Copyright: All artwork/content protected under ©2007-2011 Lynne Ciacco

All content herein copyright © Lynne Ciacco


Friday, December 31, 2010

An About Face

My new friend, Andrée came over to join me in my studio for a collage play date yesterday afternoon.  This is how one of my collages turned out at the end of the day.  It was sort of pleasing, but lacking in meaning for me and without enough structure or form to be visually satisfying, I felt.  Of course, the activity was supposed to be about process rather than outcome, but...




today I couldn't  leave well enough alone and decided to go back in to yesterday's collage and push the boundaries, resulting in quite a different face looking back at me...




Can you see the king's face in the centre of the collage?  I think he's wearing sunglasses.  He's a cool king.  Maybe he's good King Wenceslas, so famous now from after having had a Christmas song named after him that he's taken to wearing shades when he goes out "incognito."  It would probably help if he left his crown at home, though.  You do see his crown, don't you?








Collage is a good creative release when you want to make something but you don't know quite what.  I find that it helps me get some "crap" out of the way after I've gone for an extended period without painting.  Loosens me up, let's me get messy, thumbs my nose at fear.  It's also an excellent means to tap into one's subconscious.  Nothing too deep going on here, though.  I think it's a reflection of the fact that we ended up playing cards after supper last night.  But then again, The Emperor is my soul card in Tarot (along with The Fool--no kidding!), so perhaps it's a self-portrait.  But isn't all the art one makes a portrait of self?




May the New Year bring much inspiration, creativity, exploration, humour, and abundance to us all--
and may we face up courageously to whatever challenges it throws in!


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12 comments:

  1. What a great creative exercise. Thanks for sharing both versions and by the way, I like both and I like both of them together.

    Best wishes for the year ahead!

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  2. love it that you have a new friend to make collages with. what fun. like the second collage the best methinks. Hey, I am Definitely the fool all the way through. walking down the road w/my hobo sack on a stick. Many wonderful days for you in 2011, full of creativity, friends and fun. blessings, suki

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  3. Little scraps of paper
    Little hands with paste
    Make a mighty collage
    Out of all that waste

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  4. I agree with Patricia up there. And how fun that you have such a cool friend to collage play date with. I really like how you pulled it together with color and all the hand drawn elements added in. It's amazing to watch the steps of your creative process and very interesting indeed. I do love your style!

    It's been great meeting you and I look forward to following as you explore, grow, experiment, and challenge yourself. Best wishes to you for a Happy New Year!

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  5. Patricia,
    Yes, it is good to flex one's creative muscles again after they've been allowed to get a little flabby. It's fun to have a record of the first version that now no longer exists except as pixels and be able to show its transformation. I'm glad you get something from both of them.

    Happy New Year!
    Lynne

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  6. sukipoet,
    It is indeed pleasant--and surprising--to suddenly find a new creative friend in my life. Andrée is pushing me to givie some workshops with her which will be a Big Challenge for me!

    You say The Fool is your Tarot card? Well, no wonder you've been having such a time trying to find the right house to settle down in!

    Happy New Year!
    Lynne

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  7. Shirl,
    Waste not want not...or, Collage: How to Avoid Becoming a Hoarder.

    I love your little poem. So that's where I get it from! Although, that's one "talent" (poetry) that I've let slip away over the years.

    Happy New Year!
    Lynne

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  8. Stickup Artist,
    I want to thank you for all the encouragement you've been leaving here for me in the Ragzedge studio since I had the good fortune to discover your blog a few months back. I'm happy that my work touches you in some way and that you see the worth in it, in all its crazy manifestations.

    Happy New Year!
    Lynne

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  9. amazing, that the second one (that i love very much) would evolve out of the first, i would have never thought!


    But isn't all the art one makes a portrait of self? yes, i do believe so. funnily, i had just been watching this little excerpt

    http://artiststatements.wordpress.com/2010/12/31/andrei-tarkovsky-to-plough-and-harrow/

    before reading you, two art definitions which complete themselves, i think, both very true, from my own perspective.

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  10. and out of all this creative flow, who appears but the real king, Elvis and his page, Roy Orbison. Come on people, don't say you didn't notice them.

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  11. carmenooch,
    and what about Jimmy Page?! He's there, too. And Tinkerbell...
    Can I have some of what you're having?

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  12. Roxanna,
    ah, such deep thoughts. I tend to shuffle about on the surface of definitions and delineations and descriptions. I move from a base of feeling before analysis. But I could agree with the proposition that "The aim of art is to (...) plough and harrow (the) soul..."

    Or to give the soul alternative means of expression.

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