More beautiful art to fall in love with today, this time from Philadelphia-based artist Amy Walsh. Amy wrote in about her work this afternoon and I was delighted to see it as I’d not heard about her before and really enjoy the colors and arrangements of things she pulls together for her mixed media collages. Amy recently completed a series of twelve designs which comprise “Beastiarium” which is a collection of oddball creatures that are hybrids of animals, plants and sea creatures. The entire series is currently available in her etsy shop. What a fascinating body of work!
Cabinet 4 is my personal favorite.I can’t help but notice this trend in the art world right now of printing on pages from vintage books or sheet music. Amy uses books from the 1800′s. It’s a clever way to reuse something that otherwise may go unnoticed or worse, be discarded. Have you spotted this to, prints on pages? I like seeing all the mini trends out there… I often wonder where they originated and why other artists decide to pick it up, what inspired them about printing on vintage pages? Maybe Amy can stop in and answer this question for us. Amy if you’re there, I’d love to know more… Perhaps you can comment below?
(images from amy walsh)
February 27th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Hey! Thanks for asking (and thanks for posting about me!)
For some reason I can’t seem to just go ahead and work on regular plain paper – I really love when the surface I am working on already has some use and history. And I think these Specimen creatures seem like something you would find in an old encyclopedia of animals or something, so these old anatomy and botany books seems appropriate. Sometimes nice surprises happen when the text and illustrations collide with my screenprinted image.
When I first started doing these I hadn’t been online enough to notice the trend, but I feel like I have seen people using old book pages a lot recently. I wonder if the increased awareness around recycling and reusing materials has inspired people to look more closely at the wonderful surfaces that have already been printed on, that are just waiting to be integrated into our own work? I too would be interested in other people’s thoughts on this.
February 27th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Amy – I love your work, the colors and textures are wonderful! Holly – thanks for featuring such an amazing artist! (As you always do.)
I’ve been using public domain scans of old pages, both text and images, a lot in my recent work. I love the sense of history and texture old books lend an image.
Some examples:
The Mermaid
Unlock Me
Linguistic Key
February 27th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Congrats on your feature, Amy!
A few months ago I did a series of Gocco prints on old pages from a vintage edition of “Alice in Wonderland.” The book was falling apart and had a bit of uncomfortable personal history attached to it, but I couldn’t bear to throw it away. The texture of the paper was so lovely, the story so interesting . . . I realized that John Tenniel’s original illustrations for the book would look amazing printed in colors right over the text. Plus I love the idea of recycling in general.
I also took a course called “Word and Image” in graduate school where I researched a lot of books-as-art/objects— I think that has really inspired me as well. It’s interesting to see the interplay between the visual image and the text.
February 28th, 2008 at 12:14 am
Amy, beautiful work! I would also like to congratulate you on the feature.
I have been really inspired to work with vintage sheet music. I have also seen the trend around lately, and love the vintage feel the finished work still carries. :)
February 28th, 2008 at 12:40 am
Hello dear.
Well I’m not a prolific artist or anything, but I just thought I’d leave my feedback anyhow.
I’ve collected vintage books (I love the ones with yellowed, stained, or tattered pages) for many years now. I have shelves of them just waiting for me to rip ‘em apart (sadly I have no time for art these days).
Funny story though:
This past x-mas my family was all over at my home for the festivities, and I glanced over to see my father reading one of my vintage books (really old). I commented, “Oh, you’re reading THAT!” and chuckled. He looked quite confused and asked “what else someone would do with a book,” to which I replied, “rip it up and use it in my art.” He just about fell off of his chair. Apparently this concept is a little obscene to someone as bookish as he. : )
xox
Ez
February 28th, 2008 at 2:01 am
It is a beautiful look, I agree. I think the current trend is an eventual trickle-out from Nick Bantock’s popularity, as well as the popular stamping magazines which promote it also.
Other major examples are from Tim Rollins and the Kids of K.O.S., who are worth your time to Google if you aren’t familiar with them. I like the one they did on all the pages from Moby Dick.
Another reference is the important Native American works referred to as “Ledger Drawings”.
February 28th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Great find Holly, and beautiful work Amy , I especially like
Specimen 3. Globigerina/Merganser on Ilsa Heron Pages
great colours and textures.
February 28th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Last year I did a print on vintage pages each month, it was a way to mix old and new. In my work I’m always driven to the past while trying to understand the present.
Each print becomes unique because the support changes, even if there was 100 of them, none of them is exactly the same.
And I’m still not done with old book pages…
Amy, your work is wonderful.
February 29th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
beautiful, i love your work amy. sofia, i’d love to see yours too, i love this idea of working on vintage paper. great post holly!