Playing with vintage photos

If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you’ll remember how I liked to play with vintage photos and alter them with collage techniques.  Then with the push to paint in the fall, I put my vintage photo collaging on the back burner.  Recently I’ve had the itch to play with them again and yesterday sat down to create 26, yes, 26 ACEO’s (art cards)!

The thing I love about creating ACEO collages is that their small size and use of photos means I can make dozens in the time it takes me to do one painting.  So when I’m feeling like I need instant gratification, ACEO’s are the way to go.

It actually started with a desire to create some Valentine-themed pieces to make into cards for my shop for the upcoming holiday (which I’ve just printed out today, so I’ll share pictures later on this week), but here’s a peak at one of the pieces:

I even did some light Valentine’s decorating this year (will share those pictures later in the week as well).  I love the festivity of holidays and seasons yet never decorate accordingly because I often found those decorative items wasteful.  But this year, I’ve decided to decorate seasonally using old items in my house in new ways as well as utilizing thrifted, vintage, eco-friendly finds, so I’ll be sure to share as I change up the themes in our home.

Would love your feedback on the vintage girls!  Hope you all have a good start to your week!

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Finally, new girls!

So sometime last week I had an urge of inspiration late one night and proceeded to sketch out/draw a bunch of girls (5 to be exact, which is a crazy amount for me).  I had not completed a new “girl” in several weeks instead opting for swirly hearts and trees, so it was refreshing to get back.

Earlier this week I sat down to complete two of them, which as you’ll see are very different from one another:

I’ve been wanting to do a friendship piece for a long time.  And although this isn’t a picture of me with someone, I’m always very cognizant of the fact that much of the mixed media girls out there are very fair, blonde women, so I’m always trying to include women of color in my art to reflect true sisterhood.

This next piece started off as a quirky way to utilize my god-mother’s stash of vintage buttons she recently gifted to me (LOVE!!); as the piece morphed, it reminded me of my “Aunt” Alice.  You know how everyone has an “aunt” that’s not really family?  I had Aunt Alice, an older, sweet lady who watched me as a toddler when my parents did a couple’s getaway for a week.  She soon became a cherished member of the family and called everyone “Love” as in, “Love, can you get me that glass on the top shelf…”  She was syrupy sweet even though she was married to a curmudgeon man.  I guess the sweet balanced the salty.

I always remember her having the softest, smoothest, “Olay” skin and a perfectly coiffed though illustrious beehive, which she wore all the way up until the day she passed away, a few years back.  She was fun, vibrant and young at heart.  She was an Eternal Girl.

I have 3 more girls I’m working on…including a prego (I love pregnant women!), so stay tuned! 

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