Circus Art

Today I will be heading in to Peru to the Circus Center to work on the banner project that has sort of been on hiatus due to someone feeling the need for a medical vacation..... (ahem!) Really, it has NOT been on vacation; we had the banner fabrics hemmed and then there was the work of trying to get proper images, etc. to paint. It is not, by any means a small job. And the real work is just beginning.
However, the artwork posted today is a piece I had donated a couple of years ago to the International Circus Hall of Fame fund raising gala.
In some odd, infinitesimal way, I have a connection to them. In the art above (which is another beeswax collage) you will see elephants and horses, and there is the image of a house in the background. That was the home of my great, great grandparents or great, great, great aunt, and when the Wallace Circus (later Hagenbeck-Wallace) would be in town for a show, or home to their winterquarters, they often would graze the animals or set up on my ancestors property. The postcards are the scanned backs of the images--this is a part of my lineage, at a very great distance.
I had a wonderful time putting the work together; the leaf skeletons refer to the Fall of the year, the last shows, discarded ticket stubs, the bright wrapping papers from prizes won upon a midway or some sugary sweet purchased at the performance.......
It is interesting seeing the faces of the men in their suits with the pachyderms---appropriately dressed while walking and tending the animals! I have no dates for the cards; I just know the writing is my grandmother's much later in her life.
In the signature line of e-mails, I sign off with "Life creates Art. Art creates Life."TM
Indeed, it is true. My distant family's life was the inspiration for this art.
The funds from the art helped a bit to keep the ICHOF alive.
It is a sweet synergy, even after all these long and distant years.
And now to work. Gessoing huge pieces of canvas.
Maybe, considering yesterday's post and accompanying photo I do have a little circus in my blood......you think? ;)

P.S. Please click the photo for a close up of the work, to enjoy the old photos. And the heading from todays post is clickable, going to the ICHOF website which is well worth a look-around for circus fans!

Waxworks

(Photo By Anne M Huskey-Lockard, copyright 2009, all rights reserved.)

As long as I am dealing with different types of collage I do, I thought I would post one of my favorites. It is a very small piece, 4"x5" and is put together with beeswax. There is no paint in this piece; the color is built up through layers of wax, paper and sheer nonwoven fabric. The pink and cream floral is the same as is used in some of the box canvas pieces.

I had put this together from remnants from a trip to New Orleans, thus the scrap of House of Blues tissue paper and the little label. On the streets of the Quarter, if you're brave enough to pick things up, you may find an interesting bottle cap. (usually though, all alcohol is put into plastic *Go-Cups*, which do little harm in spur of the moment disagreements....) I had some quality printed tissue left from tags I had made for work that was in a small folk art gallery there, so that went in, a lovely bleached leaf skeleton, along with a silver plated sacred heart milagro, and of course pattern tissue, due to the amount I sew---or used to sew for myself.

This is a warm, friendly little piece and taught me a lot about texture, as the wax cools quickly, and the canvas soon builds up a nice surface, though you have to tilt it to the side to really appreciate it. That textural aspect is put in the box canvas pieces through the use of gesso.

Hot beeswax is not for everyone. While it smells pleasant, it does SMELL after a while and really should be worked with in a well ventilated area with a fire extinguisher close at hand. Things can flash quickly if you lose your train of thought.

I sealed this with a floor varnish and it has held up quite well, considering it hangs right by the sidelight of my front door.

There is a part of me that would like to try a larger piece in this technique but still......I hesitate.

Small can say so much, and sometimes much more.

So what have you created of late??? Your turn!

P.S. If you look at the three-quarter shot in the second "Hand of Glory " post, you will see the texture that is approximately like what the beeswax leaves. This project was what gave me the idea for using the gesso as a texturing tool, to gently build a similar base to work on. Of course, with the wax, the texture is really the LAST thing and with the gesso it is the FIRST thing. Each yields interesting results and are both are worth trying to see what works for YOU.