Wednesday, August 10, 2011

New Work in Progress

With the prospect of the beginning of a new school year in just a few days hanging over my head, my goal has been to finish, or at least get a decent start on, my next altered book cover before school starts.  I'm feeling pretty good about where this piece is going (if not quite as good about where I'm going), in spite of some struggles with problems that I've hopefully remedied.  Here is the left side of the piece as it stands now:


The book page and end paper are from a vintage book of Longfellow's poetry and other writings, and the plant with roots as well as the petunia are image transfers of illustrations from a vintage botany textbook.  I don't know if you can see the little map scrap at the top right; it says, 'Old Davidsonville State Park'.  (You can probably read it if you click on the image.)  The odd thing about this is that it just showed up on my drafting table, and is not from the map I was using for this piece (which is now mostly torn off and underneath several layers of other stuff).  I just happened to look down, and there it was- and I took no notice of it really, until I realized there was a familiar name on it.  I guess it must have been in among some other things I pulled out of one of my scrap drawers.  I have no idea where this park is; if you do, I hope you'll let me know.

I apologize for the poor quality of the photo; I just quickly stuck this on the scanner, and it's not entirely flat, so some of it doesn't show up well.  I'll be posting better photos of further progress in the next day or two, and also explaining some of the meaning behind this piece.  

Just so you know, blogger is not always letting me leave comments on others' posts, and I'm having great difficulty uploading photos; once uploaded, it sometimes won't allow me to add them to my post.  What's up with that?  Maybe I shouldn't have made that comment about blogger and I not being on friendly terms... should I apologize?


7 comments:

  1. This looks like a promising start of something good. Love your fotos below too...wonderful patterns, etc. ooooooh yes, call them up and apologize for all your misgivings:)

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  2. ha! sharmon, yes, make a hasty apology!!! i am flummoxed by the blogger photo thing these days... no matter what order i upload them in, they come up in the wrong order! i'm glad i'm doing shorter posts with less photos these days...

    love this start... looks *very* promising and like it will be a good friend as you head into the school year.

    xoxo

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  3. I use the "new editor" and usually upload one photo at a time. When uploading multiple photos, the new editor will add them in the order you choose them--first to last--and shows them to you in that order.

    I like the collage and look forward to seeing it finished.

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  4. I see everything on my computer. Your piece is lovely!!!

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  5. Hello! I came over from lynne's and am really loving your blog, and your 'noticing' post and feelings about nature and being a visual artist. And it sounds as if you are a teacher too? I have two weeks left of my summer. Your book cover looks wonderful, as is your banner! roxanne

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  6. This is really cool collage, Sharmon. Don't loose your mind about Blogger, simply send them an e-mail and they will look into the problem. I always do.

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  7. Svetlana- thanks for the advice about blogger- I may do that. I'm glad you like the piece!

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Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with me. I'm happy to reply here, but may not always have time for individual emails.