Lesson Learned

Have you ever had it happen where you're just going along, minding your business, when someone bursts your bubble?

It could be a rude cashier at the grocery store who interrupts your otherwise pleasant day, or a snide remark on Facebook that you weren't expecting.  I'm sure we've all had that happen to us at some point in our lives.

A few days ago, I had my confidence shaken about my art.  I was just going along, minding my own business, when I had someone say some not-so-nice things about this piece, which I had just finished:

I quite liked it.  I liked the way the yellow matched the frame.  I liked the bursts of red here and there.  I liked how the theme carried throughout the piece.

And hey - I totally understand that my art isn't for everyone!  Ephemeraologists, you may run into this more than other, more "conventional" artists - some folks just don't understand the appeal of the vintage ephemera or why we'd deign to cut it up and use it in art.  I'm used to that, and it doesn't bother me at all!  In fact, I use the confusion to educate people on collage as an art form, or the importance of ephemera in our lives.  :)

But the comment I received was much deeper than that - the person said, "It doesn't look like you care at all about what you create."

OUCH.

Instead of following this rule (thanks, National Art Shop!) -

I threw out the piece.  Yep, it is now in the Big Recycling Bin in the Sky.  

Even though I had an existential crisis this weekend, I don't regret the toss.  I still have the image and although I no longer have the physical piece (plus a couple more that I also threw out), I have the reminder that I should never apologize for the work that I do.  I liked this piece enough to send it out in the world, and I should've stood my ground.  But it did allow me to think about new directions my art will be taking, and for that I'm grateful.

Ephemeraologists, I didn't write this post to garner sympathy; quite the opposite!  I wrote it to serve as a reminder that you should never apologize for the work you do.  Just keep rockin' the vintage ephemera and putting it out into the world - we need artists like you!!!  :D

Summer Relaxation, 1973

I think with any generation, there are certain items that will always bring about a feeling of nostalgia.  For me, it's those lawn chairs from the '60s and '70s.

You know the kind I mean - the nylon-webbed chairs that always left an impression on your be-shorted legs, and which were quite uncomfortable, actually.  But for those of us who were born in the US and Canada between 1950 and 1980, whose parents didn't own at least a pair of these babies?

So when I found a picture of one in this fabulous Loblaw catalog from 1961.....

 I knew I had to do something with it:

I used watered-down acrylics for the background, and sewed the grass and sun.  But I wanted the lawn chair to be the star of the piece.  And yes, I did X-Acto out each of those tiny square from in between the webbing.  It took an hour, but I think it's worth it.  :)

I'm happy to report that this piece has already sold! :)  I have a few more photos of lawn chairs I can use, so I think I'll make more collages and celebrate this iconic piece of lawn furniture.

Putting my Stamp on it!

Good morning fellow Ephemeraologists!

I am back after a 4-week hiatus. April was insanely busy, in a good way. In the interim I've made some changes to the blog - I've decided to focus on what I initially intended the blog to be - "taking the discarded and making it arted." So without further ado, let's go!

I've recently started carving my own stamps. I've found that I can "draw" much better by carving than I can with a pencil or brush. A couple months ago I carved this set:

And with that set, I made this collage:

I used handmade (by me!) paper, and vintage tickets and ration vouchers.  I love the different colored buildings and papers - it definitely gives it a big-city feel to it!  

In the meantime, I had also taken my carved stamps and sent them in to Market Street Stamps to have my own sets of silicone stamps made for resale!  Market Street Stamps is located in my hometown of Green Bay, which I love because from start to finish, the whole project was hyper-LOCAL.  Here's how they turned out!

The larger set contains stamps that are the same size as those I originally carved.  But the tiny stamps?  They all fit on a square that's only 2X2"!  When you create wholesale stamps with Market Street you have many different options for sizing, and I wanted to go as tiny as I could!  SQUEEE!  Here's what some of the tiny ones look like stamped out:

On vintage lined paper, of course.  :)  Oh, and both these sets are available for sale on my website - they're only $5 and $10, respectively! :)

The other day I carved some olive stamps for a project I was making - we have an exhibit coming up called "Olive Art!" that I put together with my friend Julie at Ollie's Olive Oil Haus.  It's going to be a combination art show/olive oil and balsamic vinegar tasting!  I'm really excited about it - lots of local artists submitted wonderful pieces!  Here's how my hand-carved stamped piece turned out:

I stamped the three different olives but then added strips of vintage newspaper below, accented with some decorative stitching on my sewing machine and then framed.  I'm quite happy with how it turned out!

Look for more stamped pieces in the future - I'm having a BLAST.  :)