Grunge -time machine

 

 

1.      Choose a background paper you can grunge.  Using Modeling paste or thick gesso, give some texture to the page in places.  Do not cover the whole page,. Just in areas.

HINT:  I figured, later, that I had made the texture too thick and it would have been better to have a thin coat rather than thick. 

2.     Choose a rubber stamp that is not flowers or something prettiful.  Choose one that has more of a geometric feel to it, etc.  (I had a stamp that I made and used it but it was not thick enough of a stamp – the grooves – so I decided to make marks.)  Let dry really well before going on. 

Since the modeling paste dries mostly clear, it will not show up until painting happens.

3.      I decided I did not have enough impressions, so I used the 3D Gel again and this time used a stencil.

  The 3D gel takes a bit longer to dry.  It has a rubbery finish when dry.  It will be interesting to paint over this.

4.       Like the youtube with Gisele, I am going to use metallic paints.  I am using Folk Art and DecoArt metallic paints

5.     I wiped back with a wet wipe before it dried and it was too light so I add a touch of midnight black to grunge it up more.  I think it turned out fabulous, actually.

6.     I can see the world map and latitude lines peaking through...  love it.

I think grunge can be a whole lot of messy background, tons of layers of stencils and dulled colors. Adding the complexity of the clock with an eye in it, a girl holding a gazing ball.  I stamped writing on it, but you cannot decipher the words.  Things are not focally clear.  Perhaps this is grunge. 

 They say that our internal time machine is what keeps track of past, present, and future, yet, the future dims and every time we remember a memory, it changes a bit so that our full memory of past experiences are colored by our state of mind when we remember.  I found this so interesting and spent some time trying to remember an incident.  I could see, feel, touch, smell, hear the historical frame - a little girl on a usual morning walk up to his coffee shop.  He is holding my hand.  I know the exact spot where I asked him what he was worrying about.  (I was, apparently, not at school yet, because my grandparents babysat us until we went to school. )  He told me that, if he did not stop smoking, he wad going to lose his leg).  It was such a poignant moment that it is embossed on my heart.  I, as such a little girl, decided I was going to be his monitor because we were together every day all day.  There was some consolation to this vignette, Grandpa did not lose his leg and he did stop smoking.  But, as I remember, am I adding in anything on to the memory?  I think, yes, because as I remembered, my mind took on the story and I tried to ad in more senses.

Next I checked my inner time machine towards the future.  At first I got nothing, then I noticed my mind went into dreams, wishes, hopes.  It was a great couple of exercises to try.  give it a go, sister-friens.

Carol Desjarlais 5.3.21

Steampunk –; The Wedding

 

 

 

This page speaks to the relationship in marriage of men and women.  It is as close as I can figure it different from Grunge that seems to have Victorian elements. 

In the 19^th Century, there were strict protocols for the genders.  When world War II happened, women had to take the jobs that their husbands left to go to war.  They became more independent.  Once a woman was married, her ownership went from father to husband.  She could not vote, she could not own property, and she was not considered a legal person.

But, when the men came home, women were relegated back to the house and traditional norms were placed on them and the norms were bombarding society with Happy Homemaker roles. 

Single women in the 1950s, if they wanted to stay working stay single, were said to be plain, spinsters, angry, having penis envy, and man-haters.  Most single women had a great deal of guilt because they were not married and married women, while it was okay for them to do certain jobs, they suffered the burden of being shameful for not staying hoe to cook, clean, be pregnant, take care of children, and kotow to their husbands.

In the 1960s, gender roles became more flexible, women who worked domestic jobs, child-care for others, cleaning and cooking for others, and society moved towards the Equal Rights Amendment. 

Thus, the symbolism on this art journal page is there to have a say about equality, or lack thereof, until, really, the 1960s.

But, even in the 1960s we were expected to finish high school and just get married and be a wife and a mother and take care of a house.  In my case, and for those in my homeland area, most of our fathers turned from us because now we were someone else’s responsibility.    Since my adoptive parents were old enough to be my grandparents, they held the belief that, a woman made her bed and now she must lie in it.  We were not saved from abusive relationships.  It was seen to be the woman’s fault if a man strayed.  The woman was supposed to defer to the man, as she had to her father.  It did not help that the religion, of my area, was still Patriarchal, and society was Patriarchal, and there was a great tug of war going on between the women’s Libbers and the societies who had a hard time with change.  In fact, women had a hard time with the change too.    It became a struggle for both man and woman to work, daycares had to be set up, and it became more and more accepted that women could work out of the home.  Still, the ideology that a child that goes wrong is somehow the mother’s fault and still if a marriage ends the woman has to fight the fight to get out.  Yes, she can get 50/50 and, yes, it is still a given that most women get the kids in the marriage and the man perms his hair, buys a red sports car and finds a new young playmate.  The gears are slow to turn.

On my page you see the wedding, the embroidered flower symbolizes the dried flowers of the wedding bouquet, the eye in the ring is that we see, now, how far we have come but also, still the discrepancies.  The measuring tape suggests the short time span it has been since women even got the vote.  And, in man dominated relationships, there is still the belief that my ex said to me when I said I was leaving him, “But, I bought and paid for you with the marriage license.”  I guess I was only a one cow woman - $5.00 is what it cost him.  The cage is the symbol, but notice, it is empty... some chick fled the nest.

What makes this steampunk?  The gears, the antiquated thought and ideology that still resides in the dark hearts of some men.  Those of us who are Crones have lived through being raised by parents still with the Victorian sense of right.  We have had to struggle past guilt and shame to stand up and say we can do it all on our own.

©Carol Desjarlais 2.21

 

Exploring Steampunk and Grunge For the Month of May

 

Steampunk is a bit science fiction in that its theme is a bit 19^th century and is a bit about poking fun at modern technology.  It is all about a lot of gears, clocks, maps, compasses, lab instruments but is also about Victorian romance, art and design.

Grunge is very much the Punk Rock scene’s artistic child.  It is raw and real.  It uses real life images with the industrial and is very stylistic, not uniform (doesn’t necessarily follow usual artistic rules) and is gritty. 

They are so closely related but I am going with Steampunk = Victorian Modern technology warped and Grunge = muddied stylistic and gritty, loud, ‘stomp your feet and bandstand kind of tone to it.

This will be an interesting month for me, if I can sustain this that long.  I have two journals going; one for steampunk and one for grunge.  I already found I have to seek out the definitions again to make sure I am doing what I think is the right genre.

The cover of my steampunk shows all the sign s of being steampunk with the new age woman and the clock and the gears, the metal buttons, the washi tape and the bit of measuring tape.  If I learn more, I can do more work on the cover, but for now, it is steampunk to me.

I am now deciding if the Hippie movement is not a part of Steampunk as well. 

 

©Carol Desjarlais 5.1.21