Put a Bird on It!

About 5 years ago I started to notice the "bird on it" trend at the Brooklyn Flea. I seem to have some kind of psychic connection with the series Portlandia because whenever I find some hipstery thing funny it ends up on the show. Then I walk around saying "Put a bird on it" and "I can pickle that" more often than I'd like to admit. 

This bird craze has some serious staying power! Its kind of too bad because there are times I would like to put a bird on something, but now I feel guilty & ashamed. Can you find the bird in this collage? I found him in a vintage magazine and and mixed him up with some vintage fabric, paint & drawing. 

This weekend I went to some yard sales and got this pretty handkerchief.  I could cut it apart and use all the little birds in mixed media -- but I'd feel way too guilty!  Then bird salt & pepper shakers & ceramic figures started showing up at another sale for $1 so I had to buy them. Put a bird on it! 

Blast From the Past

Someone gave me a pile of newspapers and LIFE magazines from 1969. I took them for collage material but ended up reading them first. Yes, there were lots of cool fashions and funny ads. But the 60s were also a time when people were exploring issues like race, gender, war, freedom and space. The status quo had to go! 

I started a collage journal based on this treasure trove of trash. Its very autobiographical because I grew up in this era. I was the girl at the slumber party totally cracking up with a tape recorder. The pictures from The Beatles White Album were on my wall too. The text below states "YOU could be a HAIRDRESSER! It's the now career for now people!" I never wanted to be a hairdresser. I knew I wanted to be an artist, and decades later I still working on that. 

iHanna DIY Postcard Swap

I joined the iHanna international postcard swap with an idea to make recycled postcards from contemporary materials ... but I got magnetically drawn to my collection of vintage National Geographics for inspiration. These images came from 1928. I have a large collection of vintage ephemera and I usually use the original images. I scanned these because I couldn't bear to part with them. In spite of scanning them I still could barely part with them! I used to make and send cards to my mom who passed away many years ago. Although its impossible to mail postcards to the "hereafter" I think I really made them for my mom. Her family came from Poland but she loved to dress in the latest American fashions. The rowboat is a reference to the house she lived in along the river. You can see more of my postcards on Flickr.