Trashy Art

I am fortunate enough to live near the beach and take frequent walk within view of the ocean.  I also live in Senegal which means that unfortunately the view on those walks are marred by rubbish.  Sadly, many Senegalese drop their rubbish everywhere.  My children are disturbed by this also and so on one of our walks, I suggested that we pick up some of the trash and see if we can turn it into something beautiful. 

We picked up some interesting bits and washed and bleached them.  Many of the pieces can be seen on the green tray pictured above.  

We next prepared trays of gelatin (great instructions here.)  We used opaque and transparent textile paints and either painted our gelatin surfaces or objects and laid silk over surfaces.  We also utilized the ghost images.  Below is a series of some of the most interesting prints we created.  If you decide to do a project like this with your kids, make sure you have plastic gloves, aprons and clothes you are unworried about staining.  Clean up supplies should be close at hand as well.  

Ms Brigitte & Reclaiming Ugly Old Cards

On swap-bot there are always designers you really hope you will receive from.  Brigitte is one of those for me.  Since I signed up for her fashion and mythology themed swaps I have hoped to get paired with her.  Now I am finally getting to swap cards with her through a private swap.  Elements of her style (as seen on her blog) have influenced my Harlequin ATC and also the project below.  The Harlequin is the fabulous model Akoul (more below.)  I used stamps, magazine & commercial paper collage and brads in my design.

There have been a bunch Pomegranate cards sitting around a box in my office (known as the crucible) for a few years.  I ordered packs of 50 cards with blank, birthday and Christmas themes knowing that I would like most of the art featured on them.  The packs had dwindled down to a few cards with designs which aren't exactly ugly, but were not to my taste.  I was considering Freecylcing the cards and purchasing new when it occurred to me, why not collage the covers?  Over the last few weeks I have been going through magazines and cutting out pictures while at doctors offices, appointments and as a passenger in the car.  I have assembled two sets that I am pleased with, Buddhist Gardens and Akoul. In both sets the garden/flower images were all taken from a South African Gardening magazine.

The Akoul cards I assembled simply because I think she is an intriguing model.  I first saw her in Ideas magazine at a doctor's office and it seems she is fairly new to modeling.  She has such a captivating face--she looks just like a doll my sister gave to my daughter.  Her back story is interesting too.  She was born of Sudanese Freedom Fighters who were trained in Cuba and has lived in Kenya much of her life.  I love that she keeps her hair natural--so rarely seen in the beauty industry.  All images of Akoul come from an (SA) Elle photoshoot.