MixedMedia

A few summers ago I experimented with using thin, 3/16-inch plywood to produce textural finishes on top of which anyone could compose a visual engaging, personalized collage. I then took the dried mixedmedia work, sanded it up a bit, and wrapped in an arresting detail/section from a magazine cover. I composed little packages of collage items in cellophane envelopes and tucked them in, sealing it all up with those clear plastic sticky dots. It was a fun and whimsical product that I haven’t really had the time to pursue further.

The steps are pretty easy:

1. Prepare and texturize one side of a large surface of  3/16″ plywood. Let dry.
2. When dry, cut the plywood into 4×5 postcard-sized pieces.
3. Find some interesting, card-weight magazine covers that are large enough to enclose the postcard when folded (at least 8 1/4-inches tall).
4. Glue the plywood, untreated side down, to the bottom edge of magazine covers. Use a brayer to achieve a firm, consistent application. Let dry.
5. When dry, fold the magazine cover into the correct postcard cover shape. Unfold when crisp lines are formed and trim off the excess magazine cover.

Voila! You’ve got a nice gift ready to send to your friends who love collage! Personalize by enclosing a few collage items that you think they’d enjoy.

A post over on Tales from the Hood (??) got me hot under the collar about aid, and used stuff. Basically, the writer – a self-avowed humanitarian and aid worker – is saying Americans have these embedded (and unique) cultural norms around stuff – specifically the resale of used things that the writer dismisses as junk. For all kinds of reasons, the skinny is that extending this “hand-me-down” cultural value to foreign assistance is dumb, and counterproductive. Without taking on the international aid dimensions of this argument, I felt it (ridiculously!) necessary to come to the defense of  the re-sale, appropriation, and re-use of other people’s stuff. Here’s the screed, only slightly edited.

“First, it is incorrect to state that used stuff is junk. Used cars, used clothes, used tools – unless they’ve been abused and are being off-loaded by a huckster, there is much value to be derived in used good. What perhaps underlies your assertion is a tacit recognition that the quality of goods produced by the global economy today is poor, and as a result there isn’t much value to trickle down the reuse value ladder. Nor does the cost of these goods new warrant much benefit over the cost of them new.

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While I was in Ithaca last week, I had the pleasure of meeting Victoria Romanoff, restorationist and artist. One of the pieces of ‘functional salvage art’ she introduced me to was her “washboard table.” The idea is elegantly simple: for an open-faced (front and back) table, join two antique washboards together with a top surface and an interior-mounted lower shelf. For a closed-back table, join three washboards together.

I had fun over the weekend creating some collage-texture work and joining them together as a side table. To give the top a nice clean edge, I trimmed the lip all the way around at 45 degrees. A coat of waterbased finish later, voila! A bright, colorful and very stable but lightweight table.

Next time, I’ll have to make sure I find matching washboards to match: I was so excited to get started on this effort that I’ve used a bronze, horizontally oriented board on one side, and a plated silver, vertically oriented board on the other. Both made by National Corporation of Chicago and bought locally for about $4.00.

Now and then you come across a preposterous-sounding claim. Back in the day it used to be something like, “Git yer bunny gizzrd poshuns an’ lilly oyle lintmints! Garunteed tuh cure all aches an unwanted blemishes t’the skin!”

Today, apparently, is sounds something like, “We know what to do. We know how to extend life. And we feel that architecture can yield answers.” “Defy death,” quips one observer. “Cradle tentativeness,” says one creator.

What is this? A house with no flatness. The irony? You have to sign a release before going in… Here’s a snip from the New York Times, where I saw the article:

THE house is off-limits to children, and adults are asked to sign a waiver when they enter. The main concern is the concrete floor, which rises and falls like the surface of a vast, bumpy chocolate chip cookie.

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