Mothers and Daughters

As a collage artist, I am always on the lookout for paper of all kinds to use in my work.  In particular I love old books and dictionaries, maps, anatomy and technical drawing books.  Anything with interesting print and patterns will do.  One dictionary I purchased at a resale shop contained a foreign words and phrases section.  LOVED that! Using a few choice phrases, family photos, and the techniques I learned from two great workshop, a new sentiment series was born.

This summer I brought collage artist, Jane Davies, to Houston to teach a workshop.  That's her in the picture above wearing her plastic tiara.  This class was a blast and really pushed me out of my comfort zone.  Making abstract art is not easy - at least, not for me. 



 Using Jane's guidance, I created the three abstracts above.  Now, what was I supposed to do with them?  I tucked them away and got ready for my next arty adventure - my first online art workshop.

 I wasn't sure if I would like taking an online class; but, I saw Mary Jane Chadbourne's playing card class and I couldn't resist.   Mary Jane's class was yet another eye opening experience and the online instruction was fantastic.  Here are some of Mary Jane's cards below.

So, now I have my dictionary phrases, my abstracts, and my new playing card techniques I learned from Mary Jane.  Here is how I put them all together.

 

I started by taking this (very old) photo of myself and making a copy.  Instead of copy paper I used a page from my dictionary and ran it through my printer.  Nice effect! 

Next, I took my abstract background and glued it onto an 8 X 10 canvas, mounted my picture to the abstract background and super sized all the playing card techniques to fit a bigger size substrate. 

I used another abstract for the background of this piece.  That's my mom pictured.

The last background I used with a picture of my daughter.

Mothers and daughters - three generations in art.  I think each foreign phrase fits its subject perfectly and I love the new techniques that brought the pieces together.  Both of my amazing instructors teach online workshops throughout the year.  Find them here:

Jane Davies - www.janedaviesstudios.com

Mary Jane Chadbourne - http://desertdreamstudios.weebly.com/blog.html