A Queasy Interregnum (thank you, Robert Reich...)

They Huddled Together and Watched It Happen

Lynn Skordal, 2012, cut & paste collage

 

If Someone Shows You Who They Are, Believe Them

I

Ile des Femmes Gigantesque

Lynn Skordal, 2012

 

The Best and the Worst

(Blah Blah, 2023 Lynn Skordal)

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world;

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

--William Butler Yeats

 

Okay, I'm Pissed.

I really didn't believe this was going to happen.  We have now willingly entrusted our future to a man who during his last four-year term as President increased the national debt by 40%, presided over the biggest single-year increase in homicides (2020), bungled our response to Covid leading directly to hundreds of thousands needless American deaths, presided over a net loss of 2.9 million American jobs, turned the White House into his own personal cash cow (charging the Secret Service over $1 million for the privilege of staying at his properties while they protected him, for example), let the government bungle its way into a total shutdown three different times, separated more than 5,000 children from their families at the US/Mexican border with no plans to reunite them, reneged on his promise to give American families a $4,000 "pay raise" in the form of tax cuts and instead helped billionaires double their wealth, labelled climate change "a hoax" and pulled out of the Paris climate accord, rolled back more than 100 environmental protections, tried (but failed) to repeal the Affordable Care Act, buddied up to Russia's Putin and exchanged what he described as "love letters" with North Korea's strongman dictator, referred to fallen US service members as "losers and suckers," presided over a huge rollback of women's rights including the overturn of Roe v. Wade, and continuously denigrated and attacked women over and over again, both in the form of actual physical assault and verbal abuse.

The Love Song of Donald J. Trump, 2017 Lynn Skordal

We knew this and yet we voted for him anyway.

America, we deserve what's coming.

THREAD

 PSBA is sponsoring their 6th Annual Book Exchange this month, with the theme "threads."  The exchange rules are simple -- create a book using that theme, in whatever form and using whatever materials you like.  The book you create is then delivered to a randomly selected participating book artist, and you similarly receive an artist book created by another participating artist.  It's a lovely idea, the books are great and each participating artist gets to add a wonderful new book to their collection.

Continuing my trend of cleverly-titled books, my "entry" is called THREAD.  I created it by altering a mailing advert from the Sundance Catalog (which used a single sheet of paper, folded into six nesting panels).  With the addition of some spray paint, some collage, some thread and some hand-cut vinyl lettering, it emerged as this:

This World Is Full of Many Wonders

 I'm off wandering for a bit, back in late September...

Magic

 These days seem a little devoid of magic...so I made some.

Contrapuntal Magic, 2024

Cut & paste paper collage

(magazine & decorative paper scraps)

A Raven

A Raven (7/5/24)

I saw the body of a dead raven today as I was driving the freeway south to Seattle.  I only caught a fleeting glimpse as I passed by, but was startled by how large it was.  Slick black feathers swayed in the breeze of cars speeding by inches away, and nobody seemed to notice.  It seemed an ignominious end for such a magnificent bird.  I wanted to take it into my arms and carry it to a safer place (is any place safe when you’re dead?) but I did not stop.  There were friends waiting for me in Seattle and I was busy.  We’re all busy.  Busy living.  Busy dying.

 

Dark Side of the Moon

 She was beautifully out of place.

Dark Side of the Moon

Cut & paste paper collage, 11x14, 2024

Scroll-ology

The Northwest Collage Society has set an interesting theme for its next exhibition -- scrolls.  I've just finished my two submissions, and they were truly fun to make. "We Made a Map of the World But We Never Got To Use It" is simple rice paper scroll collaged with newspaper cutouts, tissue and decorative papers, hand-cut paper shapes and thread.  The images are abstract, but reminiscent of maps and globes.

"Modern Women" is a cotton fabric scroll created from some old hand-sewn quilting squares, collaged with cut-outs from early 1950's women's magazines.  The scroll hangs from a vintage wooden towel holder with hand-painted vegetables dancing across the top.

          
     

                        Modern Women, 10"x50"                       We Made a Map of the World, But We Never Got To Use It, 12"x50

 

Some More People I Know

 More collage images from my recent artist's book called "People I Know, People I Don't Know:"

WIP -- People I Know

 I've been working on a new collaged artist's book to be called "People I Know, People I Don't Know."  Collage on mostly "found" pages, such as old music scores, scrapbook pages, a page from a vintage knitting instructional booklet, miscellaneous decorative paper and whatever else I find down in my studio.  I'll bind it with a soft cover, probably some variation of Japanese-style stab binding.  Here are a couple completed pages:

Him and Her

 Made a couple quick "reverse" collages yesterday.  I call them that because instead of pasting cut-outs onto the background, you cut a shape into the background and paste your cut-out to the back, so that it shows through the background.  They're quick and often striking, fun to do.

Her, 12x12, 2024

Cut & paste paper collage (magazine scraps)

Him, 12x12, 2024

Cut & paste paper collage (magazine scraps)

Assignment: Make a collage using no glue.

There Could Be a Different World, 7x10 2024

Cut & paste paper collage, no glue (thread, safety pin, vintage sewing snaps).

For the NWCS Winter Exchange Project.

 

Some Grayscale on a Gray Day

 Perhaps the weather has something to do with it.  My latest collage is muted grays and blacks, with a subject matter to match.  Winter.  Yeah.

Just Irritating, 2024, 12x12

Cut & paste paper collage

Heart Eyes Emoji

 Entry for the National Collage Society's 2024 small format (postcard) show:

Heart Eyes Emoji, 2024, 4x6

I Read the News Today -- WIP

 Like everyone else, I have way too many projects in various stages of completion -- some in notes, some all mapped out and "merely" needing completion, most in between somewhere.  So, of course, a day or two ago I got another bright idea, thought of a cool title, and I'm working on that, instead of EVERYTHING else.  I don't feel bad.  A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

So, basically I am tearing pieces of pages out of newspapers and using acrylic paint to highlight one detail from an image.  The pages are large, 11"x11", and they feel great.  Words? Not sure, we'll see. I'm having fun with it and I'll be interested to see what it becomes.  (Assuming I ever finish it, she said contritely...).

Here are the first 8 images:

2024: A Poem for This Planet

A POEM FOR THIS PLANET

 

There are no places for the poor in this world

So they live on their knees and eat garbage.

You walk proud and tall above them

Your coat is warm

Your shoes are soft

And you only fall to your knees to suck pleasure out of the darkness.

 

Above us all cold stars gleam and dead rocks float in silence.

(We all get what we deserve, yeah?)

There are no places for the wounded in this world

So they bleed openly and the bleeding never stops.

You sit near by, close enough to judge but far enough for comfort (yours)

Your back is straight

Your arms are strong

And you only bleed when it’s fashionable to do so.

 

Above us all cold stars gleam and dead rocks float in silence.

(We all get what we deserve, yeah?)

There are no places for the weak in this world

So they bow down, foreheads to the ground, and wait.

You probably didn’t notice as you stepped over them because why would you, really

Your eye is sharp

Your aim is true

And you only bow your head when the music moves you.

 

Above us all cold stars gleam and dead rocks float in silence.

(We all get what we deserve, yeah?)

-- Lynn Skordal 1/1/24