Sister City of Wonder

"Sister City of Wonder"
The "City of Wonder" is one of my earlier assemblage 'city scapes'.  This piece is the 'sister City' to the 'City of Wonder" . .  . does that make sense? 

I absolutely love working with art materials that have a story to tell, a past, a history. Every element in this cityscape had a previous life, being something else. Here, they have all been transformed into a city scape with a new story to tell, and a bright and interesting future.

The four 'buildings' in this piece are made of wood. Two of them are scrap lumber (#2 & #4 above) 2x2 pine and 4x4 mahogany from the Dave the Cabinet maker.

The other two are most interesting.  
#1 is made from a hand made chess piece, found at a garage sale a few years ago.  At the time I did not know what it was, but i loved the patina on the oak and the signature and date on the bottom. As luck would have it, I did not photograph the piece before papering it. I only found out later what it was from my studio mate, 'Cliff' who knows about all these things. 
On top of the chess piece (staring at the fish) I positioned 2 additional pieces of wood, a 1" slice of 4x4 and a 4" piece of 2x2 that has been shaped on top, to form the skyscraper.

#2 began as a hand carved incense burner tower, similar to this:

All four 'buildings' are covered in text from a 1926 dictionary, and washed in an off white paint/varnish finish, cut out images from the same dictionary are collaged on top. Each building is embellished with bits and bling, top to bottom.

 

The base is a wooden box, unsure of it's origin. Possibly made to hold candles.  I lined the bottom with 'canvas shims' or tightening keys, and created an inlaid soft-wood floor for the the cityscape.

My friend Paula, who is a prolific painter, gave me a bag full of these shims, asking me if I had any use for them. 

I didn't, but I found one . . . 

Thanks for stopping by. let me know what you think of this city scape. I would love your thoughts.

Have a creative 2015, everyone!