Beginner's - ArtTrader Magazine

Art TRADER
m a g a z i n e
An architectural salvage yard is an absolute treasure to any
community that has one—I frequented one when I lived in
Pittsburgh, and there are two near my new home. With an open
mind and a few dollars, I can leave with a box of rusted switch
plates, hinges and knobs, assorted gauges and electrical boxes
perfect for use in larger altered art projects. The “Create” sign
that hangs on my studio wall is mounted on a piece of board that
was bought for fifty cents at the Roseburg salvage store. It also
incorporates several old fuses that I bought in the same place.
One of the best features of my salvaged countertop is that I
have the space to do “prep work” for my collages. I like using
transparencies that have been colored with alcohol inks to add
a final overlay to my work, and I’ve recently been incorporating
paper towels into my art after I’ve painted them with Lumieres
and watercolors. I also like altering vintage book pages with
an acrylic-paint laden brayer and using the resulting pages
in backgrounds. Often, I’ll spend an afternoon just creating a
stockpile of one or more of these components, so that they’re
ready to use at a later date. So, this countertop is rarely as neat
and clean as it is in these photos.
My tall green cupboard traveled with me from Pennsylvania—I
found it in a shop that sold primitive antiques and knocked out
the door’s existing screens to add the fabric panel, which doubles
as a makeshift note board on the inside. Inside this cupboard, I
store my markers, pens, chunky book & altered art components,
and my jewelry supplies. I use the bottom shelf to organize mail
art swaps I’m hosting.
On my work table, I have a small book shelf that I use to
organize tools I use often—regular writing pens, sketching
pencils, my stapler and Xyron machine. Also, a set of vintage
metal paper trays (found in a thrift store) is kept here to sort
certain ephemera that I use most often—one tray holds painted
papers & transparencies, one holds odd scraps of vintage book
text, and one holds the blank leaves of paper that one finds at
the beginning and end of vintage hardback books. This paper is
always yellowed and brittle and usually has a great tooth to it, so
I like to rubber stamp on it.
Whenever a person sends me a bit of vintage book text, either
along with a trade or as a RAK, it gets added to these trays.
So, gifted text usually gets incorporated into my artwork faster
than any pages from the 100+ “tear-up” books I have stashed
around the house. Most of my salvage books come from thrift
stores—but I keep an eye out for foreign language books in the
dollar bins at used bookstores, too.
-32-