Circus 19 Dream: A Mixed Media Pastiche Honoring Kim Collister

Hi everyone! This post ran last week on the StencilTalk blog and I'm thrilled to say, was a biiiiiigggg hit! This pastiche was inspired by artist Kim Collister. Were you thinking, like I was, "What the heck  is a pastiche?" It sounded like a pasta, or maybe a dish with both pasta and pistachios (wouldn't that be yummy?) But, it's a 25 cent word for tribute, or honoring. In my mind, in my journal, and in my research, I tried about a dozen artists whose work I love and admire. I kept coming back to Kim, who I have been following for years. She's whimsical, colorful, introspective, creative and fearless. Her recent series of faces using a vintage phrenology head really captivated me, so I decided to do something similar. I was a little worried about being too much of a clone or copy cat, but the end result, I think, combines both our styles without infringing on Kim's originality.

In addition to the detailed tutorial below, I made a video of my process.

Here's the tutorial:

I started with a 12" x 12" canvas, my gel plate, deli paper, and of course, acrylic paints.I made a bunch of prints using an assortment of stencils. Of the many prints, I liked the ones with the large design from Seth Apter's Borderlines December 2017 club set the best.

I cut and tore the section I liked best and set them aside. 

Next, using matte medium, I covered the canvas with pages from an old book and some washi tape with numbers and letters.

 

On top of the book pages, I arranged the printed pieces of the large Borderlines stencil to my liking, then adhered them with matte medium. It had a nice typography look, but I knew it needed more.

I searched The Graphics Fairy for vintage images of a phrenology head, found one I liked, and printed it on good 8.5" x 11" paper with my laser printer. (I didn't want the ink to bleed, so I went with a black laser print rather than a color print from my inkjet printer.)

After positioning the head where I wanted it, and drawing in lines for the neck and shoulders, I added white acrylic and some pink paint as well. Then the real fun began. 

I rummaged through my papers looking for collage elements that I liked, and that were similar to what Kim would have used. After much puttering and switching elements in and out, I added a butterfly, a circus horse under a tent, and a botanical tulip. The "earring" is a small image from Gwen Lafluer's Afraid to Try stencil, done with turquoise paint on yellow cardstock.

The tulip needed leaves, so I stenciled some in using the StencilClub March 2013 set.  I thought circles would add to the circus feel, so I used the irregular circles from Carolyn Dube's August 2018 StencilClub Playtime set, randomly stenciling them around the canvas.

 I also added the small stencil from Tina Walker's October 2020 Vintage Wallpaper set, which felt like pinwheels, and added some more whimsy to the canvas.

I added the words PEACE and JOY on the face with stamps, printed on thin tissue paper, and glued to the canvas. I also darkened some of the blacks and whitened the white areas. The last touches were adding depth with a black Aquarellable Stabilo pencil, a black sharpie, and some dots with Posca paint pens.

You can still see the original book pages and washi tape that covered the canvas, along with the deli paper numbers and marks from Seth's stencil. I chose the number 19 because that's my birthday, and the number 7 because that's the age kids are fearless artists. The other numbers around the canvas were random.

Here are some detail shots. I love the way the leaf stencils work with the botanical tulip, and the random numbers from the original phrenology image peeking through. The imperfect circles and pinwheels interact nicely.

Golden Angel Triptych

The new releases by Gwen Lafluer for PaperArtsy are gorgeous! The little frames (EGL14) really caught my eye. First, I tested them with black ink on white smooth cardstock. They printed soooo perfectly! (I don't know about you, but when I get a new stamp and it doesn't perform well, I am really disappointed.)

I imagined them as antique golden mirrors, so I set about printing them on heavy black cardstock with a Versamark stamp pad, then sprinkled Ranger fine gold embossing powder. I gently brushed away any excess embossing powder, then zapped it with my heat gun. It was magical!

It occurred to me that little faces would be really cute in the leafy circle, and that the keyhole shape hinted at a dress or body shape. So, I made a bunch of golden circles and keyholes, then tested several color printouts of vintage images from The Graphics Fairy and ArtTeaLife (also known as OneCrabapple on Etsy) inside the shapes.

So far, they looked really cute. I thought that three images would look good together, and I remembered that I had some blank chipboard gothic arch shapes from Retro Cafe Art that would make a great triptych base.

I punched some extra holes in the center one (they came with two holes on one side only) and painted them black with some DecoArt acrylic, which has a matte finish. I gave the arches two coats of paint.

 I decided on which heads and bodies looked well together, then cut them carefully to fit inside the golden stamped shapes. I left a bit of black paper around the outer edges of the "body" and "face" frames, then glued them to the arches using both a glue stick and some heavy gel medium. Both the heavy black cardstock and the black paint had no sheen, so the cut edges blended nicely with the painted gothic arch background.

Then my next dilemma: how should I connect the arches? I have used many methods over the years, some more successful than others. I didn't want anything that would fall apart, be wiggly, lose it's flexibility, or conflict with the bright gold of the embossed images. I decided to try yet another method: brads and wire.

I used some large brass brads (the big fat ones that some of us used in elementary school!), then wired them together in the back.

Wire was twisted around the back of the brads and wound across the gap between the sections for a flexible yet strong hinge.

The triptych was still missing something...wings! I tried both the small and medium wings from Gwen's selection of Dresden gold. The medium size seemed to overpower the figures, so I went with the tiny ones. I attached them with gold mini brads so they could be moved around a bit.

I was almost finished. I still wanted something to tie the whole piece together...a little Dresden gold edging was just the thing. I carefully glued it around the edges (leaving the bottom free since it would be a standing piece of art rather than on a wall or in a journal). 

I snipped the bottom of the gold trim every 1/2" so that it would go around the curves, and used a generous amount of heavy gel medium. I did small sections at a time and let it dry in between adding sections. 

At the last minute, I switched out a couple of the faces: the first ones were a little too large and gave a cartoonish feeling to the angels. The smaller faces seemed gentler.

 

 

I like to think that the little triptych angels sitting on my art shelf above my desk are a trio of Guardian Angels watching over me, whispering hints, ideas, inspiration and encouragement.