"Come To The Edge"

"Come To The Edge"   ●

    I absolutely love this quote, which is widely attributed to Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918), a French poet / writer of Italian birth and Polish descent, was hugely influential as a Modernist poet and as a spokesman for the Cubist painters.

"Come to the edge he said. 

They said, we are afraid. 

Come to the edge he said. 

They came. 

He pushed them, and they flew." 

   I have made two other pieces using this quote, and I think many other people really like it too, because I continue to have more requests for it in my art.
   This scrabble tile art piece is constructed inside a wooden frame, covered in various tissues. The tiles are placed atop a cut portion of the lid of a wine box fitted inside the frame.  Six inches of vintage wooden yardstick finish the piece.  A colorful Mexican parrot, and a small brass bell, calls you to 'the edge'.
   One thing I have not been able to figure out about this quote is: What was Apollinaire referring to when he wrote this.
Do you know?  Share with me if you do.

"Stages"

"Stages"  ●

This piece was commissioned by Kim from Virginia, who saw my work on this blog and wanted to surprise her best friend Paula who lives in Massachusetts with a piece of scrabble art for her birthday. Over the phone, Kim told me that she and Paula had been friends since they were young girls, and.now with families of their own, and living in different states, they don't see each other as often as they would like. She asked if I would create a scrabble art piece with a sentiment that expressed her appreciation for her life-long friendship with Paula.

Kim provided the quote, which is attributed to Jane Coltrane by some sources and to Anonymous by others.

“Everyone has a best friend during each stage of life. 

Only a precious few have the same one for all stages of life.”

She left the rest up to me. This is what I came up with. I shipped off the finished piece to Paula last week, she will have received it by now. . . . I do hope she loves it.

 

 Wooden tray holds scrabble tiles spelling out the quote. A metal picture frame was cut to make the corner embellishments and 3 heart cookie cutters finish the piece. The back is collaged with a vintage map of Australia (just because it looked good) and overlaid with McCall's pattern tissue.  Ready to hang.

It's Still Life . . . .

I am thrilled to let everyone know that one of my photographs will be featured
in Seth Apter's blog, The Altered Page next Sunday,

August 5th as part of his series ‘It’s Still Life’.

Do check it out!

"More Than Words"

 

"More Than Words" ●

This piece began with a 'mannequin' head, the kind used by cosmetology school students to 'practice' cutting/styling hair and or applying make-up.  First, I cut the hair, then shaved the head smooth.

Initially, I was taken by the lack of expression on the face of the mannequin. However, when when I started layering it with vintage text, it began to take on a persona all it's own, really. 

When I started working on this piece I was not sure where it was going. The text came from a 1926 volume of the 'Book of Knowledge" destined for the dumpster.  The tissue-like texture of the pages was easy to work with, the paper clung to the mannequin head without a fuss.

Initially I was only going to use pages of text from the book to cover the head, but in the end the book itself became part of the finished piece. I was drawn to the wear shown on the hard cover of this near 90 year old book. The gold imprinted lettering seemed to be desperately clinging to it's cloth cover.

It seems odd to say, but this piece practically made itself, telling me what it wanted to become. The stainless steel drawer pulls anchor the piece. The lazy-susan component from the bottom of a revolving spice rack was the perfect addition,  allowing the head to turn this way and that.

The black beads around her neck are from a broken abacus from my stash and the colorful beaded sash on the side, adds the needed splash of color.

Words can speak volumes, but there are times when words simply aren't enough.

I came a cross this Stephen Hawking quote, that seemed appropriate:

"For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something

happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk

and we learned to listen. Speech has allowed the communication of ideas,

enabling human beings to work together to build the impossible.

Mankind's greatest achievements have come about by talking,

and its greatest failures by not talking."