Mastersheet

Here's a view of our back yard from the street with some subtle pops of color....and the white seven-sons-flower tree blooms glowing in the late afternoon light. 

My shared art projects are on their way to Becky, Tracie, and Brenda....and I hope they arrive by the end of the week. This time our goal was to create a "mastersheet"....sometimes called a "masterboard." Basically it's just a large collage or art piece that gets cut up to make smaller parts. It can include recycled art, gelli prints, ephemera, postage stamps, magazine and catalog cutouts, book pages, music......anything goes!    

Once we finished our mastersheets....we were to cut them into pieces so each of us would have something from everyone's original sheet. They could be any size.....bookmarks, ATC's (artist trading cards the size of baseball cards), or postcards....the size did matter.

For my mastersheet I used cutouts from a home depot catalog,  pages from a vintage 1941 Time Book ledger, a piece of old sheet music, and various other ephemera including some very cool Asian pages from Roseanne.

I absolutely love this "Time Book" ledger from Liz! She has several from her husband's family business....Mackenzie Manufacturing. The handwriting is incredible....and it's interesting to note that hourly rates for workers ranged from .35 to .90 an hour.  It may seem wrong to cut it up...but if I don't use it....it may end up in a landfill.  So I will use it sparingly and spread it around in my collage artwork for others to enjoy. 

Even the blank pages are cool!

I used a very limited pallett of just blue and neutrals....then just kept cutting and pasting.  I will admit....I wasn't so sure when I started....but I just kept going. I worked on the back of a large calendar page....and used matte medium as my glue under and over the paper pieces.

One of the techniques I've seen used is to cover the whole thing with a light coat of watered down gesso to unify the piece.  I was cautious......but I did see how it softens the hard lines and darker colors.  I took the photo in the evening which is never a good idea.....it looked much better in the light of day....but I didn't take a second photo.

Then, using a viewfinder to help me decide placement...

I cut my mastersheet into four 4 x 6 postcards....and I was ready for the next step. Stay tuned for my final results.

Here's what they looked like on the back.