Making A New Collage, with a Little Video Slideshow

I always like to look at artwork that is a little complicated, that has layers and different techniques and media, things to engage, and to puzzle out. So mixed media collage art almost always draws me.

Although the process was not new, collage got its place of importance in the early 1900's art world from Picasso and George Braque, who coined the term, from the French word, meaning "to glue". Other artists of the era, such as Henri Matisse, an impressionist painter, began working in collage, in works like the famous "Icarus".

Although my recent art focus has been painting, just lately I've worked on a few collages. Not ones with clean, simple lines like this lovely Matisse, but more layered and complex works.

I started this new mixed media collage by first laying down both cut and torn papers, including text from old book pages, prints of some of my photography and acrylic paintings on art paper, onto a wood panel, glued down with Golden semi-gloss gel.

 Acrylic paint, colored pencil, conte crayon (similar to chalk pastels), sprayed layers of fixative, were then layered onto the base layer of papers.

A few more bits of paper collage and a some final subtle mark making were added.

I made a short video slideshow of the making of this collage in the movie making program Open Shot that I am in the process of learning.

The cool music on this movie is called Mirage, and is from the YouTube audio library of free music.


Here are some of the supplies I used to create this collage. Click to see details on Amazon.



 And most important for all the shading:   

Ladies and Gentlemen...The BEATLES!

    A couple of years ago, my eldest daughter wanted an original piece of art from me for her birthday. Like all of our family, she loves The Beatles, and her favorite song is "A Day in the Life". I was so excited to find an image of John's hand written manuscript for that song to incorporate into a mixed media collage for my daughter. (Warning, these are not professional quality photos of these pieces, just what I took at home..the lighting is not so great.)

   The next year she expected a new piece in the series. (I didn't know it was a series.) And I did Paul, and found his writing of the lyrics for "Hey Jude", which my daughter and I sang along with him (and thousands of others) a number of years ago at a concert in Dallas when she was about 13.  (My oldest son was also there; he was working the show and had set up, handled Paul's instruments, and sat with us for a while before the show began.) It was awesome; I cried.

The Beatles In Their Own Write Series so far, mixed media collage

This May I did the latest, George, with his handwritten words to "Something", a song that B loves and has often said she wants played at her wedding.

The epilogue to this is that later in the month we took my youngest daughter R on a long (school night) road trip to Tulsa, amid the risk and reality of tornadoes and severe thunderstorms, to see Paul McCartney in concert. What a fabulous night!..even if we were soaking wet during the concert...and we were... 

Paul rocked long and hard, sang all the songs you'd want to hear, was charming, energetic, nostalgic, dynamic...and as her first real concert, all the shooting fire and indoor fireworks during "Live and Let Die" really blew my 15 year old away. (You can see pieces of this concert tour at youtube, and even of the Tulsa concert we attended. With the pyrotechnics.) I was so touched and emotional during his tributes to John and to George, and with the lovely Linda moment of "Maybe I'm Amazed", such a wonderful song, but my most emotional and moving moment was during the sing-along portion of "Hey Jude", once again, looking over and seeing R and Edward singing along. I felt teary, exulted, grateful, included in a meaningful community experience, full of love.

On the Dark Path—Out in the World and Available for Purchase

It was a long wait, but last week I mailed the fairy tale anthology to 47 poets, from the US, Canada, Spain and Jamaica  (I was in the post office an hour! I didn't know you had to fill out custom forms for Canada. Also, discovered there is no international Book Rate or as it is known now, Media Mail...not even for Canada. On the upside, I did see two ducks waddling across the PO parking lot in the rain.)

On the Dark Path is also now available from Amazon.

Fairy Tale Poetry Anthology Ready Soon

“On the Dark Path is a hauntingly beautiful collection of poems that lead us deeper into these ancient tales than we’ve been before. Powerful, surprising, sometimes brutal, these poems enchant the imagination and linger in the mind for days.”        
                       —Michelle Rhea, editor Incarnate Muse Press                                    

                       
So happy—the book is almost finished. We have the proof copy in our hands, and it looks wonderful! We have a couple of minor changes to make and are still looking at it closely. I have to admit that there were times that I doubted this anthology would ever be born.

We even have a reading and release party already set up, thanks to Karen X Minzer at WordSpace.

What: Book Release: On the Dark Path: An Anthology of Fairy Tale Poetry
When: Saturday, May 11, 7 pm
Where: Lucky Dog Books, 633 W. Davis, Dallas (Oak Cliff)

Speaking to us from the woods and the cottage, from the marriage bed, the hospital bed, the writing group and the camps at Dachau, the forty-eight poets in this anthology of poems based on traditional fairy tales, edited by DFW poet and longtime fairy tale enthusiast Anita M. Barnard, bring their personal worlds to the fairy tale and the fairy tale out into the world at large. The reading will feature some of the local poets whose works appear in the book.

May Day Poem and History

Happy Mayday!

Today I thought I'd share a May poem from about 12 years ago. The daughter in question is now a beautiful young woman who will be turning 24 later this month.



My Daughter in Baptist Youth
for Brenna, age 12


Sometimes I throw out words,
casual, not an issue,
words like Maia, Athena, Mara,
names of goddesses.
Words like myth and story
when we speak of these old tales
and dictums, histories of magic
and supernatural cruelties,
campsite tips - things we are
told to live our lives by.

Sometimes, her faith
held tight in her young heart,
she balks, challenges,
walks away, hurt and tearing.
And so I keep it easy, thrown in,
aside. The myths an option,
all the other stories - tidbits,
tastes of all belief,
the names sprinkled in like salt.

Sometimes, on a spring night,
we come together, blissful,
around a leaping fire,
roast marshmallows and
admire the flowers resurrected
after winter.
Celebrate Beltane, her birthmonth,
bring in the May.


by Anita M. Barnard
published in Above Us Only Sky
Incarnate Muse Press 2003





This is also Beltaine. The Celtic festival "Beltine (or Beltaine) was celebrated on 1 May, a spring-time festival of optimism. Fertility ritual again was important, in part perhaps connecting with the waxing power of the sun, symbolized by the lighting of fires through which livestock were driven, and around which the people danced in a sunwise direction."  -Nora Chadwick (from Wikipedia, where you can read more). We love a festival involving fires and often make a fire in the fire pit on this evening...it also makes a good excuse for roasting vegetables (or marshmallows) over the wood fire.

May 1st is also Labor Day in many countries.

The vintage Maypole image is from the Graphics Fairy.

More Small Stories, Mixed Media Collage

First of all -

Happy Halloween!

"Orange Man" carved by Edward

I've just finished straightening up in GIMP some more of the Small Stories series of small collages on poplar wood panels. This batch starts the ones that I made most recently, from mid-September to mid-October. Sometimes it seems that tinkering around with the images to get the colors and everything right takes longer than making the pieces...today is one of those times.

Small Stories 10

Small Stories 11

Small Stories 12

Small Stories 13

Thanks once again to the Graphics Fairy for the vintage hand in the last collage.
This post i linked here.

New Poetry Anthology by Incarnate Muse Press

Michelle Rhea and Anita M. Barnard of Incarnate Muse Press are proud, pleased and relieved to announce that the second Volume of the poetry anthology, Above Us Only Sky, is now at the printers and will be available soon through the website, and in time for the Los Angeles reading on Sunday, November 23 at 11am. Center for Inquiry Los Angeles, 4773 Hollywood Blvd. The event including lunch is free and open to the public.

I will not be attending because of various family responsibilities in Texas and Iowa that week, but Michelle will be there, a few of the poets appearing in the anthology, and a couple of guest readers who will be reading poetry from both volumes 1 and 2.

This is one of my favorite poems from the first volume of Above Us Only Sky.

I am always amazed

that most people
believe in that which
they cannot see

and belittle me
for being agnostic--
a coarse, flip-flopping description
of omission

they do not understand

not knowing
is beautiful
it opens the world
to me like an iris

I am not adrift but in search
not for an end but a be-ing
in harmony not with the river's
source but its flow

we are surrounded by
mystery
only believers surrender to it
and I yearn to divine it

the point is not
where the spirit
comes from but
where it leads

which for me is
to earth
and I have no need
to worship it



Dan Logan



© 2003. All rights remain with authors.