1901 Natural Geography - Vintage Mixed Media Collages

I don't think I've mentioned that I served on the advisory board for a local juried arts festival this spring.  That sounds more impressive than it really was, trust me.  Except for one night when we had to stuff packets for the artists, our monthly "meetings" were basically cocktail parties.  Most of the work is done by a full-time director, and the jurors were folks with genuine art credentials (one has a PhD. in art history and is an associate museum curator).  It wasn't until the day of the festival that I did any real work, and that simply involved staffing an information table, selling t-shirts, and playing cowbell in the Awards Committee Band.  Overall, it was a wonderful experience.  I met some great people and learned a lot about modern art and staging an arts festival.

This year's festival presented two major challenges.  First, the weather.  The festival is outdoors in a park, and it rained.  And rained.  And rained.  To say it was muddy is an understatement.  Second, just five days before the festival, our director "took a header" down the steps of her two-story home and seriously injured her shoulder.  Her husband and more experienced board members had to jump in to fill her shoes in those final days before the festival and on the big day itself, as she was forced to remain in bed.

From the Ganges

Which finally brings me to the topic of this post!  I wanted to create a special get well missive for our director as she faces surgery and physical therapy.  Since she appreciates original art, I set out to create a vintage mixed media collage in my style.  My substrate was a piece of watercolor paper (3.25 x 4.50 inches) painted with gesso.  After it was dry, I created my background by collaging and "de-collaging" various vintage book papers and sheet music.  For an explanation and demonstration of this process, please watch the video in this blog post by Caterina Giglio.

From the Ganges (closeup)

Once I had the papers the way I wanted, I dry-brushed the entire background with titanium white acrylic paint (any inexpensive brand from the craft store will do), lightly stippled on peeled paint distress ink, and dry-brushed on a little more titanium white.  My Ganges fellow was taken from a 1901 natural geography textbook that belonged to my great-grandfather.  He was adhered to the background using matte gel medium, along with a vintage Indian postage stamp from my stash.

Natives of Kaffraria

Since I had so much fun creating one collage, I made two more using other images from the natural geography textbook.  I used the same background technique but chose other distress inks (dusty concord for Natives of Kaffraria, above; barn door for Shanghai Soles, below) to complement the color of the postage stamps used on each collage.  I was darn lucky to find a vintage Chinese postage stamp in my stash--I'll save that story for another post.

Shanghai Soles

One thing you may notice about each collage is the one tattered edge.  Nothing makes my heart sing more than vintage sheet music, and even the lovely tattered edges deserve to be showcased.  You just have to be careful when working with them, as old sheet music is pretty delicate.

Each collage was sprayed with matte acrylic sealant and temporarily attached to a piece of heavy black cardstock for the purpose of this blog post.  I haven't decided yet what they will be adhered to permanently; perhaps a piece of presentation board?

Thanks so much for visiting my blog!

Supplies:
Strathmore 140 lb cold press watercolor paper; Golden white gesso; vintage book pages, sheet music and postage stamps; titanium white acrylic paint; peeled paint, dusty concord and barn door distress ink; Golden matte gel medium; Krylon matte acrylic spray sealant.