I have done 31 collages now which is one shy of being half done the wall and I have used 698 items so far which is two shy of 700, damn it. I had planned on taking a break after the last trip to Staples to get the last 10 laminated but they accidentally charged me for 12 sheets. So I have to go back on Friday to get my refund and I thought I might as well put the refund to good use and laminate two more.
A few months ago, I discovered Attic Books in London and it's my new favourite place. I probably go there once a week now. Most of the vintage items on the collages have come from there. I have been buying $1 books and postcards on a regular basis. I had read that they had old photographs, which I had been looking for, but the only ones I'd seen were of a prominent family and they wanted $125 for the collection which was in a box behind glass. No thank you.
My price range is in "The Loonie Bin" outside where everything is usually a dollar. So last week I saw they added some more books. Nothing caught my eye until I saw a different box marked, "Instant Ancestors: 25 cents each!" I raided that box. When I went in to pay, I told the girl that I had gone through the photo box.
"Oh, you found a couple that you like?"
"No, I found many."
"Oh. Yeah you did."
I sent this picture to my sister and she said something like, "That's weird! Don't buy people!" It is kind of sad that at some point these people's memories ended up in a box on a street somewhere. But then she said "What better way to celebrate someone than in an art project?" She was probably joking but I would rather use these pictures than have them be thrown away because nobody took them home. I knew that I was soon going to do a mostly yellow collage and I was immediately drawn to the yellow curtains. I think most of the photos must have been from an estate sale because a lot of the same family members are seen throughout the images. (These are just a few that I got. I will also be retiring the fish placemats when the wall is done.)
This one has an empty space because it will go around my light switches. The "My Little Pony" is courtesy of Rylan Ross! The photo of me was taken in 2009 with country artist, Jessie Farrell. In grade 12, my final art project involved my concert photos and I had put a bunch of them on a pillowcase. I no longer wanted it and realized that the material was thin enough to glue onto the collage. I wasn't all that excited about this collage until I saw how it looked with the next one.
I like the wedding/anniversary theme with this one. I also like the yellow here which is rare for me since I am not a big fan of yellow but everything worked together really well! I especially liked the little yellow map that I got from one of the home shows. It says "We Are Here" on it so that's what I named the collage. I was thinking about how these people are no longer forgotten even though someone asked me who they were and I laughed and said, "I don't know!"
As fun as it was to make this, it was just as nice to not do any sorting or gluing a new one. So that's what I did yesterday--nothing. With the wall being nearly half done, I have been thinking more and more about the art show(s). I can apply to The London Fringe Festival in September. I would have entered for this year's show but it ends on a day that I am going to a concert and I thought the timing wouldn't be right since everything had to be taken down at a certain time that day and I would need help. I have a good idea of which ones will go to the library and which ones can go to Fringe and which ones I'd like to keep. I am glad I am not entered into Fringe this year because it starts at the end of May and I'd have to take the wall apart now. This way I will get to see it as a whole for many months (hopefully) before things go "Beyond the Wall Project".
It's hard to explain how I know what will go where. I said to someone the other day that I always have three worked out in my mind at all times. If I can't sleep or even if I'm out somewhere, I'm always thinking, "This could go here. I need something like that." And I always think in terms of colours. Lots of colours.
So I thought it would be fun to do a photo experiment to see what the wall would look like if the colours were taken away or altered. Here's what I came up with by using different coloured filters or black and white on my camera. I hope you enjoy them and that my darker images brighten your day!
Laughing at my Kid Rock shirt and the fact that I saw Kid Rock.
Adam Lambert does not look impressed by my tomfoolery.
