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May 3, 2009

Armchair Traveler Blues

Yesterday I finally finished a new piece that I started several weeks ago. I painted the yellow canvas several weeks ago and laid out several different designs for it, but wasn't happy with them. So the canvas has been sitting blank while new ideas were germinating and sliding around in my head.

I had a little lightbulb moment the other day with this idea and I'm pleased with how it finally turned out. Though I was a little anxious about using book pages as I tend to hold books as pretty sacred. What if someone really wanted to read that Hardy Boys book? (The Tower Treasure) Well, hopefully it's been put to good use and I have some other ideas for future projects with these mixed papers and intend to use the rest of the pages as well.

This is the final piece in its entirety:



I used some of my most favorite stamps for this piece, ones that I had tucked away from my main collection. It was particularly difficult to use the Prince Charles/Princess Diana stamp. It's one of my favorites and out of 30,000 or so stamps that I've run through, I've only seen it once. I hope I'm lucky enough to have another one come my way.

The ship stamp just below and to the left of it is also another particular favorite that was sequestered with all the other ship stamps in my collection, but I dream of sailing the world or traveling by ship, so it was an important addition to the piece.



Here's one close up:



I'm excited about taking my work in new and varied directions, and looking forward to see what the reactions are to this particular piece. I'd love it if you left a comment with your thoughts about it. There are additional photos of this piece in my shop: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=24505600

3 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 03, 2009

    I think that the Hardy Boys book died for a good cause. The text adds a lot of texture to the piece which is a good contrast to solid background. Also, the use of the world-wide stamps was a nice touch. Makes it seem very personalized. Good work!

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  2. Maybe the next piece could use literary-themed stams with the text background? Nice piece.

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  3. Nice work! The bits of book and different stamps make me really look and "wander" around the piece.

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