The Cover of the GWB Book

It is a transfer using clear contact paper, so it is a little more "atmospheric" than the other transfer which used packing tape.  The packing tape holds the ink more firmly, but after I stared at it a while I decided that the more vague image was perfect for a book of bridge impressions.  Now I have to think about the next spread.  In my usual fashion, there are a couple of blank pages before the first spread I showed yesterday, so I have pages to fill... and one more cover to think about... what fun!

My latest book making project

I found this little landscape format board book the other day and thought it would be good for something.  I gessoed the pages with buff colored gesso after sanding them and then sanded them again.  It is about 4 inches high and 7 inches long and was originally something about Hot Wheels... not any more!


I love it that the book stands on its own because I had decided that I wanted it to be able to display that way.  Once I realized what I was going to use it for I added some rough swipes of gold acrylic to some of the pages to see how it would work.

Because.... it is going to be a George Washington Bridge Book!
This is the first spread I completed, it is a collage that I made from some river photos with the bridge on the far left.  I made it last year, and I don't think I ever posted the collage, but if I find it I will link to it later. 

You can see the gold acrylic swipe better here...

And this is the closeup of one page

The other side...

I made this page using a laser copy of the collage which I transferred using clear packing tape.  This is going to be fun!

Spring has arrived

I decided that I needed a little spring inside the house too, since it is finally appearing outside.  There were originally some paper roses here but they had exceeded their expiration dates.



So now there are great big fat something or others.  Maybe they are poppies on steroids?  I just like the colors and they DO make a splash.

AND, if you get up close you will recognize the centers of the flowers as something Gill commented on the other day.  Nothing goes to waste, right?
 

UK Visitors make for a very busy weekend

Gill is doing an admirable job of documenting the trip and the things we have all seen, and eaten and walked around, through, under and over this weekend.  So I will just add a few bits and pieces she may have missed.  Though she only missed them by not being present or by taking a different view!

This was in my subway last night as I staggered home... I guess if you are a golden sweeper you get to take a break now and then from sweeping gold?

and some of us have little gold-green jellies on our feet and they obviously make us march right along.

But some of us have to carry extra shoes because we have to break in the new ones, or our feet, somehow!  So ... our purses are filled with trendy boots that we really love and are going to break in SOMEHOW!!!

 

When we get to the artsy stores, we go straight to the place where they keep the things that we already have WAY TOO MANY of, just in case there are some we have missed ....


And when we do take similar pictures to the ones Gill is taking we take them from different angles...

 

The boaters were out in force in Central Park but we did not add to their numbers
 

nor did we play with balls in the Sheep Meadow, though if she had been willing to part with it we might have tossed it back.

Meanwhile, my canine children are attending boot camp in Brooklyn, about which more later... For a much better look at what we did, Gill covers all the bases.

Playing

I wanted a journal to just play in, and I saw this book .. Walls Notebook and I thought that it looked like fun.  I have started with stencils, since that is the new trendy way to decorate walls.  I found this little car in some pictures I took at a British Car Rally in New York back in 2008,  I know I have at least one reader who can probably tell me what make of car it is, so I will await your comment to learn that...



I turned it into a stencil and ended up with this......

I can see what things I might have done differently, but hey!  it is the first one, and I had FUN doing it, so that is for sure worth it.  Now I am going to ponder another one...

Finished Journal Page

Alexandra Leaving by Leonard Cohen

At least iti s finished as far as right now.  I wrote all the words, because I couldn't cut any out and have it be what it is. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYcyKZOUsWs
is the song, as Leonard Cohen sings it, which is the only way it should be sung, I think, so I won't put them all here, I'll let you go over there and hear it and read it at the same time.  I'm sorry if you get the dog breath commercial that is running on Youtube at this time, it is a bit gross!  You can skip it after a few seconds.

The quick story of this one is that Plutarch wrote about the destruction of the city of Alexandria during which Antony heard the music of the procession as Bacchus, his protector, left the city and he thus knew he was lost.  Cavafy, a WW I era Greek poet  and translator wrote about it as God Forsakes Antony.  Cohen changed the city to a woman.... and this was the result.

After the point I left the page the last time, once I had written the lyrics, I brought the feathers back partway so they were not just inert shapes hiding behind the words.

better photo of the feathers pages

the last photo the other day looks too purple and the feathers look too distinct.  The page really looks more like this.