Cosmos Part V

                                 Collage by Mary M Payne,  a series of six

 Here is the last one in this series of the Cosmos, from the idea of what is infinitely large.   Again, I have used an image of a hand as a common thread.   I liked that I found the  hand of a worker, or an "outsider".  

Also depicted is the bee, now in danger of extinction...that can't seem to find many flowers on a denuded landscape.  Again the soda can as the symbol of our presence on earth.  ...a reminder of our  influence on our special designated planet. 

And then there is a tiny phalanx of Pom Pom girls I added to help the idea of contrast between large and small. 

 To echo the Pom Pom girls is me as a cheerleader when I was about 20 and was elected "song leader" at Whittier College.  

For color, I am using shades of red as a counterpoint to another of the series. I have stayed with unsaturated colors throughout .  I like the juxtaposition of the black and white images with color.

The night sky was done with a blue wash and dark ink sprays on top on a piece of Bristol paper.

 

 

Cosmos Part II

    

                                                 Collage by Mary M Payne.  26cmx38cm

This was the second of the series I did for the project  depicting mankind's affect on the universe.  Here is where I introduce the polar bear as my "lightbulb" animal. ...a reminder that we are instrumental in global warming.  The coffee I imagine to be hot, by the way...so our planet is sitting in that.    Still again I am depicting the cosmos as infinitely large for the parameters of the school project.  In fact years ago I did another series called "Cosmos".  I must have a fascination.

 

                      Collage by Mary M Payne 26cmx38cm

In this collage I introduce the idea that wealth, especially in America, is essential for one to call oneself successful.   So, in this collage I used an image of an American gold Eagle coin in amongst the planets. Even the beggar knows that lack of money, is largely what put him in the street.  The child however, is innocent and would rather play ball with a planet.

The arid ground is reminiscent of a barren planet.   It is taken from another piece of art I cannibalised and glued on to my support of 300 gr. Canson paper.   The original was made from flour paste and paint so it is slightly textured.  The blue sky is a watercolor wash used as background.

 

Cosmos : Part IV

 

                                                 Collage by Mary M Payne 26x38 cm

In this collage we see again our friend the disappearing polar bear, as a reminder to the viewer of a species not destined to last long.  

Again, to construct this piece,  I have taken art from my cast -off box.     The white sea covered in gauze is an experiment from a project when I was using only real bandage material to make art.  It gives a nice texture to the piece.  

The blue mountains also are cut from another scrap I saved and so is the dark island at the bottom.   This is one of the pleasures of doing collage late in your art career.  One has a lot of partly finished or abandoned pieces to cut from.

We see again the repeat themes of the diver, planets and the hand image.   This hand was a particularly good photograph, very sharp lines, so I have use it twice in the series. And the scale was right for the idea of "infinitely large." Also here is the blue of the sky that I have used twice to tie the series together.  It was done as a watercolor wash directly onto the support of Canson, 300 gr. watercolor paper. 

Cosmos part III

 

                           

                                                 Collage Mary M Payne 26cmx38cm

I am especially pleased by my amethyst planet here.

But, of course, even on my far away planet one finds the ubiquitous coke bottle dropped nonchalantly by the giant hand. I saw it this morning on the promenade, a kid tossing a coke bottle.

  The two girls in bathing costumes are friends of the diver in the first collage...just trying to find the fun and joy of being alive.   The scummy pond in which the bottle drops is from my old "fente" series...(meaning opening, a slot).  I cut it up to to use here as it gives the collage some texture.   The starry, starry night is spatter paint with a toothbrush.

Art in the Time of Cholera

Collage by Mary M Payne, 26cmx38cm ( Sold)

 Just before the lockdown went into effect on March 17, 2021, I was attending an art class once a week.  In that class, the teacher would present a theme for us to complete in about a month's time.  Along the way, we attended class for advice and to show our progress. 

Today I am taking some time to get back to my blog and show you some work I produced before the class went onto Skype and I decided to quit the art school. 

The theme this time was to depict the idea of "infinitely large or infinitely small".  Since I wasn't inclined to take the suggestion literally as some museum installation artists have done, I decided to use the idea of the cosmos asa point of reference for what was infinitely large and "talk" about our place in the universe.

I decided to try "surrealist" collage as a starting point.  

First I assembled a large assortment of images that appealed to me.  I found some on a calendar but most were free stock online images.  The quality of the image was paramount so I took the trouble to pay for laser images from a shop in town.  

For the paper, I tried different weights and textures. I first tried photo paper but it was to heavy and even the "mat" photo paper had a shiny aspect that I didn't want.   In fact with all this experimentation and HP cartridges costing about 25 euros apiece, this is probably my most expensive project so far.

As an adhesive I used ordinary school quality white paste to adhere print paper to 180 gram Canson and as a support I used 300 gram water color Canson paper throughout.

When the layers became too thick I used double faced tape, the strongest I could find. 

In each case in the series of 6...26cmx38cm...I used the image of the human hand as a thread of cohesion.

In this first collage I found the diver about to execute a back flip and I liked it enough to put it in.  Later I realized that for me, she represents us as humans, blind to where we are going.  

We take our good fortune, our health, our lives, our planet as given. We frolic through our lives often ignoring consequences of our thoughts and actions.   So then I realized I had a theme, my own theme,  in addition to the theme given by the instructor. 

The Wizard of Lozanos Road. ...Father's Day Tribute

The Wizard of Lozanos Road

When my father was dying I came

Six thousand miles to visit him in Newcastle, California

and stay until I could wrench myself

in two and pull away.

A gangly house stared out over prickly

stubble to a green meadow, cows, 

neon-pink fence roses, a scoop of pond

and wild berries dotting fields and creek.

Inside I soon sussed rats living in the house,

in the walls...you could hear them!

Refusing to use poison, Daddy said,

"Why not just talk to them?"

Now you don't roll your eyes at a dying man

no matter how maddened you become...

so mother and I agreed to another scheme of the

brilliant-wizard-engineer who'd raised me.

In an Isosceles of kitchen chairs we sat

holding hands and bowing heads

while my father took the lead.

"Rat Boy, this is a people house" he intoned.

"If any of you were thinking of staying,

It's a bad idea.

"We want you to move on now.  

You can have the back field, 

preferably beyond the creek.

"You can even have the woodpile; I won't 

be needing it.

And if you don't go, my daughter here

is going to kill you"

It was straight forward enough. 

Mother and I added, "Amen".

and then stood.... each 

churning his own thoughts. 

Home in London I got a call.

Daddy was still rolling around 

in his wheelchair fixing things...

but the rats had gone.

Three months later my father died.

He had waited for one more Christmas,

his favorite day of the year,

then died the day after.

Perhaps the scary white goose who followed

him around wanting to be held and a clutch

of auburn colored chickens he'd vigilantly

protected from raccoons

felt the subtle change in the universe.

...or maybe not.

But as for the rat family,

living now beyond the creek,

if they even thought about coming back,

quickly changed their minds,

remembering once again the part about

the evil daughter. 

Waiting for Something

    

I’ve been waiting for something,

A gobsmacking something

To buoy me aloft out of the drift,

Out to the edges of reckoning,

Out of the tangle of stories not lived but imagined.

I’ve been waiting for something

To rake the mundane grasses of my mind

Into a pompadour;

To lift my beach chair with helium balloons

And sail it through butter cream clouds.

I’ve been waiting for something

That makes me feel again…to see differently…

To leap my heart into the jaws of a coyote,

Onto the snout of a crocodile,

Ah, to be the ox-pecker on the rhino’s back.

Passing an ordinary fruit stand ,

I saw plants: hanging baskets of strawberries,

Bright geraniums in carnival clothes, gaudy petunias..

And then from the corner, near the edge

I heard my name called.

It was a climbing rose tree.

Fat blossoms…like washes of sunset,

Magenta flounces lined with creamy charmeuse,

Leaves glossy as a beetle’s back.

Not a nibble or a blemish to say it was real.

An infant, I thought, needing protection

From the barbarous life of a garden.

And bowing my head with a mother’s instinct,

I heard the whisper again.  “ Take me home.

Carry my in your arms on the bus…”

“Take me home and dig for me a hole of sod 

And I will be your something.

I will perfume your life,

I will teach you, stretch you.

I will shake you like the jaws of the coyote.

And for the kindling of the 

Simple joys that stirred within…

I promised, “ I will.”

Mary Payne : June 2021