Pieces of the week: sci fi mixed media

My two new mixed media pieces. I worked on these last week from salvaged science magazines. (I actually hate to throw magazines away often because I am so drawn to images in them. So this is a good outlet- I get to gather those images and turn them into something and then I can freely toss the magazines in the recycle box.)

I will admit it, at first glance you wouldn't guess it but I am a science girl, yes totally a geek, maybe I should pull out my biology student of the year medal and wear it around (along with my math club and latin scrabble honors). I guess I am expressing it in my art. These are fun, kitschy, sci-fi art. The big one is my favorite it is 18x24 with comics, retro science, Einstein, atomic images, and a lot of biology images, playing up the alien, microorganism, workings of the brain images.

I enlightened my dh on the complex art of collage and mixed media. I explained to him the careful symbolic selection of images, the cropping and under lapping and overlapping choices, the repetition of shapes, the harmony and flow created by color, patterns, shapes and lines, the grouping of images to create effects. Its not just randomly gluing things together. The play between various textures and surfaces are all important effects. I actually think alot of less artsy people are sometimes put off by mixed media- it's not straightforward, it's not neat and tidy, its not always "beautiful". The big one is one of my current "favorite pieces". I know most people who came into my studio wouldn't not put it in their top 5, but i think it goes to show how beauty and meaning is in the eye of the beholder or creator.

I've had a few stressful weeks lately and the cutting of magazine tidbits has been therapeutic, for my slightly neurotic state. I decided if I ever had a major psychological break you'd probably find me in an institution sitting obsessively cutting and piecing collages.