A recent trip to the library yielded a few books on altered art. In my mind it translates as a type of collage, but done on books and other items instead of a traditional flat surface. I have this love/hate relationship with this type of art.
I find it compelling and it never fails to draw me in, one of these days I’m going to do this. At the same time I get a bit put off by how contrived much of the imagery seems to be to me. Perhaps it’s just that it seems that hundreds of people who practice the art do the same thing. It’s interesting, but I always hear myself say “of course”.
I’m convinced that there is a secret recipe book somewhere that tells you how to put these together.
Altered Art Canapés:
Take a blank sheet of paper and paste newsprint, pictures of the apocalypse and vintage graphics of pie and cake,. Next, wash as sloppy as possible with bright pink, purple or blood red ink. Be sure these are the type of pigments that will fade over time. When dry take a picture of the Madonna & child and past off center if desired cut out pictures of flowers, skulls and guns and surround. Color “make up” on the Madonna and skull if desired. Add and old napkin and paste as a veil. Previously used napkins are better than new. Embellish with odd bits of string, a button and a gum wrapper. Note – do not wash your hands during the process. Be sure there are bits of dirt and old food throughout. To finish consider stamping a word across the page such as “Mother”, “Birth” or “Lust”.
Okay – so I’m being funny but you get the point. I find most of the modern art/crafts to follow some kind of unspoken rules in imagery. Of course, I’m one to talk as almost all the imagery in my own art is as boxed as you can find. Pumpkins, Dragons, Flowers, Fish. “S” shaped squiggles, triangles and trapezoids. Perhaps I should be more kind to these artists.
Still, I envy these “scrap books” and altered art. I can celebrate the natural progression that has spawned the art form. At one time, people kept scrap books as mementos and photo albums. I come across one of these at a flea market every so often and have to curve my inclination to buy them. The “artsy” ones are never affordable anyway since the sellers now know what they have but one can dream. These books are so unaware somehow. Sure, scrap booking was a wide-spread hobby that was probably taught with complete project examples given to the masses but it seems the decorations you find were not done because a pre-packaged kit told you to do it. They appear more personal and spontaneous somehow. Maybe I haven’t seen enough of them.
I have a scrapbook I made after high school that is kind of like this. I purchased a big blank blue covered scrapbook. It says “Scrapbook” on the cover. The pages are hardly acid free and they are quite obviously not the highest quality. A teeny bit more strong than construction paper I estimate. In my youth, I pasted and taped and glued all kinds of things in it. Greeting Cards, hall passes, notes and scribbles. My favorite part is what is pasted in the back cover. A drawing of the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers logo a friend made in marker on the back of a spiral notebook for me. On top is glued a pipe cleaner version of the same logo I made. It’s crude but honest. The book has yellowed and some parts are now crispy. I’m sure that upon my death it will hit the garbage faster than my body hits the ground, and is it somehow survives it will make a tasty snack for mice and silverfish. I digress.
Modern times have turned out pre-packaged formula scrapbooks for anyone. It has spawned better quality supplies and great stuff you can use in other applications, but somehow, something has been lost. I suppose it’s great for the every-man who want’s to put together something special. It also brings art and a personal touch into the lives of those who may not have nurtured the creative gene. My dirty secret is that I too envy these canned albums. Although I have never made one, I probably have enough supplies to make a few.
Doodles from Work Notes
The altered art journals are a natural progression and reaction to what is out there I suppose. I really love the altered books I’ve seen. I can’t deny it. It’s just that sometimes I see them and I feel like they are telling me the same story. Still, I can’t resist all that “stuff” crammed into an otherwise bland looking book.
A friend of mine had come for a visit several years ago. They had eschewed most possessions in life but I did notice they carried around a big notebook. I only got a quick glimpse of its contents but one of the pages exploded with pasted images of the sun. Why I didn’t ask to see it at the time I can’t remember. Now that I think of it chances are that it may have been a “personal” journal or diary, but that glimpse of the fabulous inside never left me.
Besides the high school scrapbook, the closest I’ve come to consciously creating a scrapbook piece has been my “Doodle Book”. I put this together a little over a year ago. I have a bad habit of doodling all over my work notes and meeting agendas. At one point I collected them and photo copied as many as I had on hand. I started pasting them into a heavy papered spiral bound book. In a way it was a lead in to my current art path again. I suppose I could have been more “fancy” with putting it together but at the time the point was to prove to myself that no matter how small, the artist within me was still there.
Doodles from Work Notes
It’s been a good source of inspiration for me. There are full scale ideas in those pasted photocopied marks.
Maybe someday I will not be so hard on altered art imagery. Perhaps this day will be when I actually use it myself. Until that time, I’ll probably draw another pumpkin.
"Magic" Pumpkin Watercolor Sketch