Pieced portraits are labor-intensive, requiring the making of the paper, then the painstaking process of tearing and cutting bits and pieces to create a face. If you look closely, you might find bits of old dictionaries, shorthand swirls or old music. Almost any paper can be recycled this way and creating art with it is just a fun way to recycle!
"Movie Star" $200 16"x20"
I was going to entitle this one "Self Portrait", but didn't think I could get away with it. After all, my hair isn't red. This was created with handmade papers on a painted background (stretched canvas). It was inspired by a movie poster of Rita Hayworth as "Gilda". (The bottom edge looks uneven, but that is from my faulty photography, not representative of the piece. It is straight and even and the movie "lights" (i.e. handmade paper circles) are all nice and straight.
"Marilyn" 16 x 20 $250
This piece was created with handmade papers on a painted background (stretched canvas). You can see the textures created by the pieced papers (below) in the close-up pic. There is a green/gold metallic wash over the painted black background, lending to the glamour of the subject, and the earrings are painted on with glitter-type paint.
I'd like to thank my family, my dog and especially my chiropractor, without whom I could not finish one of these neck-tensing, shoulder-hunching, paper-pieced projects. And yes, I WOULD like some cheese with this "whine"....
"Satchmo" 16 x 20 $300 Louis Armstrong has got to be my favorite. He's done in shades of purple on a blue painted background. I just love those cheeks. It gives me great hope that someone can become famous and go down in history with those cheeks.... there's hope for me yet! This is a colorful piece (brighter colors than these photographs show), that matches his colorful personality and music!
"Anniversary" 9" x 12 " $100
...because my hubby and I always look like this on OUR anniversary. Doesn't everybody? Ooh, la la.... Maybe a better name for it would be "Get a Room!"... Just thinkin' out loud here...
This piece uses handmade papers on a painted background (stretched canvas) in a "stained glass" type of pattern.
"Sailboats on Patchwork
Seas" 18 x 18 $250This pieces utilizes a quilt design of handmade paper for the background with painted sailboat over top. It was created on stretched canvas and softer blues, pinks and a punch of read for sails and some paperpiecing. There's a natural wood box frame around the canvas, but it can easily be framed more elaborately.
