101

Thanks to all the people who came by the Art Vs. Craft last weekend and said hi, and thanks to everyone who bought stuff! It's really exciting to make something that someone actually wants, or wants to give to someone else. I counted the number of cards, magazines, monkeys, and collages I sold, and it came to 101, total, which is kind of a magical number.

On Saturday night, after the first day, I made a new sock monkey, a pretty weird one, but with a certain lovable quality. I forgot to take a picture of it, and someone bought it, so it's barely even a memory now. But that's okay, I don't need to have pictures of everything, and I don't need to remember everything. It's nice to just think of things like that monkey going off alone in the world.

Hi!

Brand New Collage!

See if you can guess the title of this one!
The winner will get, I don't know... a new car, or a tour of my "studio," or a subscription to "The Sweet Ride" magazine (though I'll have to check with Tony Franciosa about that one). Your pick!

Small Collage

This is a brand new collage, fairly small. I guess I should measure them, that might be interesting. I didn't think of that. The computer makes them all the same size. Look! There's someone with a bow tie drinking coffee. Just thought I'd point that out.

PG13

Even The Island of Misfit Toys wouldn't take in this monkey! But I, having a large heart, did. No... who am I trying to fool... I made him/her.

New Monkeys!

The Glimmer Twins? The Bad Boys from Boston? I don't know. They are not identical, but their pants are alike. Or their legs are alike.

Three Panel Collage

The title of this collage is "Clint." I don't know if that's really Clint Eastwood or someone who looks like him. Maybe it doesn't matter.

Love will tear us apart

Old collage from 1998, much different from anything I do now. It is covered with a hardened layer of Elmer's glue, which gives it a cloudy appearance, which is kind of nice. Part of the glue is colored with red food coloring. There's nothing like red food coloring.

Spiceworld!

Two square panels that go side by side, touching. The images are entirely of the Spice Girls. There is some yellow tinting. I don't tint collages too often, but sometimes it seems to work well. I'm not, like, a big fan of the Spice Girls or anything. I just had this Spice Girls book, with really nice photos. The photos themselves were better than the collage, actually, in the end. But I had to try.

Is that a hat or is that your head?

Big Purple Eye and Big Blue Eye

Kind of looks like he/she's wearing sunglasses. What was I thinking?

Maroon

I just noticed that this monkey matches the two stripes across the chest of my favorite sweater. If I carried it around whenever I wore the sweater it would be quite stylish, but I think people might take it the wrong way. And besides, I don't want to have anything to do with monkeys being used as accessories, though it's probably beyond my control, ultimately, what people do. Well... I like this monkey enough to do that... and I like my sweater enough, too... but I won't. I'm more inclined these days not to draw attention to myself.

New Collage No Title

I just finished this collage except for the title. I like to give everything a title. If you don't give it a title, the title becomes "(untitled)" which is essentially a title. At the point that I was almost finished with this one, I thought of a good title for it, then I forgot. I've been trying to remember what it was. I'll think about it when I go to bed, and maybe it will come to me in a dream. That usually works.

Pearl Eye and Clear Eye

Just because this monkey is rather traditional doesn't mean s/he's boring. One of the eyes is clear. You won't see that too often.

TALK magazine #1

This is a collage made by gluing every page of the first issue of TALK magazine together, and then tearing away. I can't remember if they are the odd or even numbered pages, or both.

Actually, I couldn't remember the name of the magazine, and I had to look it up. TALK magazine was started in 1999 by Tina Brown and Harvey Weinstein. It only lasted until 2001. I wonder what it's like, when you start something that ambitious and well known and then decide to end it.

I don't see it as a failure, however. At least I got this collage out of it!

Have You Seen Me?

I can't find him/her in the menagerie and I'm thinking that someone bought him or her, or maybe I gave her to someone, or traded him to someone for something that has since been consumed (make a note: don't trade for food, you'll be sorry later). Anyway, I'm hoping that is the case, because this isn't the kind of monkey you want to disappear mysteriously and then show up later in the wrong place and at the wrong time. This isn't the monkey you want to come across alone in the middle of the night in your own home. UNLESS of course you adopted her/him, and then I'm sure there is enough love to counteract the scariness.

Be seeing you!

This collage is essentially a representation of a face, the idea being that when you see a face you are seeing a lot more than what you are seeing. The eyes are the anchors here, as they are with faces. A lot of collages have eyes. I guess I'm attracted to eyes. But I also like how the pupils in eyes are holes, but they look like stones. Sometimes I put holes in collages, and when they are small, pupil sized holes look like they are solid black, because the darkness swallows up the light. This reminds me of how I always thought camera lenses, which are passageways for light, look like black stones. That helped me not be afraid of cameras, to think of the lens as a black stone instead of a tunnel.

Stripes, and some stars

Is this monkey patriotic, or pro-American, or is this some kind of a prison suit? The answer is none of those, because it is a lifeless form filled with polyester fiberfill, with no background of hatred, ambition, hidden agendas, or lofty ideals. What could be more humble than in a past life shielding a foot from a shoe? At this point, this monkey has no gender, name, or home-- though the cat if fond of it.

No Boxes!

I'm still cleaning up from a major disaster. E'wood had just started working on the roof, fixing the leaks, above the room by the garage, the new gallery space, where I had a lot of my stuff stored, and I was doing some spray painting. I was working on these nice gift boxes for monkeys, with a new decorative design I had developed: Glitter Camo! It's kind of a gray, black, green, brown, and gold camouflage design with glitter! "Now you can go undetected in the jungle, in the desert, and at the disco!"

But then the big rains came, while E and I were sitting at the BFP sipping coffee (I was eating bananas and milk). I didn't worry about it too much, except for getting home okay, but then when I got home I was shocked to see water POURING in, soaking everything in that room, including all the brand new Glitter Camo boxes. I had to drag everything out of there, trying to salvage the valuable stuff. But almost all of the gift boxes were ruined. There was nothing I could do, except try to stay calm. I just don't have the heart to start over and make more. Maybe boxes weren't such a good idea, anyway. The fashion industry can go ahead and steal my glitter camo idea if they want to. But remember, you heard about it here first!

Sweater

This is a fairly old collage, but a good one, and it's for sale!

Red monkey with one yellow star eye

This monkey is red mostly, with some yellow. He resembles the USSR flag, but there's no hammer and sickle.

Two Panel Collage

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