"Vintage Memories"

($50.00.....6" x 6".....Mixed Media on 140 lb. HP....mounted on a Gessobord)

"Vintage memories are the remnants of days gone by." The one thing remaining in my studio that reminds me of Christmas is a poinsettia plant. So I decided to do a pen and ink drawing superimposed over some practice pencil lettering. The word happened to be vintage. It was then an easy thought process to create a quote to describe the memories of Christmas and days gone by.

This mixed media piece was created with a base of old text pages and rice paper in a grid format with slivers of the black gesso showing through. It harkens back to one of my favorites quotes...."Black and white plus one or more colors works every time it's tried." So the grid format in the background creates a foundation for another format on top. This one happens to be a cruciform format. It is nothing more than adding color and image from edges to edge both vertically and horizontally. It is one of the easeiest formats and has many variations since you have the option of dividing the space in both directions at any number of points. 

Since the ink drawing was created over my pencil practice lettering, you can see the word "vintage" written several times. The pencil writing adds a very personal touch to any piece and gives the feeling of movement as well as another layer of interest without being overpowering. (The computer can create letters and even drawings if you have the write application, but it cannot create pencil marks.)

Another important point in creating these types of pieces is to mix up very straight edges with erratic edges. So some of the original text pages were torn and some left straight which determines what kind of black line will be formed in exposing the black support. 

There is also a lot of deconstruction with extra text pages on top of the red/orange color blocks, the drawing, and some of the plain rice paper. This not only creates texture, but unifies the piece. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about. 

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.