www.notpaper.net

This is a really cool blog. Seriously!
April Elcich has compiled a large array of collage artists thoughts and opinions thru a small email interview format. I like this format so much, I love a good interview!
There's so much there, and so many interesting artists... I feel humbled. Poor collage clearinghouse can't keep up with such admirable dedication!
I really liked her google map, with pins showing the locations of her various interviewees. I do enjoy international artists a lot and this blog has featured people from all around the world. Cheers to April and the good work being done on Not Paper!

Alexis Mackenzie — Collage of nature

Hope the holidays are progressing nicely for YOU. We are halfway there, with New Years on our horizon. I am almost finished with the multitudinous family events that have taken over my life for the past 2 months and today finally I am back on the blog again. Hello again! It feels good to be back. I felt as though I left my own life for awhile.
So, lets look at some new stuff.

I was cleaning out my bookmarks list (how DOES that list get so long so quick? I am a surfing fool) and I found this old link to an interview on Fecal Face with Alexis Mackenzie. I must have found it on a day that I already had interesting things to post here, and there the bookmark sat, lonely in my Firefox list....since April. So without further adieu.

Q: What do you get when you mix Victorian ladies, flowers, bats, gems, and bones?
A: Collage work by Alexis Mackenzie

Alexis Mackenzie does meticulous collage work. According to the fecal face article, she is very particular about her ephemera and only uses original pieces, no copies. (I think this is a common policy among collagists. I think that using originals certainly helps your copyright usage issues, and it may also be one small way to separate fine art collage from scrapbooking). I really enjoy her surrealistic natural settings. They are colorful, imaginative, and inventive. I share her love of old ladies dressed in insanely elaborate clothing. She uses these ladies freely and places them in colorfully poetic settings. I love it. I just want to be in this picture floating above a rock with an owl offering me a flowering sprig.

Her website is here, but there more to be found image wise on her flickr pages.
Sweet surreal stuff.

Happy Birthday Collage Clearinghouse!!

Happy Birthday to Collage Clearinghouse!!! You are 2 years old today!
On a fateful December day 2 years ago, I began writing this blog. It was a journey that has taken me all over the place. I have met people, shared with people, got pissed at people, learned from the people. It's so great to communicate. I am still happy to be here. I know sometimes the posts are lean and it's difficult always to drum up heavy enthusiasm when your checkbook is empty, your holiday seems lacking, and your family is driving you nuts. I try always to return here tho, and finally when the dust settles on all the craziness, it's here where my most important moments are spent.

Jay of blue
This weekend, I began the very late task of getting my Christmas together. For this year, I made my Dad and grandmother a card. For the rest of my immediate loving family I have made tag cards our of old cards, vintage cards and wrapping paper.

Santa on black
I plan to put a bunch of interesting little ribbon and ornamentals on the top thru the hole. Then these tags will rest in a slit on the front of a card made of nice paper. Inside I will write sweet nothings to the recipient.

Christmas Polar Bear Fairy
The ornament/tag they can pull out and hang on the tree. Double duty style. Card/ornament. ornament/card.

Cardinal Christmas
These are rather pathetic excuses for fine art collage. But at this time of year, I turn to a more craftwardly (!! a new word!) way of looking at things. I can't send Santa tags with disjointed legs and 2 mouths to my elderly Grandmother. It just isn't proper. I can send her a cute little red bird sitting on top of vintage ribbon on a tag tho....this is something she will like. At times, I just want something with a crafty older world feel to it--that Scrapbook look. Something homemade that will tickle the fancy of those I love.
Soon enough, I can return to the crazed pieced together world that I live in. For now, I tone it down, sort of like how Rudolph toned down that darn red nose before reindeer Christmasland found out his nose would lead Santa in the snowy night!

Who did this Work?

I am finally back in my own life again and it feels like an explosion. As it usually goes when I get a bunch of free time, my brain has gone crazy and visited new internal places and has come up with all sorts of new ideas. I am anxious to get back to creating --sharing-- and of course, blogging! So lets get a move on!

I got an email from Ethan Kirschner with an identification question. He has this image and is looking to see who the artist is that created it. It looks familiar to me, and I know I have seen it before, but where? I cannot immediately recall. I even think this person was featured here on the blog...the eyes are so familiar....

Was it you? Do you know who did this work??

Family Leave??

Do blogs come with a family medical leave option???
I have been absent from my job, absent from my beloved studio and home, and absent from the life I normally lead which includes this blog! Due to family events, including a 1 week stay in Wilmington, NC and now another stay for 4 days in Boston, I have had to turn my attention to closer personal matters and help the family. I have to admit, it's difficult for me to leave my comfort zone. I used to be a traveler and not care where I was or where I went. But as I get older, I feel the effect of being away from my normal life and passions. It wears me down. My trip to see my daughter in North Carolina was way overdue, since I have not gone down to see her at her home in 7 years. (yes, we saw each other several times, just in NY, not in NC!) Just when I thought I would be able to settle down in my own life again, my sister had an injury and needed some immediate neurosurgery on her neck. I was called upon to help her recover in Boston. So here I am. And here we are. No posts in a few weeks.
Sometimes circumstances take priority, and then it's time to live. Time to be the person that you dream of in those lonely moments inside your head while you are creating. This is the substance of life. Living it is not optional! So I have had to put this blog on hold for a couple of weeks, but you have to believe that inside I am craving my life back. Soon enough I will burst again on this blog scene and fill your heads with a conglomerate of insane things!
Meanwhile, go and live a bit!! Enjoy the quiet.