Holiday surprise

 I have had a couple of unfortunate experiences over the past several years of finding an element that I REALLY would like to use, only to have it "ruined" by the ink from the reverse side bleeding through after coating. For example, when I coated this iconic image from LIFE magazine, ink from the reverse side of the page bled through...

Of course, the question of whether to use such an emotionally-charged and sensitive image is the topic of another post, perhaps. The point that I am trying to make is that the coating process can sometimes "ruin" an element. I only had this example; but it has happened a number of times. I tried using this colored mat to test whether I could make the element "work". But I was not satisfied. Some folks have suggested that I make a photocopy of the element, and coat that. Sorry folks, I only do analog collage -- so that option is not going to be a remedy.

The same bleeding-through happened with this element (but I didn't take a photo of the "ruined" image):

Which brings me to my holiday surprise. I recently came across this image -- which I was very excited about using as a compositional element:

When I coated the page (it was very thin paper -- newspaper-like), the ink from the reverse side bled through. Once again, I was very disappointed that the image was rendered "unusable". Instead of throwing it out, I set it aside in a pile in the standard chaos of my studio. When I was cleaning my studio a bit this week, I was very pleasantly surprised to find it, and discover that the bleed through had disappeared (perhaps as a result of thorough drying?). I'm re-energized to work with this element. I suspect you will recognize it in a new composition for 2023!