Monkey Business

                                                            Click on image to enlarge

As a mature artist of 74, I have explored, studied, taught and exhibited a variety of media, ending up today with a favorite--dredged from childhood, I suspect; paper, scissors, glue and paint. And this is a new communication media as well, this blog business, and here I am, sharing what I love to do most. My work can be found at The Gallery, Bainbridge Arts and Crafts on Bainbridge Island, Washington, or here in my studio in Port Ludlow, Washington. The piece called Monkey Business has been worked over an unfinished lithograph and is a layered mixed media/collage, 28 x 33 1/2 inches, framed and matted.

I haunt used book stores for materials, make my own ink transfer and marbleized papers, am given odds and ends from other artists which are incorporated into the finished collages. The process begins with a layout using cut pieces, eventually glued into place, then over-painted and after that more layers are often added until the muse says, "Enough, you're done."

Each collage has a story or poem, exhibited with the image. They are often slightly preposterous, emerging from my wandering mind. This particular piece, Monkey Business, arose from finding a wonderful second hand book of Japanese decorative elements, some of which were little wooden boxes. The boxes, many of them animals, became a modern collage version of the Bremen Town musicians fairy tale of old. Then cut fruits from a garden book were added to the tree, tempting the animals to climb to recover them. Old Japanese match book covers depict animal images. My imagination found them dying to escape, and so with scissors and glue they did. One escapee, the little monkey, ran off to push a baby buggy and encourage the rest of the gang into real Monkey Business.

The whole story and a larger version of the collage can be found on my web site.