FRENCH POSTCARD COLLAGES
Français collages de postes
Antique stores are great places to find all kinds of interesting things that can go into a work of art. A fellow artist, who creates collages, told me about a place where they like to go to find old photographs, vintage postcards, decades-old magazines, prints of exotic places, architectural wonders, and engravings and lithographs of botanicals, birds, and other animals. It's good to have this kind of material on hand when making collages and assemblages.
These were purchased at the same time as the postcards I used for the French postcard collages.
I was curious, so I went by that antique store one Saturday and spent a couple of hours perusing their bins and came away with a treasure-trove of stuff. Of particular interest was a series of French postcards, which made their way back home with me. I tucked them into an archival box with other things I have collected over the years, and that was that...until...
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One day, an old colleague of mine, who had moved to a little village in the Dordogne region of France, got in touch with me. He had recently bought an art gallery and the space over the gallery was going to be renovated into a loft-like living space. It all sounded like such a great "project" and we spent a few months emailing each other about it all. Eventually, he asked me to design some signage for the new gallery. Which I did.
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Once the gallery opened, plans for the calendar year included an Art Expo group show in the Spring. My friend asked me if I would like to participate in the show. It sounded like a great opportunity to show some of my art internationally, go to France to the opening of the exhibition, and spend time in a spot in the French countryside where I had never been before.
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The Verteillac Art Gallery, Dordogne, France.
The question was: What was I going to show? After ruminating on this for a bit, I decided on doing a series of mixed media pieces, since I had just finished creating some other collages that had been exhibited in another group show in Richmond VA. So I dug out my archival box of collage materials and when I came across the French postcards, I knew this was the time to do something with them. I created five collages, each featuring a French postcard in the middle.
With the postcards as a focal point, they were embellished with all sorts of things: a Swallowtail butterfly, a strip of 35mm film, a piece of translucent paper with a spider web design printed on it, a French postage stamp depicting Napoleon Bonaparte on horseback, Paris Metro tickets, cocktail umbrellas, underwire and lace from some lingerie, a paintbrush, feathers, an oyster shell, a piece of an onion bag, a keyhole with a photo of Mary Magdalene behind it (taken from the Louvre's visitors guide,) Japanese rice paper, an old piece of rope, horseshoe nails, dried miniature rosebuds, seashells, pebbles, and various other elements, mounted on a painted masonite board. I had them all framed in the same kind of shadow box frame, and packed them up in two boxes, so I could carry them on the plane.
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On the day I was leaving for the show, I lugged the boxes through the airport, boarded the plane, and informed the Air France flight attendants that the boxes had artwork in them that was going to an art exhibition in their country. One flight attendant very kindly offered to put them in a closet in first class for me. "Let's hear it for the French," I thought. They sure do appreciate art and are more than willing to take care of mine while it's being transported across the ocean.
Once I landed in Paris, the collages and I were picked up at the airport and off we headed to the Dordogne.
The Dordogne is located within the Aquitaine region of southwest France, a rural area between the Loire Valley and the Pyrenees mountains. It has a rich cultural heritage and hundreds of picturesque villages and hamlets dotting the countryside. Travel connoisseurs say it has "the most beautiful villages in France" as well as some of the country's "finest residential treasures."
Upon reaching Verteillac, my final destination, I checked into the place where I was staying, just a couple of blocks' walk to the gallery. It was a lovely spot and my hostess had a gorgeous home and an equally gorgeous garden. While I was settling in, my collages were delivered to the gallery, where the exhibition was being hung. I rested up, and freshened up, and met my friend at the gallery a few hours later. By then, the collages were hung and I got a chance to take in the show before the opening reception the following day.
Two views of the beautifully-tended garden at the place where I stayed in Verteillac.
There were lots of English-speaking people at the Opening, since this particular area of France seemed to attract a lot of ex-pats from England, who moved there full time, and others who had a second home in France. I did "dust off" my high school French and made an effort speak to French whenever the need arose, finding myself, once again, wishing I had spent more time over the years becoming more proficient in the language.
I like to stand back and watch people looking at my work. I wonder what is going through their mind as they take it all in. I don't interrupt them; people need their space and time with the art.
After the opening, I spent a couple of days touring around the Dordogne. I explored a prehistoric cave in the Vézère valley and was awestruck by the cave paintings, created around 30,000-35,000 years ago by the Cro-Magnons, some of mankind's first artists. Lunched at a beautiful spot nestled next to a river. Toured a castle. And stopped to take photographs as I was going from one place to another.
While driving by a field overflowing with sunflowers that were paying a tribute to the sun, my eye caught the sight of one lone sunflower, facing in the opposite direction. I did a double-take, stopped and turned around, and captured that little sunflower, who I'm convinced was saying to me: "Bonjour, Jean. Bienvenue en France."
France is the leading European producer of rapeseed. This crop, growing in the Dordogne, is part of the mustard family, and paints the landscape with a brilliant yellow in April-May, producing seeds rich in oils and vegetable proteins. Canola oil is a genetically modified version of the rapeseed plant.
The Dordogne is synonymous with some of the most acclaimed food in France, such as foie gras, black truffles, free-range Quercy lamb, Rocamadour and Blue de Causses cheeses, walnuts, and strawberries. Sixty percent of France's strawberry production is grown in the Dordogne Valley. Dining options range from al-fresco dining to casual farmsteads to Michelin-starred restaurants.
This sunflower's sole purpose was to catch my eye, wish me "good day," and welcome me to France.
Then, from Verteillac, I returned to Paris via the high speed train, where I spent a couple of days at another friend's apartment "in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower," within walking distance of Notre Dame. I spent a day at the Louvre, taking in the Mona Lisa and other works of art, walked through the Jardin des Tuileries (The Tuileries Garden) that was completely abloom in tulips, explored Notre Dame and marveled at the South Rose stained glass window, which I shot many ways in low light, and came home with one very interesting shot, which I used as the visual for my holiday greeting card that year.
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I traveled lighter coming back home. The collages stayed back in Verteillac for a few months and then, it was time for them to return to the States. Sadly, the box they were shipped in was damaged in transit and most of the frames were badly scraped up from the hanging hardware gouging nasty grooves into the wood. Undeterred by the sight of all those beat-up frames, and feeling grateful that the artwork itself made it back okay, I took a couple of the collages, that I particularly liked, and had them reframed. And it was amazing how the reframing made the collages look even better, because I could treat each collage individually and not think of them as a series of five that needed to hang together and read "as one."
The rest of the collages were stored in my art closet, since I didn't want to spend the money to reframe all the collages at the same time. Life moved on and art-making took me in new directions.
Then, when I began to work on the Art section of this website, I thought about the remaining collages and took them out of the art closet, unwrapped them, and decided that this was the right time to reframe them. Once again, the French Postcard Collages look even better than before. Each frame has its own personality and complements the artwork so well.
Framing is a real art in itself. When the right frame is chosen, it takes the artwork to another level. It becomes part of the art.
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