John

"John" was a gift for my aunt.  I'd had this picture of my uncle for quite some time.  He'd often stare back at me from his spot.  But I wasn't quite ready to work with him yet.  I was shopping in Target last August and I saw a package of napkins - $1 - with fabulous bands of colors.  I instantly thought of John's picture, so I bought the napkins and ran home to plug in the beeswax.  Next, I trimmed the napkin to capture the orange, blue and yellow stripes, and to remove the bits of pink (because he wouldn't want that).  Next, I lightly colored and stamped a vintage Bingo card. I knew I didn't want to use beeswax on his picture, so I used matte medium to adhere him to the card.  And that was it for the John collage for a few months. He didn't like the napkin. We began staring at one another again.  

November rolled around and I plugged the beeswax in again with the purpose of completing this collage.  I told John I was using the napkin.  Period.  I wanted the vintage Popular Mechanics magazine (very masculine!) and the napkin to look warmer and transulcent.  I began adding pieces of the napkin in sections to the background and this seemed to work better for John.  But now that the background was complete, how was I going to secure the bingo card without using Beeswax?  I bought a staple gun!...(any excuse to shop...thankyouverymuch...)  Because the collage was made using an 8 X 8 wood frame, I could staple John directly to the beeswax bacground. Ta-da!

His name is made using various items I'd collected over time.  The 'J' is a piece of jewelry.  The 'O' is a piece of rusty metal I'd found on the ground. Nothing wrong with a little repurposing!  The 'N' came from a game.  And the 'N' is a metal letter I picked up while on a junkin journey. 

Unfortunately, we lost my uncle a few years back, but my aunt loves this collage of him.  And I love that he and I had the opportunity to hang out this way for a little bit.  Thanks for visiting! xoxoxox