A last maxim and final medieval...for a time...

I'm going to take a summer holiday from making art and from posting to my art blog.  My sister is here at my home on the east coast of Canada, visiting from the west coast for a couple of weeks.  We'll be tootling around on explorations and adventures and then will fly back to Vancouver together. I'll be out there for all of July and probably into August. (I don't have a return ticket yet!)  Will be visiting family and friends; possibly posting to my "home and away" blog, Décolleté,  from time to time if you want to stay in touch.  I may pop up for visits to see what you're up to, and may even surprise myself with some instant art while away that I'll certainly share with you. I wish you all a happy season,whether it be summer or winter where you are!  See you in September...if not before.

Fed up with the pressures, politics, and petty power plays of her executive job, Candace packs up and sets out to find freedom, hitch-hiking across America.

Maxim:

(S)he who fights and runs away 

may live to fight another day.

***

The fifteenth and final college in my Medieval Collage Series

c.2013 L.Ciacco, Dame Nature, collage on paper, approx. 8 x 6 inches

PS. I have posted a separate page of the Medieval Collage Series that you can access from the tabs bar at the top of this page so you can see the whole collection together.

Mo' Maxim and Medieval Moments

Well aware of his girlfriend's tendency to arrive late, Mo hopes he can make his beer last until she shows up.

Maxim:

The glass is either half empty or half full.

c.2013 L.Ciacco, La Séduction, Collage of torn calendar pages,
art papers on vintage book page, 8x6 in.

***

Maxim and Medieval Combo

Seems these days I can only manage to post one day a week here so here's another combo for you.

Your Maxim of the Week

Marissa's favourite moment of the day was kissing her baby's sweet little toes after bundling him up after his bath.  Her second favourite was when he went for his nap.

Maxim:

The best things in life are free.

***

Medieval Collage Series (#13)
(click on the above link to see the previous installments)

c.2013 L.Ciacco, Mon Seul Desir, collage on vintage book page, 8 x 6 inches

Mon Seul Desir...my only desire...

not sure what the lady has in mind...

Late out of the gate!

I had the best of intentions to get a post up for you to enjoy with your Sunday morning coffees, but was flummoxed to discover that I didn't have a new maxim on hand!  Better late than never?

Connie didn't mind at all being stuck way out in left field.
In fact, she hoped that darned baseball would never
come anywhere near her.  

Maxim:

It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game.

I can relate to that!  I always hated having to play sports at school.

And here's something else I can relate to...

Found this on the web...sorry I can't remember where to give credit...

How about you?

***

Also mustn't neglect getting another installation of my Medieval Collage Series posted...

c. 2013 L.Ciacco, Masquerade, Collage on vintage book page, approx. 8x6 inches

Looking forward to getting caught up with your blogs as soon as the dust settles around here...

Maxim, Medieval, Mothers

A triple whammy for you today!  First, here's the maxim of the week...

Although pleased with himself for being able to get into the difficult yoga pose, Graham begins to fear that he may not be able to get out of it.

Maxim:

Another such victory and we are undone.

***

I've been working full-time for the past couple of weeks and under such circumstances, time and energy seem to shift dramatically and shrink radically.  Consequently, I didn't manage to post an installation in my Medieval Collage Series this week.



©2013 L.Ciacco, Unicorn Rider, Collaged calendar scraps & commercial papers, on vintage book page, 8 x 5 inches

I hope this will make up for my lapse.

***

And last, but not least, here's a little pot of posies

to honour and celebrate Mothers' Day

Medieval Series--La Dame aux grands yeux

There must be an interesting back story to this scene.  The lady is clearly surprised or shocked by something she's looking at...  Any suggestions?

©2013 L.Ciacco, La Dame Aux Grands Yeux, collaged scraps of calendars , lace, art paper, wallpaper on vintage book page, approx. 8.5 x 6 inches

One "trick" I like to do to make a face more intriguing, and also to avoid copyright infringement, is to incorporate features from one face into another.  Of course it works best if they're of an appropriate size, but slight differences of proportion can make a face or body just that little bit more interesting.  Gluing in a set of eyes upside down (the collage bit, not yourself!) also produces a slightly odd, but engaging, effect.

This is the tenth collage that I'm showing in my Medieval Series of which there are a total of fifteen. 

Medieval Series--Le Printemps

It seems that spring has been an extra-long time coming for some of us this year and we are very relieved to finally be catching hints and breezes, and maybe a few allergy sneezes, now that spring is finally in the air.

c.2013 Lynne Ciacco, Le Printemps, torn calendar pages, textured paper, wallpaper, lace, on vintage book page, 7.5 x  5.5 inches

With the butterflies, ladybug and dragonfly, the tender posies, and the puffy eyes, this collage speaks to the sweet season of spring.  

Medieval Series--le Magicien

There are only a couple of male figures featured in my Medieval Series, largely because the calendars I used as fodder had "Medieval Women" as their theme. 

In addition to the ripped-up calendars, I used scraps of lace and fabric, painted paper towel, a textured art paper, torn piece of wallpaper sample, with a vintage book page as the support.

The man seems to be wearing a crown, as indicated by the lace,

so perhaps not a magician but a prince? 

 However, the hand is holding something mysterious,

which seemed to have magical properties to me. 

Also the fabric with the stars seems to imply the mystical. 

Thoughts? 

Another title?

Medieval Series--L'Équestrienne

Another in the Medieval Collage series...

c.2013 L.Ciacco, L'Équestrienne, collage calendars, painted paper towel, vintage book page, art paper

Ready to ride.

Medieval Series: L'échange

Collage of recycled calendars, commercial paper, art papers,
on vintage book page; 8 x 5.5 in

Not sure just what`s gong on in this little exchange.
Something like "A penny for your thoughts?"

Also not altogether certain of the sex of the person on the balcony (I deliberately created this ambiguity by pasting the feminine features over beard-shaped hair).
Perhaps a bearded lady that passers-by pay to view?
A young lad making himself available for a price?"

What think you, good folk of Blogland?

Medieval Series--La Liseuse

Another collage from my Medieval Series.

Collage of recycled calendars, art paper, vintage book page, approx. 7.5 x  5 inches.

I call her La Liseuse (The Reader)

Have been doing a lot reading myself, lately.  As I work "on call" at the village library, it's rather an occupational hazard.  I've always been an avid reader, but did get away from it for a time.Am happy to back between the pages.

Just finished reading The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan (a Canadian author).It involves Degas, ballet, Paris and three young, impoverished sisters. What's not to love about that scenario?

Medieval Collage--Les Demoiselles

Another in the ongoing Medieval Collage series.

created from torn-up calendars, art papers, wallpaper, and text from a vintage book page;

approximately 7.5 x 5 inches.

Maxim and Medieval

What Pat appreciated most about the pets was how they couldn't care less whether their owner was a man or a woman.

Maxim:

All cats are grey in the dark.

****

And because I neglected to post one of my Medieval Collage Series mid-week,

here's one, belatedly.



Medieval Series, Deux Chevaux

Another collage from my Medieval Series, made mostly from torn-up calendars.

In this one I also added a piece of cotton lace, a shred of polyester curtain , a wallpaper scrap, and some textured tissue paper.  All other elements are from various pages in 4 different medievally themed calendars.
I put the image on a black background here so you could see the irregular border of the collage.  Each collage is glued onto a page from an old home-decorating book, some of the text showing through into the composition.

Medieval Series, #1

In an ongoing process of cleaning out a lot of accumulated possessions.  Pulling things from cupboards, drawers and boxes in my studio often reveals things I've had on hand for years..."just in case."  For example, four Medieval Women-themed calendars from the latter part of the 1990's.  Of course, I couldn't just chuck them in the garbage, nor could I justify keeping them on the shelf.  So I ripped them to shreds and then put them back together in various new configurations, adding some other bits of papers from another stack of "just in case" materials.  The result is a series of fifteen small collages with a rather quirky medieval theme to them. 

A different headpiece for a face that perhaps had long hair, new draperies added to the hat, a different arm than the original,  hands from another body, 

handmade papers from painted paper towels...

And then in Photoshop, a layer of a watercolour effect from Shadowhouse Creations.



(click image for larger view)



This is the image without the "watercolour" overlay. 

The collage is approximately 7.5 x 5 inches.

I'll be sharing the rest of the series with you

 over the next few weeks.