Mosaic Monday / Mixed Media stuff

I know it is Mosaic Monday time, but I have been away from mosaics this last month as I play around in 2 other classes. Both have been great and both are winding down.  I will post a few of my recent works in progress below.

Collage layer on Robot Guy. Background circuit board pattern is an image transfer I have painted on top of. The original yellow & red circuit board image was created in Photoshop. The collage text on head is from an old Mac OS troubleshooting repair book.

Clay Robot heads I created in ceramics class, they are the inspiration for the robot series of what I call Trophy Bots. The guy with the red circle is my first subject.

"Trophy #1"
8x8
Finished Mixed Media painting.
ink, water color pencil, acrylic, collage
© rebecca collins

"Trophy 2-6"
8x8
Finished Mixed Media painting.
ink, graphite, acrylic, collage
© rebecca collins

 

The guy above was a lot of fun and better gets across the idea of Trophy Bots, or taxidermy robots. When I started doing these heads on boards it slightly bothered me and freaked me out that they had no bodies. When I have done robot mosaics in the past I always enjoyed creating elaborate arms and wheeled bodies for my fellows, so I asked myself why would they only have a head? Well the answer seemed simple, you do not have a body if you are a Trophy mount. So these are the first in an ongoing series of Trophy Mounted Bots.

Detail showing graphite pencil marks ... they are subtle, but catch the light in a stunning way, sort of like dirty silver.

I take inspiration everywhere I can find it. I think the Taxidermy subject largely came about because my assistant Lola and her fiance are actually into taxidermy. I do not understand it and have always been totally fascinated and repulsed by it.  These works are not meant as a judgment or as a big conceptual statement at this point. I am just really having fun with the absurdity of the whole idea of stuffing and preserving robots, something that was never alive to start with.

Ok, and one more acknowledgment is needed .... the idea to scribble all over my finished painting with pencil came from a mosaic trading card that my husband Dan created. He is not a Mosaic artist, but he is an artist and he created a lovely simple piece for our last ATC card swap. He created a bold simple tile ground using Cinca, an unglazed porcelain and then drew a spoonbill bird on it. From a distance you do not even notice the drawing but when you get up close and in the right lighting the marks show like magic. So I will end this post with his Mosaic Trading Card.

ATC 2.5 x 3.5
© Dan Collins