Category: Maps

In Love With Vintage

12/28/2012

It seems that the whole world is in love with everything "vintage" these days. This is a term we use when something is not quite an antique,(100 years or older) but it is still cool and old, or retro-looking. The term Vintage is sometimes used in conjunction with a year when pertaining to wines or cars...but I am talking about our fascination with objects and art that meets Dictionary.com's definition, "representing the high quality of a past time, of lasting interest and importance, venerable classic."

In my world, vintage maps make my heart go pitter-patter! I have recently begun to scan and "restore" vintage maps for use in art. I love the fact that as the world changes, maps must get updated. Each one represents a snapshot of the world a that particular moment. This must be frustrating for cartographers. My maps can be found in my Zazzle shop "Mapology" and in my Society6 shop. Click the picture to open that site.

Oh Canada

On Zazzle

Finding Paris Together

Personally, I am enjoying the latest trend of Vintage-look photography. I purchased a calendar for 2013 (one of the best ways to obtain a collection of works from an artist or photographer) from Rachel Burbee AKA Vintage Skies. I love the current trend of mixing inspirational quotes with vintage-look photography. The result is beautiful and serene. I also admire Rachel's photography of vintage items such as, "Retro Love."

Autumn Circles

Retro Love

Another photographer/designer who I adore is Katy McDonald. Her collection on Society6, "Art by CMcdonald," is totally young and fashion forward, yet gives a nod to the past in a most incredible way. Her Vintage Vinyl collection is truly inspired. I also adore her "Seneca Uno" shot of a vintage camera.

Vintage Vinyl

Seneca Uno

Ann B. Fine Art Photography also has some wonderful images with a vintage feel. Her images of Paris are absolutely fantastic. They really bring you to Paris with all its magic and romance!

I Left My Heart in Paris

Vintage Paris

I hope you have enjoyed this little tour down Vintage lane...here are some links to the artist's shops....or you can just click the pictures to go directly to their sites....

http://www.zazzle.com/idaloves

http://www.zazzle.com/vintageskies

http://www.zazzle.com/bellejournee

http://www.zazzle.com/mapology

http://www.zazzle.com/aftermyart

http://www.zazzle.com/artbycmcdonald

http://www.redbubble.com/people/anniephoto

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Kids art Projects for the summer (cheap and easy)

06/28/2012

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The finished projects on the bulletin board

Map Collage Art
Last year I was working in the 5th grade classroom of our local elementary school. Every now and then the teacher would let me teach an art project to the kids. This project was easy, cost virtually nothing if you have some basic supplies on hand, and engaged the children for over an hour! Kids at every level of ability got involved and exercised their creativity because it could be simple or elaborate.

map boat!

abstract collage

            The craft started with my desire to recycle some street maps. The craft is called Map Collage. The teacher contributed construction paper. The kids brought their own scissors, glue and creativity. I was happily surprised when they did not want to make theirs look like my sample. Almost everyone did a much better job than I did and they were all creative. Some even did abstract pictures. One girl asked me, “what do you call it when it doesn’t look like anything particular?”

Here's what you need:
    For each child you will need one plain piece of paper. Black, white or blue work well for background. Should be at least 8 by 10" preferably a little larger. We used 14" by 17". Each child will need a portion of map. The maps were ones I had collected over the years free from AAA. I cut a bunch of roughly 8 by ten portions that had a variety of colors in them so they could choose the color they wanted to use. I also cut up some colored tissue paper and put out scraps of construction paper from the last collage project. Each child will need glue stick ans scissors. Try not to use regular white glue for this project, your results will not be as favorable.

Instructions:
    Tell the children to plan their collage in advance and decide what they are going to do. They should keep the shapes simple and rather large. Maps work great for Ice under penguins, mountains, water, sails for sailboats, cats, dogs, owls etc. The brown paper towels can be fashioned into branches for trees or for birds to sit on. Give them some ideas and watch the creativity flow!


            After showing the kids some samples, I passed out pieces of map, tissue paper, construction paper, brown institutional paper towels and whatever else was left at the end of the year. They even used the towels and tissue to make 3d effects! Hope you enjoy the pics!

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