Lipschtick

"I'm the bearded lady! Who are you, one of the freaks?"

-- Spaceballs

Arranged face with beard, mustache, cutout lips and a cigarette 9-6-13

"People talk about my image, like I come in two dimensions, 

like lipstick is a sign of my declining mind ..."

-- Ani DiFranco

Arranged face (2) with beard, mustache, cutout lips and a cigarette 9-6-13

"I smoke so many cigarettes, 

there's no way I could have glossy lipstick."

-- Isabella Blow

"I have a beard of fog that I wear on misty mornings.

It's not cigarette smoke, but I'd understand if you wanted to

shave it off and inhale it."

-- Jarod Kintz,

At even one penny, this book would be overpriced

Faced food

"Spontaneity is a meticulously prepared art."

-- Oscar Wilde

Impromptu desktop collage 8-25-13

"It's such a stupid question, in my opinion.

I mean, how do you know what you're doing to do till you do it?

The answer is, you don't.

I think I am, but how do I know?

I swear it's a stupid question."

-- J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

"I went into a McDonald's yesterday and said, 'I'd like some fries.' 

The girl at the counter said, 'Would you like some fries with that?'"

-- Jay Leno

Sometimes I need a well-prepared gourmet meal.

And sometimes I crave drive-thru fast food.

I'm the same when it comes to faces.

Sometimes I spend a lot of time creating, planning and executing a particular portrait.

And sometimes I am more spontaneous and just sort of wing it -- I grab something quick without too much thought or preparation.

Today's face is "fast food", right down to the French fries.

OK. Now I want French fries.

Pucker up butter-cup

"I don't have to KISS her, do I?

Is that what Valentines do??!

Oh, gross!"

-- Bill Watterson, The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes

Self portrait 8-14-13

“A kiss may ruin a human life.”

-- Oscar Wilde

Self portrait (2) 8-14-13

"Although it is rare, the fear of touch can have devastating consequences for those who suffer from it. If you are struggling with a fear of touch, kissing may feel like a violation instead of a pleasurable experience.

In some cases, the fear of kissing stems from a deeper concern over intimacy or vulnerability. Some people are actually more comfortable with having sex, which they view as impersonal, than with kissing, which they see as intimate. These issues are complex, and are best faced with the help of a competent, understanding therapist."

-- Lisa  Fritscher, 

"Philemaphobia: Understanding the 

Fear of Kissing"

Faking it for real

 

“Since you can't touch me, you made something that could, didn't you?"

-- Jessica Verday, The Haunted 

 

Self portrait 7-27-13

Gus:  Pretend that she's real? 

        I'm just not gonna do it.

Dagmar:     She is real. 

-- Lars and the Real Girl

 “To an untrained eye, need and love were as easily mistaken for each other 

as the real master's painting and a forgery.”

 

-- Deb Caletti, Honey, Baby, Sweetheart

 

Hooking up

"And it was pretty much the best underwater kiss of all time."

-- Rick Riordan, The Last Olympian

Fishing lures 7-21-13

"You've got an awfully kissable mouth."

-- F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby Girls

"Luck affects everything. 

Let your hook always be cast; 

in the stream where you least expect it there will be a fish."

-- Ovid

These adorable little fishing lures are homemade, by my son, Leo.

He's really good at making them.

He whittles the wood, meticulously paints on the spots and stripes, and attaches all of the hooks and hardware.

I love their silly faces, particularly their suction cup fish lips.

As charming as they appear, these lures actually do catch fish.

Maybe that's why. 

They're so cute, the fish can't resist the urge to eat them up!

Speechless

"A voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used ...

 Powerlessness and silence go together.”

-- Margaret Atwood,

Second Words: Selected Critical Prose

Self portrait 6-7-13

“Each of us has one. 

Each voice is distinct and has something to say. 

Each voice deserves to be heard.”

-- Terry Tempest Williams

When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice 

Self portrait 6-7-13

  

 “It's easier not to say anything. 

Shut your trap, button your lip, can it. 

All that crap you hear on TV
about communication and expressing feelings is a lie. 

Nobody really wants to hear
what you have to say.”

-- Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak

Cut & paste

 “We're all misfits here,” he says, almost proudly. “That's why I started this squat, after all.  

For people like us, who don't fit in anywhere else.  Halfies and homos and hopeless romantics, 

the outcast and outrageous and terminally weird.  That's where art comes from, Jimmy, my friend.  

From our weirdnesses and our differences, from our manic fixations, our obsessions, our passions.  

From all those wild and wacky things that make each of us unique.”

--Terri Windling, Welcome to Bordertown

Collage 5-29-13

"There are no extra pieces in the universe.

Everyone is here because he or she has a place to fill,

and every piece must fit itself into the big jigsaw puzzle."

-- Deepak Chopra

“We're so quick to cut away pieces of ourselves 

to suit a particular relationship, a job, a circle of friends, 

incessantly editing who we are until we fit in.” 

-- Charles de Lint, Happily Ever After

I haven't made a magazine collage in a while. So ... if you hate them, bear with me. And if you love them, today is your day! 

I have been chipping away at this collage for a few weeks. It just kind of lives quietly on a little table by the window, and every now and then I noodle with it, usually while I'm sorting out an idea for something else. A collage-in-progress functions like creative free-time for me, creative recess. It's malleable and changeable and forgiving and ultimately becomes a picture I didn't maybe imagine. 

A side-benefit of collage is that it also kind of frees your mind while your hands and eyes are busy searching for just the right piece (kind of like rummaging through a mountain of LEGOs for just the right block or working on a jigsaw puzzle). For me, it's kind of a palate cleanser between other projects. Like doodling.

Anyway, after a few weeks of fiddling, this collage kind of decided it was done, and I'm trying to be a good collage-whisperer who knows when enough is enough and just let it be what it is.

Remember, I am not  collage artist by any stretch nor do I profess to be. This is more of a peek into a part of my process than it is any kind of attempt at an actual finished product. I find ideas and inspiration for future faces through this medium, and I feel like some of my unspoken, underground artist's ideas get to drop by and say "hi" and have a voice.

I do think I like a couple of things about this collage, though.

I began this piece with the cascade of falling smiles that flow from the top left corner and filter through the birdcage and out the bottom. They come in all toothy grins and laughing and chatty, and then they go through the cage. It's kind of hard to see it, but there's a bird cage teeming with fading smiles, holding them captive until they're tamed, or quieted, or shut down -- until they're made into less of a smile and more of a sneer. There are still teeth visible, but all the happy is drained out in the cage. And when the cage gets too full and some of the caged un-smiles finally do escape, they are not smiles at all anymore. Just lips. Closed lips saying nothing. (*Your interpretation here!)

I am also pretty crazy about layering on faces -- putting someone else's mouth and another someone else's eyes over a another someone else's face, with someone else's hair or body. So that the eventual collage is a collection of mini-collaged individuals -- hims, hers, boys, girls, pick your mashup -- cut apart and re-made from any number of who's whos into brand new characters who all owe their existence and appearance to any number of others. They're made up of parts of each other.

Also,  I seem to use a lot of arms and hands in my collages. I am not sure what that says about me, but they are actively doing stuff all over the place, so that hands and faces tend to dominate a landscape run through by a ribbon of words.

There are lots of words in this piece, but my particular favorite words are shooting from the gun in the lower left corner, just above the chameleon. They say: "The artists will save us. Or at least blow our minds trying." 

Yep. We will.

Pin up girl

“This thief was an artist of theft. 

Other thieves merely stole everything that was not nailed down, 

but this thief stole the nails as well.”

                     

                                                                                                -- Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

"Pin up girl" collage 5-3-13

When I was born, they looked at me and said
what a good boy, what a smart boy, what a strong boy.
And when you were born, they looked at you and said,
what a good girl, what a smart girl, what a pretty girl.

We've got these chains that hang around our necks,
people want to strangle us with them before we take our first breath.
Afraid of change, afraid of staying the same,
when temptation calls, we just look away.

 -- Barenaked Ladies, "What a Good Boy"

Past tense

“Time held no meaning as my mind darted in and out of memories. 

Past and present collided to create a full-sensory collage out of my life ...  

through it all, a demon stalked me from the shadows of my memories, 

never quite showing its face, but crouching, waiting."

                                                                                           -- Kimberly Kinrade, Forbidden Fire

Collage face 4-29-13

 

“... everything is illuminated in the light of the past. 

It is always along the side of us ... on the inside, looking out.” 

                                                                                               -- Jonathan Safran Foer

  “Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real.” 

                                                                     -- Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses

Thank you, Mrs. Roosevelt

"What are you?" I rasped.

It smiled. 

"Whatever scares you."

                                                                                     

                                                       -- Kim Harrison, Dead Witch Walking

Magazine face with eyes and a lizard 4-15-13

 "I must not fear. 

Fear is the mind-killer. 

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. 

I will face my fear. 

I will permit it to pass over me and through me. 

And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. 

Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. 

Only I will remain."
        

                                                                       -- Frank Herbert, Dune

  

Magazine face (2) with eyes and a lizard 4-15-13

Eleanor Roosevelt famously once said: "Do one thing every day that scares you." 

She was basically saying "face your fear," but with an important twist.

Notice that Mrs. Roosevelt didn't say, "Look at one thing that scares you." 

Because you can look all damn day at something you fear. But fear doesn't blink. It just looks back. Like those staring contests when you were a kid. Eyes wide open, watering. Waiting for the other guy to blink first. Trying like heck not to. But that's just a standoff, really, a deadlock where nobody ever emerges a clear winner. And if someone wins, who really cares? What do you get? Dry eyes, that's all.

Mrs. Roosevelt also didn't say, "Talk about one thing that scares you."
Because you can talk all damn day about what scares you. Blah, blah, blah-dee, blah. Fear just gets off on the attention.

That's why the girl in today's face is speechless. There's a void where her mouth should be. Cuz that lizard is in no mood for chit chat. And nothing she could say will make it go away anyway.
Because fear doesn't discuss.
Fear doesn't "dialogue."
Fear doesn't  give-and-take.
Fear just takes.
Fear takes a lot.
Fear takes a lot of time.
Fear takes a lot of energy.

Mrs. Roosevelt said "Do."
She said "Do one thing every day that scares you." Because doing something is powerful.
Once you look at something, it's looked at.
Once you talk about something, it's talked about.
But once you do something, it's done. 
It's done, even if the doing simply means waiting for the fear to pass -- to skitter away on it's little lizard feet and go stalk someone else.

I'm not going to list my fears here because:
A: The list is too long, and 
2: Listing them won't make my fears go away. They'll just be all like, "Hey! Check it out! We're on a list!" Like they got their damn name in the paper pr something. I don't want to give them the satisfaction.

But I will say that doing this blog every day scares me. It scares me because it bumps up so hard against so many of the fears that are on my list. 
And that's exactly why I do it.
Every day.
Because it scares me.
Every day.
This project, these faces -- this is how I "do" something about my fears.
Every day.

Thank you, Mrs. Roosevelt.

Cut it out

"Arrange whatever pieces come your way."

 -- Virginia Woolf

Arranged cutout eye and mouth 3-28-13

Keep your fingers crossed

I made this portrait of these "faces" as a birthday gift for my very lovely and super amazing friend Jill. Jill lives far away right now, so I couldn't give her a real birthday hug. I sent her this virtual one instead. Jill is one of (if not the) smartest, funniest women I know. She writes books. She travels the world. She drinks $3 Wal Mart wine out of a Harry Potter butterbeer mug. Jill is the kind of friend adventurous enough to ride on the back of my motorcycle when no one else will. I hope that Jill is my friend forever and ever. I have my fingers crossed.

Birthday hug 1-17-13