Altered photos - Fotografie reinventate con la tecnica mista

During the last few days I've been looking over my old issues of Cloth Paper Scissors, and an article in the Winter 2004 issue, entitled Photo Refinish - The art of altering photographs, by Karen Michel,  caught my attention.
I decided that even if I haven't yet figured out where to set up a work space and where to organize my supplies, I was going to make something. The piece of furniture I had started painting on Friday is at a standstill because it generated a very unpleasant odor after the paint was applied, an odor that hasn't yet dissipated, and if it doesn't go away I'm not wasting any more time on it, particularly considering that several people have told me that I should have sanded it and primed it, or at least primed it first, or the paint will peel, etc. etc.
So I grabbed some duplicates of the hundreds of photos I have and started working on them. The process involves simply getting the photo wet, rubbing it with sand paper, and then adding water soluble crayons, paint, and whatever you want to them.
The first one was an almost exact copy of this one, of me in front of this house, taken sometime between 1977 and 1984 - not sure.

This was its first reincarnation,

but when I decided to peel off the gel medium I had put on it, a large part of the paint went with it, and I was left with this.

This is the final version. I don't know why "rose" is on there except that the word had been going around in my head for a few minutes, when I suddenly spotted it in a magazine and that was it.

This one, photographed after I had already partially sanded it,  

after many permutations, first turned into this,

and then this.

From two almost identical versions of this photograph (the images of my camera and hands are a reflection and not part of the photo)

I made these two.

And last of all my favorite, in this case from a postcard, not a photograph.

On the left is the image of my great-grandfather, Carlo Lamedica, printed on a postcard (of which I have at least 100) for an invitation to a show I had in 2002, of family images on tiles, at the community clay studio to which I belonged to in San Francisco. The young woman was our baby-sitter when we lived in Naples and the toddler is my little brother. I was in the photo too, but I used a paper copy and my image was rubbed out by too much water. 

This is definitely keeping me entertained for now!

Gardening and collaging - Giardinaggio e collages

The olive trees hadn't been pruned in over 20 years. I tried my best to have them pruned in a way that was not too radical, but I guess my words were just dust in the wind because they were stripped naked. I was not happy, and I said so...... I was told not to fear, that in a few months they will explode with new life, but I have a very hard time believing it. I just hope they survive - I didn't even get a chance to warn them the day before. I don't know why it is, but I hate radical pruning. 

Gli ulivi non venivano potati da piu` di 20 anni. Ho fatto del mio meglio per cercare di farli potare in un modo non troppo radicale, ma si vede che le mie parole sono state come polvere al vento perche` sono stati denudati. Non ero affatto felice e l'ho fatto presente.........mi e` stato detto di non temere, che fra pochi mesi esploderanno di nuova vita, ma stento a crederci.  Spero solo che sopravvivano - non ho neanche avuto l'opportunita` di avvisarli il giorno prima. Non so perche`, ma odio le potature drastiche. 

Wild cherry blossoms (Prunus mahaleb) -  I fiori del ciliegio selvatico

I wonder if the pruning stress inspired this collage? Chissa` se lo sconforto della potatura ha ispirato questo collage?  (hang on = mantieniti)

Accidental Valentine

I had no intention of making a Valentine's Day image, but my consciousness must have been so inundated with hearts seen online during the past few days that I made this collage last night (the gel transfer is from a photo of my maternal grandmother, Antonietta Lamedica).

Non avevo alcuna intenzione di creare una immagine per la festa di San Valentino, ma si vede che avevo la mente cosi` inondata di cuori visti online negli ultimi giorni che ieri sera ho creato questo collage (la foto e` della nonna materna, Antonietta Lamedica).

When I got up this morning I started thinking about turning it into a Valentine, so I photographed it close-up,
Mi sono svegliata questa mattina con l'idea di farlo diventare un augurio per San Valentino e cosi` l'ho fotografato con lo zoom, 

then I imported the close-up image into the word processing program and added text. Next I went crazy trying to turn it into a JPG to export to iPhoto, finally managed to get it in there somehow, and there was my accidental Valentine. 

quindi ho importato la foto scattata con lo zoom nel programma di word processing e ho aggiunto il testo. Poi mi sono impazzita per convertirlo a una immagine JPG e esportarlo in iPhoto, in un modo o l'altro ci sono finalmente riuscita ed ecco il mio accidentale augurio per San Valentino.

Angels and Teddy Bears

Since I can't be gardening right now, I'm creating little imaginary houses made of plants and inhabited by teddy bears and angels. Collages can seems strange even to the person who creates them, much like dreams.
Visto che per il momento non posso fare del giardinaggio, mi creo casette immaginarie fatte di piante e popolate da angeli e orsacchiotti. I collage possono sembrare strani anche a chi li crea, un po' come i sogni. 

Il Frutto della Passione - The Fruits of Passion (Jan. 28, 2011)

Mixed media collage for Misty Mawn's Stretching Within online workshop