the future. Hang in there everyone!

Meaty

Well, this is kind of silly... but, as I have stated before, I LOVE looking through vintage magazines! And I LOVE the advertisements, especially. I was looking through a Ladies Home Journal and came across advertisements for FOUR different processed canned meats. Together with meat and vegetable gelatin molds, what were these folks thinking about!? I mean, it's not like we're craving that "traditional" food ;-) ... but I'd try it!

found again

One of the many positive aspects of collage, is that the medium involves procurement and perusal of various sources of potential compositional elements. From vintage books and magazines, to calendars and contemporary science publications, the variety of materials seems almost endless. Oftentimes, when I might be feeling perhaps less "creative" in the evening, I will still head down to my studio and  go through old books or magazines and enjoy just looking at visual elements. I might page through a Life magazine from the 1950s and rip out pages that I might use in the future for my collages. Over the last 5-7 years, I have accrued quite a stack of hundreds of single ripped-out pages of what I consider interesting elements. Last night, as I was looking through that stack, I came across these gems. Although I remember most all of the pages I have rioted out, I didn't remember the temperance page. Quite interesting I think. And I certainly will NOT be signing that page any time soon (especially given what we are all going through these days!). I love the St. Stephen image too. How did he die? He was "stoned" to death (haha). Anyway, just thought I'd share these "re-found" images, in lieu of anything that I have created (that'll be the next post, perhaps).