Monday, October 28, 2019

Grow into Your Power Pose

Grow into Your Power Pose a collage by June Anderson of Under The Plum Blossom Tree, vintage hand cut paper collage, hand cut vintage paper collage, vintage collage, fashion collage, floral collage, botanical collage, empowerment collage

Hello friends! Well, it's been one week since I returned to the blog after a long absence and I'm back with another collage to share with you.

Have I mentioned my love of using vintage imagery for collage? I can entertain myself for hours looking through old magazines and books and be amused at the way life used to be and fascinated by the ways in which people were depicted. 

In collage, the fun begins when you start cutting out images that you like and are attracted to. And the magic happens after you've spent some time cutting and ideas start percolating. 

Grow into Your Power Pose is a juxtaposition of some of my favorite subjects - fashion, birds and flora. It was an experiment in creating a kind of bird person which is something I've been seeing a lot of and wanted to try. The surprise came in discovering how the hand of the woman exactly matched up with the root ball of the flower. It's as if her power is derived from the energy of the plant and from the earth. It felt very powerful and grounded - definitive. It made me think of how difficult it can be for some women to stand in their own power and how if we could think of it as something that comes from a natural force (the earth) then it might be easier for us to grow into our power rather than trying to fit into a predetermined mold that may not suit us. 

Right now it's all about experimentation in this medium and searching for windows of opportunity in both having the time and space for creating and for thinking about subject matter and developing ideas. I'm enjoying the process immensely and, so far, the ideas keep coming. I'm on a new wave! Hopefully I will be back again in a week or so and show you another piece.

See you then!

 


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Monday, October 21, 2019

A Busy Day in the Forest

A Busy Day in the Forest collage by June Anderson of Under The Plum Blossom Tree, hand cut vintage paper collage, vintage floral collage, vintage black and white floral collage, collaged vintage images, vintage woman collage, vintage magazine collage, collage with vintage magazines, collaged flower crown, vintage hand cut flower crown collage

Hello blog world! It's so good to be back. The funny thing is that I didn't know I was going to be absent from this blog...until I was. In the beginning of 2019 I was excited that this is the fifth year of the blog. I had plans! And then they slowly fell away and I found it refreshing to not have any plans.

Then when spring came around it was time to start making art again. The City of Eugene Mayor's Art Show had a call out for submissions so I started cutting and pasting. I came up with several compositions but I knew I wasn't making anything that would fit their criteria - but I didn't care - I was on a new wave with collage and it has been making me happy! I submitted the work above, titled A Busy Day in the Forest, and it wasn't accepted. But that's okay, the rejected works were shown at the Salon des Refusés across the street from the Mayor's Art Show.

The main thing is to keep making art, right?

And that is what I intend to do. From now on I am limiting my creative activities to only working on collage. For the time being, I am restricting what time, energy and resources I can gather to this one thing. So that means this blog will change. But that's okay - I've been 'throwing it all out there' for five years now, trying my hand at many different kinds of topics to blog about and art has been one of them. So I've decided it's time to make up my mind and stick to one thing - a scary thought! 

So wish me luck on my new wave and check back in sometime. Consistency on the blog has never been my strong suit - that's for real life - job and family. But I do love to share what I'm excited about and am interested in what you struggle with in pursuing an art practice or creative endeavor, so leave me a comment!

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