Already I am thinking of changing the title of the series to Precious. This word and concept is in my mind a lot these days.
In the studio flooding I lost some things that were precious to me. Not a lot of things, and I am well aware that so many have lost so much more right here in Vermont with the astounding flooding this spring, so I am not complaining, just explaining.
As a collector of vintage items these objects do seem precious to me in some ways. They are precious because they are filled with memory. They are precious because they embody history.
When I gathered for the first grouping in this new series I found vintage greeting cards. I did not want to cut them up. They seemed too precious. But how was I going to make collages out of them without cutting them up? Usually I would scan them so as to still possess the originals. I decided this time I was not going to do that. I was going to fight my feelings about their preciousness and make some art out of them. When I began to cut them apart the words inside the greeting cards grabbed my attention as well as the imagery. One of the words was “precious”.
In this series I am not going to make any distinction between art and craft. I might make a collage, an Art Textile, a fashion accessory, or a home décor item. This is another way of addressing the issue of precious-ness. Are only art works that have no practical usage precious, and can only those art works enter into the rarified realm? Can objects made from humble materials rise to the rarified realm of art? Can useful creations be art or just artful?
Here are the before and after pictures of the first gathering.
The only thing I used from my studio was mat board, scissors, and rubber cement.
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