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

Triptych, Garden series: The Nightcrawler

Tryptic Garden series.. 26x51.5cm framed...original art by MarymPayne

This is one of my favorite series from the theme: "personal garden".  It has been done with pen, inks, acrylics and collage paper bits in bright orange that I glued in to give it some "punch".  

 I used this elongated format as it speaks to me of Japanese calligraphy and that was the feeling I wanted to give. 

Garden series, 26x51.5 cm framed, Mary M Payne

In this triptych I illustrate the following haiku that I wrote for the occasion . 

                            

white clay crust

dark ochre underbelly

night crawler glides

croute d'argile blanche

ventre noir ocre

vers de nuit glisse

 11x32cm, art by MaryM Payne

 11x32cm, art by MaryMPayne

Watercolor portrait by Manana

A watercolor portrait by Maria Fernanda Merino de Tiedra

I am proud to present the work of my friend Manana, who I have not actually seen for about 12 years but have known for over 20 years.  She is living now with her Italian husband in both Milano and Genova.      I have fond memories of time I spent with them there in Nervi where I visited several times.   

I think this work shows a great likeness to what I looked like about  15 years ago and I applaud how difficult a portrait is to do in watercolors ....which is a much less forgiving medium than oils.  I can somewhat date the photo she used because those wicker chairs were with us for about the first 7 years we lived here. 

   So thank you Manana .  It is perhaps the only portrait ever done of me aside from a self portrait I did some time ago and as my friend Patrick said, was quite flattering.   I suppose that that coming from another artist, is not a compliment. 

On another subject, I just want to say that Google has announced that they will erase material they have been keeping if the  site is not used within two years.

 

It is of course, impossible for them to store all this content for free, especially if it is obsolete.  So if there is a way that I can discover to pay the storage fee for my blog, I will do that. 

 

   But, I have just found out that although I can not post on this art blog from my computer I can post on it from this iPad so am trying to learn how to do that. 

 

 

            

Khadi papers journal Part II

Journal page by Mary M Payne

I found this Greek word Meraki,  "to do something with soul, creativity or love , to put something of yourself into your work. "   I think that is what this personal journaling is all about. 

These two chickens are cut out of a paper napkin.  The paper is thin enough to collage easily onto the pages of this latest recycled cotton rag journal. 

 I have a special fondness for chickens . There are eleven hens living across the street from us and I love to hear them "talking" and we certainly love eating the eggs still stuck with straw.  The owner gives us a gift of eggs from these hens each week.

 I even like the looks of a strutting chicken:  proud and upright. 

Khadi Journal

 John W. Gardner quote,   watercolor journal pages, Mary M Payne

This image of a "target" was something I created years back.   I found it in my "scrap-box" .  The quote is from John Gardner, an American writer and essayist. 

Journal page by Mary M Payne

And here are a couple of quotes on the next two page spread with one quote used as a border. Underneath that is writing with a silver pen that shows only as a textured, graphic background. 

Collage pages, Mary M Payne

In this collection of ephemera is a family photo (from monsieur's side), my first and perhaps only telegram, a passport piece and a diary entry from a world traveler I knew,  a piece from a 19th century  hand written accountant's log book ( in French) and a piece of gold colored burlap.  The butterfly is a transparent paper sold for "decoupage". 

Journal Pages, Mary M Payne

The printed paper glued down on the right is stenciled with acrylics.  It came from Amazon as package wrapping.  The quote reads: "Soyez vous meme, Tous les Autres sont déja pris. " Oscar Wilde.  

 Sorry, but as much as I try, I cannot get a circumflex on my Mac for the word "meme".

Journal pages Mary M Payne

The "seals" of gold colored acrylic paint are dried  and glued down with gel.  Like most magpies, I have a "faiblesse"  for the color "gold".

Journal pages by Mary M Payne

In the next arrangement on the left side are book pages attached with gel and painted white to make a background.  Both pages are sprayed with a fine mist of acrylic ink.  Ink and rubber stamps are used to complete the page.  
 The butterflies are added from an old wall calendar. 

 I vowed no hearts, butterflies, cutesy sayings or formulaic flowers in my journals... but as you see,  I have not entirely kept that promise.                

 I prefer not to fall into exaggerated sentimentalism...."Schmaltz" as the Jews and New Yorkers say.    But somehow it creeps in. 

MILLEFEUILE/ TRANSPARENCE

Detail of Forest #4,  30x40 cm,  art by mary m payne

Millefeuille literally means a thousand sheets and is the same name given in France to the pastry we call a "Napoleon" in the States.  Here is my art project results based on the theme of "layers"....  but without cream.

 In this project I was asked to work using materials that were transparent and to build them up using a minimum of 3 layers .  Materials could include glass or plexiglass; papers such as tracing or tissue papers; plastic and its derivatives; scotch tape, or gels and glues that dry to transparency. 

  I chose to work with the plastic we call rhodoïd  in France.   Some of it can be purchased in office supplies and is mainly used for printers as film for overhead projectors. 

 I found that with my own ink-jet printer the ink on ordinary plastic used as a substrate just stays on the surface.  I could only use that wet ink layer by transferring the ink onto a paper in the method of monotype ( mono printing).   There is also a rhodoïd made specifically for ink-jet wherein the ink stays on the plastic and so for these works I used both kinds of plastic.  I also did use the mono prints taken from the transferred wet ink onto paper in forests # 2 and 3. 

Forest #1 , art by Mary MM.Payne, 30x40 cm framed in beige mat

Essentially these works are composed of three layers of plastic, paper or the transparent non woven polyester fabric sometimes commercially called "Gossamer". 

 I have taken photo images of trees I found in "shutter stock" and used them to build my "untouched forest" settings.  I say untouched as in wishful thinking.  I hope there are a few forests of the world where no one has been but it wouldn't be the ones photographed here.  Still I found comfort in the images that exposed no humans, just majestic trees and their ecosystems. 

 The distinct layers have ½ to one centimeter of space between them, held apart by black "gator board" a kind of display board characterized by an inner core of foam.  It has a wood fiber veneer and is waterproof.  These pieces therefore, stand about an inch from the wall when mounted. 

 Forest #2 , art by Mary M Payne, 30x40 cm framed in black passe-partout ( mat)

Forest#3  art by Mary M Payne, 30x40cm framed in grey mat

Forest # 4 ,art by Mary M Payne

In this photo detail you can see the textures. It is the only piece where I used cut-outs.   The first layer is cut away plastic with traces of the photo, the second layer is paper backed plastic with non woven fabric adhering to it.  

The background layer has not been cut out and is also covered with translucent "gossamer".  Various mark making tools.... including a hand made rubber stamp of a tree were used to enhance the composition.  

 These pieces remind me of fold-out books of childhood.  I have to say, they are better "in person" than in the photos.  

Forest# 4 , art by Mary MM.Payne, 30x40cm framed in black mat

Be what you are....Journal page

Journaling Friday... "Do not wish to be anything but what you are and be that perfectly".  

St Francis de Sales ( a French catholic priest born 1567)

Journal page by Mary M Payne

Included in the mix:  Joss paper , stencils, stamping, paper words, translucent printed craft paper , acrylic paints, gold inking pen,  acrylic gel, I used the outlines of jars and bottles to make the white circles.  

Journal page by Mary M Payne

Adventures in cotton rag paper

Journal pages, Mary M Payne

I found a new empty journal book in an artsy shop in Nice called "L'arret creation".   It was just calling out to me.  

This smallish book is about 8.5 inches square

 ( 22cm.) 

 I liked the deckled feathered edges which are one of the signs of handmade paper.  And the price was about 12 euros which is good for handmade paper. 

Journal pages, Mary M Payne

It is from the Khadi mill in south India...made from recycled cotton rag. 

 The book, though is quite fragile. In fact the spine came off early on and I had to tape each page by the end of the work to make the book hold together.    These journal pages can be watercolored or inked but not much else. 

Detail of stencil , pens and handmade rubber stamping , journal page by Mary M Payne

The rag paper doesn't really like glue but I have forced the issue and each collage page is "bumpety rumpety".  The different gram weights of paper collage and glue make the book fatter and more interesting somehow. 

collage journal page, Mary M Payne

Tissue type papers and gel glues were the most successful collage materials I found. 

collage journal pages, Mary m Payne

Some pages like this one just didn't work as the paper didn't really take a layer of gesso to get back to "square one".  The gesso made it almost impossible to outline with pen afterwards so that part looks pretty clumsy.  

If you don't crack the shell, you can't eat the nut,  journal pages Mary M Payne

 Really, I shouldn't be so precious about it all.  It's a journal for "christsake" ....meant to be about spontaneity.  

journal pages, Mary M Payne

But hey, 
the game of journaling, like most of life,  is all about process and discovery. 

Even if I am not really proud of the results of this little journal,  I am still attached to the stuff I learned...


 so yes,  I will show you the rest of it later. 

Let's try an " image transfer"

Journal page by Mary M Payne

Journal Page by Mary m Payne

One of the new techniques that I have't quite mastered is "image transfer".   I showed it to you in the last post but really this post was written first and put into my drafts.  So here is a bit of an explanation.  

  The idea is to take an inked paper such as piece of magazine or a print made from either laser or inkjet and transfer it to another page rubbing off the moistened paper with your fingertips after you have glued it down and it is dry.  This should leave  only the ink on the page. 
 Easier said than done.  There are a variety methods to try this.  Most include gels or special glues. Some even use Vodka. 

Here I reduced a photo of a large sketch I had done of a nude years back and tried to transfer it to my page.  It didn't work, possibly because I used an "inkjet"printer.   I resorted to outlining the transferred image in pen.   But even that added a 

"je ne sais quoi" that worked all right. 

That bright colored card is a laser copy of an inked page I once did.  It ended up in my scrap box.  The  butterfly and music note scrap are from a commercial paper that I now feel is too "crafty" for me but it does have just the right translucency for gels.    I prefer to find stuff in flea markets, old books or compose bits myself but I still fall back on craft supplies sometimes.  I am at heart, impatient and dare I say, lazy.  

The stamp pad lettering is the only set I have ever found of children's letters that doesn't leave a huge smudge around each letter pressed.  I found it years back in Seattle and the set has finally come in handy.   I have given at least two other sets I bought recently to kids I know who aren't fussed about smudged results. 
 And yes, I suppose stamped lettering is "cheating" too but I love the primitive look of it.

  

Paul Coelho quote

Journal page by Mary M Payne

Journal page image transfer:   Mary M Payne

  I found congruence in the simplicity of Paul Coehlo's directive and made that the base note. I threw in some stencil work, acrylic washes and an image transfer.      

This is a spread from my second journal, maybe the 3rd attempt with "image transfer" from a photo printed on an inkjet printer.   I am getting a bit better transferring the ink, even though I had to touch this one up quite a bit.    My photo was taken from an image by Danielle and Olivier Follmi in their book called Wisdom.  

I am starting to dare to use my own lettering on these pages.  It's surprising how scary it is for me  to mess up the page with my personal lettering.  If I were to need to start over it would be hard to correct the page without another layer of Gesso to obscure the "mistakes".   

    I guess creative lettering is another discipline altogether for those art journaling with words.   I can't seem to get away from my "school teacher" writing, but the wavy lines helped me to get creative here. 

Japanese Landscape: Third of a triptych

Before I go wandering off down other pathways, let me show you the third in the intaglio series I call Japanese landscapes.

At the end of my printmaking classes, I was still working on this acid etching in a series of three.  I only managed to finish a few of this one with the parent and child. 

    I did a couple with  the "chine colle´" technique  (a piece of Japanese paper glued to the receiving page) as the one below.   

 Again , I tried out my Chinese "chop" that I had hand carved in soapstone by Feng Zhuo, an engraver who boasts to be from Confucius' hometown.  His email is ideasforlife@foxmail.com and his ETSY ID is  Chineseseal. 

One of these stone seals says "pervasive moonlight".   The other has my name spelled phonetically.  

We interrupt this program:

By special request, I am leaving last years "academic" work for a bit and going back to my first journal pages. 

 I think free-form art suits me more than prescriptions from others but I need both my own explorations and the class.  

art journaling page,  mary m payne

Here is a page from my first explorations of journaling.  

That black and white line that pops ?  That's a black felt pen and some bandage adhesive. I love intensity of the black and white together. 

  I added a "found" motto  to the corner of my spread :" Embrace imperfection".  

These two words were waiting for me in a 4 page spread of random adhesive stickers I found in my first exploration of crafty items.     I found these two words on separate pages.  

 That's the fun of collage collecting. 

Art journaling page by Mary M Payne

The cast shadow, Lino-cuts

Linocut: "Shadow of a Shadow" by Mary M Payne 24x32 on BFK Rives

This next trio of prints are linocuts that I made for the Shadow Project.  I started with a cardboard cut-out of a shadow photo of the balustrade and the chair and cast the shadow again and took another photo of it so it is really "the shadow of a shadow".    That was the inspiration for two lino blocks that were carved and printed on the same page. 

Shadow of a Shadow, linocut by Mary M Payne 

I used regular oil based printers ink but used transparent ink to lighten one of the blues to get the affect you see in these last two.   I like the extra marks made by the wood cutting tools I use to cut linoleum.  That is almost always the sign of a linocut.  

  I think I could have gone further with different colors etc but I am so interested in new techniques now that "lino" printmaking has take a back seat for  now.  No pun intended

Linocut: Shadow of a Shadow by Mary M Payne

SHADOW; OMBRE PORTEE

Shadow :( card, bleach, ink, acrylics, wood) collage 24x32cm on Canson paper by Mary M Payne

This is the next series of mixed media experiments I did last year based on the theme that was given:  The Cast Shadow or Ombre Portee.    My instructor asked us to use the idea of "shadow" in our work in any way and with any medium.  

In this case I used a photo to make cut-outs of a rocking chair that was casting a shadow on my garden wall.  This photo is very deceiving as what you think is the leg of the chair is actually an arm.  WE don't see the legs and one of the rockers that we do see is that weird "blade" that appears on the slats.  ( See below.)   But this shadow translates as "chair" and that was good enough for me. 

I think the brain makes quick connections of what it wants to see.  And with this photo, I want to see CHAIR.

Photo of chair casting a shadow on the garden wall

Shadow of a shadow, collage on Canson 24x32cm by Mary M Payne

I used various backgrounds and materials and tools ( the background above is painted with a feather) to play with my chair shadow all the while experimenting with various kinds of paste and glue.  

I get the feeling that one of the biggest challenges for a collage artist is the search for the appropriate glue for paper, wood or any other choice of surface.    I  used paper here.  If the glue is too strong it will buckle the receiving paper,  if too weak it won't stick.   I have about 5-6 different glues and gels now that I use . 

Shadow:(, acrylic, pencil, ink , rubber stamp), 24x32 cm.  collage by Mary M Payne

Next  I used a photo of the cast shadow of our balustrade as a background to show another shadow effect.

Shadow : collage by Mary M Payne

And of course I placed the chair in various positions on the page .   Why not?

Shadow :( canvas, acrylics, ink):  collage by Mary M Payne

Shadow, ( japanese paper, acyrlics) collage by Mary M Payne

 Shadow,  collage by Mary M Payne

 Shadow , collage by Mary M Payne

This whole exercise felt pretty infantile, using scissors again and paste.... but I want to believe that the closer we get to our "child" artist, the more we work towards our authentic voice.   Well,  anyway,  that's my theory and I'm sticking to it.