One weekend, more than a month ago, I decided to transform one of the vintage photo albums in my stash to function as a guest book for my upcoming solo show called The Big Day. My plan quickly went out of control when I pulled out the stash of "stuff" intended for this project. Instead of one, three books happened.
After all, I happened to have three, vintage photo albums/scrap books that were the same basic size. I had more than enough anonymous images that were suggestive of brides, marriages, and anniversary parties. For pages, I pulled out a stack of xylene photo transfers made years ago ... actually ... over a decade.
(Above: One of the spreads in Anonymous Brides.)
One of the nice things about having a blog is the fact that I can find
early posts regarding such things. I made dozens and dozens of xylene
photo transfers of cemetery angels in order to create a series of
twenty-five pieces called Angels in Mourning. (To see some of them, CLICK HERE.) I blogged about making the transfers ... outdoors ... in a makeshift station ... HERE. At that time, I was working on my solo show, Last Words. I was exploring different directions in which to take my concepts and ideas ... embroidery, grave rubbings, photographs, epitaphs. The theme was grounded. The artistic approaches were from lots of different places.
Anyway ... I transferred LOTS of images. Why not? As long as I set up an outdoor station, had an entire stack of printmaking paper, and bunches of photocopies, why not make "more than enough"? As a result, I had plenty of images from which to select the twenty-five that would become my Angels in Mourning Series and plenty more to sit on a shelf until which time as I might need them. That time was last month.
I cut every leftover piece into pages for these three albums. The black paper in one album was still good, stiff, and in perfect condition. It had never been used. So, I zigzag stitched each page to one of the printmaking paper pages ... after having zigzag stitched photos to each side. This became Anonymous Brides.
Working only with the printmaking pages, I made the guest book for the upcoming show. Actually, I made so many pages that I ended up with volume 1 and volume 2! On each page I zigzag stitched donated index cards. They aren't ordinary index cards but a filing system used by a mid-century bride from a prominent Mississippi family. These carefully organized cards were filed alphabetically with all family names and addresses. They noted the dates for wedding and shower invitations, received gifts, and sent thank you notes. They were saved for decades before being given to me with the hope that art might happen.
After zigzag stitching three index cards to one side of each page, I flipped it over and zigzag stitched three more in the same place.
I really like how the xylene photo transfers add just a touch of the inevitable. The angels seem to appropriately haunt both books. They seem to suggest that every "big day" will be quickly ushered into the past ... almost like the need for index cards. (Thank goodness for Excel sheets and other on-line and/or computer kept filing systems!)
My hope is that visitors to the exhibit will take the time to sign their names right on the vintage index cards. Maybe a few stories will be shared, added to the memories of past "big days". After the show, I will add some of the notes I received from those donating their wedding dresses.
While I have no illusion regarding the odds for these guest books surviving another generation, they have managed to present a few, special wedding items from past events at this time, currently, in the 21st century ... thus ... second life. I could almost feel the anonymous brides and their guests while constructing these books.
Both guest books have about twelve spreads. That's a lot of index cards. Yet, I didn't use even half of the ones in the donated box. So, now I have no more xylene photo transfers of cemetery angels but plenty of wedding index cards. I'll keep the cards. I have no idea how or whether I'll use them in the future. But, I didn't know how or whether I'd use the leftover image transfers either!
A friend of mine once said that artists who collect intuitively will always have on hand exactly what they need. I believe this!
1 comment:
I too have "collections" but not necessarily of the vintage kind - I'm in a tidy/downsize mode at the moment, and I look into a jumble of things but somehow not much goes "out someplace else".
Love how one "guest book" became three with still more items leftover...
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