Category Archives: collage

THE TRAGIC STORY BEHIND THE SONG “COME DANCING”

I have been asked why I used a woman in the artwork I created inspired by the song “COME DANCING”. Well, there is a reason. 

The seemingly happy catchy song was written by Ray Davies in 1982 and recorded in 1983. His sister’s  visit to  England (she had emigrated to Canada) happened to coincide with Ray Davie’s 13 birthday. He had begged his parents for a Spanish guitar, to no avail. Rene stepped in and got it for him (his first guitar!). 

Then she did what she always did when she was in town – she called her friends to go dancing that night. So – off she went to the Lyceum ballroom. But, she suffered a fatal heart attack, as a result of a childhood bout of rheumatic fever.

“Rene had died dancing in a ballroom in London in the arms of a stranger….Coming back from Canada, where she’d emigrated, to die.   Really, and again, being a source of inspiration…She gave me my first guitar, which was quite a great parting gift.” Ray Davies

Finding stories like this are one of the reasons I love working on this series “CAN YOU SEE WHAT I HEAR?”. I also learn to play each song on the piano.

COME DANCING ©2022 Vickie Martin, 8×10 collage on paper

I usually do a collage using research materials I collected for the painting. Look closely at this collage. You can see where I hand wrote the beats for the tricky timing in the opening!

You can read more about the series and my quest for the series “CAN YOU SEE WHAT I HEAR?” series HERE. Each piece I create is inspired by a song that I also learn to play. Why? to bring awareness to dementia, because music is the last memory, the one thing you will keep.

They put a parking lot on a piece of land
When the supermarket used to stand.
Before that they put up a bowling alley
On the site that used to be the local palais.
That’s where the big bands used to come and play.
My sister went there on a Saturday.Come dancing,
All her boyfriends used to come and call.
Why not come dancing, it’s only natural?

Another Saturday, another date.
She would be ready but she’s always make him wait.
In the hallway, in anticipation,
He didn’t know the night would end up in frustration.
He’d end up blowing all his wages for the week
All for a cuddle and a peck on the cheek.

Come dancing,
That’s how they did it when I was just a kid,
And when they said come dancing,
My sister always did.

My sister should have come in at midnight,
And my mum would always sit up and wait.
It always ended up in a big row
When my sister used to get home late.

Out of my window I can see them in the moonlight,
Two silhouettes saying goodnight by the garden gate.

The day they knocked down the palais
My sister stood and cried.
The day they knocked down the palais
Part of my childhood died, just died.

Now I’m grown up and playing in a band,
And there’s a car park where the palais used to stand.
My sister’s married and she lives on an estate.
Her daughters go out, now it’s her turn to wait.
She knows they get away with things she never could,
But if I asked her I wonder if she would,

Come dancing,
Come on sister, have yourself a ball.
Don’t be afraid to come dancing,
It’s only natural.

Come dancing,
Just like the palais on a Saturday.
And all her friends will come dancing
Where the big bands used to play.

If you have a favorite song you’d like to see represented, I’d love to know.

WHEN BEETHOVEN SHOWED UP IN MY ART

If I were going to a deserted island, I would definitely take Beethoven with me. (You can read my blog HOW A WALK AND A PODCAST MADE ME GET SERIOUS ABOUT MY ART here.) During the past year I spent time learning to play both Fur Elise and Moonlight Sonata, so it makes sense these pieces would find their way into my artwork!

Moonlight Sonata, ©vickiemartin2020, mixed media on canvas 30×30

The inspiration for MOONLIGHT FOR ELISE is from both The Moonlight Sonata and Fur Elise. While Fur Elise is not the hardest piece of music piece of music to play, it is hard to play it well. I listened to the pianist Lang-Lang discuss Fur Elise and simply said it should be played “as light as a feather”, a statement that I think of every time I sit down to play it.

Interesting, Fur Elise was not published until 1867, forty years after Beethoven’s death in 1827!! It was written in 1810 and apparently shoved into a drawer (without the nickname Fur Elise on it!). He revised it in 1827 and put it back in the drawer where it stayed until 1867, discovered by a musicologist. No one knows who is was written for, Beethoven was NOT lucky in love! There have been so many variations of this piece of music, if you look on YOUTUBE, you can find a blues version, a ragtime version and a classical guitar version. It has been referred as a “little trifle” that became a classic.

The top painting was inspired by The Moonlight Sonata. Beethoven once complained to fellow pianist Czerny (and student) “Everybody is always talking about the C-sharp minor Sonata! (Moonlight Sonata) Surely I have written better things. There is the Sonata in F-sharp major—that is something very different.”

It is interesting to note Beethoven was already loosing his hearing when he wrote The Moonlight Sonata. The name was not given to the piece by Beethoven, but rather the1830s German music critic and romantic poet named Ludwig Reilstab was the first to describe the piece as relating to moonlight. He referred to the sonata as “a boat visiting, by moonlight, the primitive landscapes … in Switzerland”.

Below are two collages based on the songs. Note the feathers in the ones inspired by Fur Elise (inspired by Lang-Lang’s description).

Fur Elise, ©vickiemartin2021, 6×6 collage on a 10×10 board

Moonlight Sonata, ©vickiemartin2021, 6×6 collage on 10×10 board.

The above piece integrates my own music into the collage. The vertical pieces are inspired by – from left to right, the octave in the bass, then moving to the right, there are two sets of three vertical pieces that symbolize the broken chords that make up the theme of Moonlight Sonata.

One last interesting fact about Beethoven is there is no proof that he ever met Mozart. But, both Beethoven and Mozart studied under Haydn.

Also, Beethoven played with so much passion and was so intense, he often broke the strings of the pianos in performances. Pianos back then were no where near as resilient as they are today, the cast iron frame commonly used in pianos wasn’t developed until after Beethoven’s death.

Do you have a favorite piece of music you couldn’t live without?

COLLAGE PARTY

My local library recently began a new program called SKILL SHARE, which is, in their words” brings together people willing to share their special knowledge and skills related to their hobbies and crafts through library-hosted workshops.” About six months ago I put in an application and was accepted to host a COLLAGE PARTY at a local library.  I led six wonderful adults through the art of collage and here are some of the results!

P4140054_1495

Getting ready to start!

Christine's collage

Anita’s collage

P4140057_1498

Christine finishes up!

P4140055_1496

“M”‘s lovely collage

Ruth finishes up a collage

Ruth finishes up a collage

I supplied all the materials and gave each participant a pre-cut mat so they were able to go home and put their finished artwork into a standard sized frame to hang and enjoy!

This was a fun evening and all six of the participants enjoyed it! They probably would have stayed longer if the library wasn’t closing!  I hope to do something like this again.  If you want to have a COLLAGE PARTY, contact me for specifics.  vickiemartinarts@comcast.net

 

SOUVENIR COLLAGES

A souvenir is from the French, for a remembrance of a memory. Are you like most people and just stick them in drawers or in albums?

However, there is a way to enjoy them and share them with your friends.  Below is an example of a collage I did for my niece. She kept all her ticket stubs through the years.

 

Mallory's ticket stubs ©Vickie Martin

Mallory’s ticket stubs ©Vickie Martin

This collage was placed in a memory box, which allowed me to layer the tickets and make them more visible.  If you look closely, you will see a ticket stub from The Rolling Stone, one from a concert in Europe, and even the wrist band from a live taping of Conan O’Brien!  Can’t you just imagine one of tickets from major sporting events adorning a man cave?

A collage can be made using souvenirs of a major event or a trip. Here is one made from my niece’s year spent in Europe.

 

mallory_collageIn it you will find souvenirs from Ireland, England, Paris, Germany, Spain and Italy (organized based on the map). 

How about a collage made from memories? My father rebuilt pianos. Here is a collage I made based on that, using some of his notes on piano tuning. When I see this, I have wonderful memories of my father in the basement happily working on pianos.

Dad's Music ©Vickie Martin

Dad’s Music
©Vickie Martin

Do you have “stuff” stuck in drawers. Most of the time, this “stuff” means something to you. Get it out! I would love to help you put it in a form that can easily be displayed and shared!  Contact me at vickiemartinarts@comcast.net.

 

 

 

 

MY ARTIST DATE – with myself and Little Vickie

I have embarked on a year long journey with over 60 women from around the world committed to working through the transformative book The Artist’s Way.  One of the basic principles of the book is to take yourself on an artist date.  This is done alone spending time with your little artist nurturing and having fun.  So –  I took Little Vickie with me to the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.

Boy, Little Vickie does look excited and I think she and her doll have  on the same dress.

So, off we went to see the exhibit Fast Forward, Modern Moments 1913 – 2013.  I am a regular museum goer, but it had been A LONG time since I have gone with just Little Vickie.

Exterior of the High Museum

Just a note, the name The High Museum does not refer to “high” art, but for the High Family that donated the land for the museum.

This exhibit is organized by six pivotal years in the world of art and this blog will be about the first two, the years of 1913 and 1929.

  • 1913 – New Art for a New World
  • 1929 – New Visions
  • 1950 – Action and Abstraction
  • 1961 Art and Life
  • 1988 Constructing Identities
  • 2013 The Near Present

1913 

Probably the biggest change during this time was new technologies in travel, most remarkably the airplane. Flight became a widespread symbol in paintings, drawing, music and literature. This was also the year Charlie Chaplin signed with Keystone pictures, the first Armory Show in New York was held, the Panama Canal was opened and the Model T was introduced.  Take a look at some of the paintings from this year.

Matisse, The Blue Window

“An artist must possess Nature. He must identify himself with her rhythm, by efforts that will prepare the mastery which will later enable him to express himself in his own language.” Matisse

Mondrian Composition in Brown and Gray

“Every true artist has been inspired more by the beauty of lines and color and the relationships between them than by the concrete subject of the picture.” Mondrian

I can’t look at a Mondrian painting and not think about music and rhythm. Did you realize he was quite an accomplished dancer?   Click HERE for a short video of art historial Kermit Swiller Champa talking about Mondrian’s  interest in dancing and the boogie woogie.  The above painting is consider analytic cubism.

Picasso, Glass, Guitar and Bottle

This painting is synthetic cubism, which grew out of analytic cubism. Developed by Picasso and Braque, they discovered through the repetition of analytic signs their work became flatter. This was the beginning of collage, when real pieces of paper and music began replacing depictions that were painted.

Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms in Continuity in Space

This is considered a Futurist sculpture.  Don’t you love the movement of this apparent human form in motion that suggests speed and power? An interesting fact about this piece, the lack of arms is an homage to Rodin’s Walking Man

Juan Gris – Grapes

Juan Gris studied mechanical drawing.  He also designed ballet sets for Diaghilev and his famous Ballets Russes. “You are lost the moment you know what the result will be”.  Juan Gris (originally known as Jose Gonzalez-Perez.

1929

Not only did the stock market crash in 1929, but it was also the year of both the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and the year Stalin took power.  The Vatican became a sovereign state and Hemingway published A Farewell to Arms.

Salvador Dali had his first solo exhibition in Paris. Andre Breton, considered the founder of surrealism,  said of the show “It is perhaps with Dali that for the first time the windows of the mind are opened fully wide”.

Salvador Dali Illumined Pleasures

The title “Illumined Pleasures” is thought to refer to the “luminous” objects projected into the theaterlike boxes.  Dali’s painting are extremely detailed, but many of them are very small. (this painting is a mere 9 3/8 x 10 3/4).  “Have not fear of perfection, you will never reach it.” Dali.

Magritte The Palace of Curtains III

Magritte shows us two images in this painting, one of the sky and the other with the word Ciel, which is the French word for sky.  The word and the image are the same in their meaning.   “An object never serves the same function as its image – or its name.” Magritte.

Max Ernst The Birds Above the Forest

I loved this painting. Forests and birds are subjects Max Ernst returned to over and over again. In fact, Ernst had an alter-ego Loplop, who is a birdlike character that reappears in many of his works.

Georgia O’Keeffe Farmhouse Window

Georgia O’Keeffe is one of the few women represented in this show. I liked the lines and the simplicity of this painting.  “I know now that most people are so closely concerned with themselves that they are not aware of their own individuality… and it has helped me to say what I want to say… in paint.” Georgia O’Keeffe

Gerald Murphy Wasp and Pear

Gerald Murphy probably painted less than 20 paintings in his lifestime. This painting is one of his last, and is considered a mix of the styles of Cubism and Art Deco.  Murphy and his wife Sara were ex-patriots living in both Paris and the French Riviera.  They are remembered for their salons, attended by Picasso, Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald.  In fact, he and his wife are the models for Nicole and Dick Diver in Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night.  I plan on learning more about this artist and his life.

Alfred Stieglitz Equivalent Series

This is part of Equivalents, which is a series of over 200 photographs primarily of the sky without a horizon, and mostly without hills, trees, buildings, making them among the first abstract photographs.  He said of this series “I know exactly what I have photographed. I know I have done something that has never been done…I also know that there is more of the really abstract in some ‘representation’ than in most of the dead representations of the so-called abstract so fashionable now.”

I think this enough for now!  I will write about the years of 1950, 1961, 1988 at a later date.

So, what did I and Little Vickie learn?  I learned by going alone to the museum I could take the time to really look, read and listen to the audio.

What in an exhibit gets your attention?

 

COOLAGE PARTY – OR HOW A SEED WAS SOWN

 

I recently spent a weekend helping about 80 people make collages at the Atlanta Art Festival.  Also, I’m part of an online group led by the ArtBiz Coach called the Artist Conspiracy  designed to help artists take their art career to the next level.  Recently I signed up for another online class called Flying Lessons  taught by Kelly Rae Roberts.   I feel my participation in these two groups has put my mind into overdrive and I’m seeing possibilities in places I never noticed before.

I helped four college girls put together collages at the Atlanta Art Festival. As they were leaving they asked me if I ever hosted “collage parties”.   I’d never thought about it, but a seed was sown that might not have sprouted at another time in my life.  Later, several girls, ages 6-10, wanted to do a collage of a “fancy” dress.  I drew a template in the shape of the dress below and helped them pick out paper to make their personal “fancy” dress.

Needless to say, the girls were thrilled!

What else can I do? I also had several boys ask for help on a collage of a dinosaur or car.  The possibilities are endless.

 
Right now – ideas are coming – next step is to work out the logistics.  It is important to keep watering this seed while keeping the weeds of self doubt out!

Do you think this is a do-able idea?  Do you think it is worth pursuing?  Coolage Party is just a working title – any ideas?  

 

MORE ON THE MARILYN PROJECT

Putting Marilyn together

I’ve posted about this project before.  But, just in case you missed, to celebrate the 100th year anniversary of collage, The Atlanta Collage Society put together an 8×8 foot collage.   This consisted of 841 separate collages, made by approximately 70 people, ages 7 to 70!

You can see a video about this project HERE.

 

MARILYN UNVEILED!!!!


THE MARILYN PROJECT

Doesn’t she look great!!!!!  This is the end result of what The Atlanta Collage Society  called The Marilyn Project.  In celebration of what is commonly considered the 100th year anniversary of collage used in fine art, we put together this collage last week at The Museum of Design in Atlanta in conjunction with The Art Partners – High Museum of Art .

The collage measures 8 ft. x 8 ft. and is made up of 841 individual collages mounted on a 3×3 inch canvas.   There were approximately 70 people involved in this, ranging in age from 7 to 70!

While this “performance” was only for one evening, we are sure Marilyn will make other appearances around town!

CELEBRATE 100 YEARS OF COLLAGE

LANCE CARLSON

©LANCE CARLSON

This year, 2012, marks one hundred years since Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso made their first collages, introducing this medium into the world of Fine Art. But, what is collage?  from the French word, coller, meaning to glue.  The Webster dictionary defines collage as “an artistic composition made of various materials (as paper, cloth, or wood) glued onto a surface.”

Actually, collage dates back to the time of the invention of paper in China, around 200 BC.  Caligraphers began using it in 10th century Japan to apply paper when writing poems. Collage appears in medieval Europe when gold leaf panels were applied to Gothic catherdrals, and gemstones were applied to religious icons, images and coats of arms. But, after that, it was used primarily by hobbyists for things such as photo albums and books. However, most art authorities agree that artists began using collage as a technique with the advent of modernism.  By adding glued on patches of paper, Braque and Picasso added a new perspective to their paintings when these patches became  integrated into the painting. This gave artists a new found freedom of expression, allowing them unfound freedoms to experiment by adding new elements within the frame they were working with. Braque started the concept of collage by applying it to charcoal drawings, and Picasso possibly used it first in paintings.   Braque began by purchasing  a roll of simulated oak-grain wallpaper and began by cutting out pieces and applying them to the drawings.

Georges Braque 1913

Next, Picasso embedded an piece of oil cloth with a chair-cane design onto a painting, and the world of art was off and running

Pable Picasso

Artists began added newspaper, colored paper, cloth, basically anything that caught their attention.   They began added things such as sand and coffee to their paint to create texture.  Many artists even cut of pieces of their work they weren’t happy with and applying using these in new art.

Collage also also extends to 3d work, often referred to as assemblages.  In recent years, photomontage and digital collages have become popular.

So, when Braque and Picasso began gluing paper on their paintings, they opened a whole new art world to anybody that wants to experiment!

To celebrate, the following events are coming up in Atlanta

The Marilyn Project – The Atlanta Collage Society will put together an 8’x8′ collage consisting of 841 pieces on 9/13 at MODA, sponsored by The Art Partners with the High Museum of Art. click HERE for details.

I will be doing a collage demonstration – at the Atlanta Arts Festival, 9/15 – 16.

 

©vickiemartin.net
Fighting Fire With Fire 5×7