The Great Chicken Mountains, and Other Noteworthy Destinations

I recently started a playful collage project inspired by some altered post card art I'd seen.

I chose collage as the medium, food and kitchen gadgets as the theme, and Colorado as the setting.

I had spotted a bunch of vintage-looking Colorado postcards at a library book sale, and just had to take them home to play with.  I kept an eye on those grocery store circulars that come in newspapers, as the food pictured in them looks ridiculous at times, almost frightening at others. I like the odd colors that sometimes manifest when the photos are printed on the newsprint. Those colors sometimes make the food seem unappealing or almost alien, adding a pleasant touch of irony. Very handy for making art - just add glue.

When I started out, I was just doing this for fun, no political or social agenda. After laying out the pieces to glue, I did happen to start reading "Fast Food Nation", which starts out talking about the area around Colorado Springs in relation to the history of the beef industry. It was curious that so many of the images I had put together incorporated meat into the landscape. So I guess once I had laid them out and looked at them, I did end up thinking about how much meat really is a part of our landscape, whether we eat it or not.



Come to think of it, so is toast.

I happen to eat meat, but have been making increasingly healthier choices while attempting to educate myself about where it comes from, who it affects and how, and all those complicated, meaty things. Of course, with meat, you often find potatoes.

I hope you enjoy these - they are still just for fun. I haven't actually glued them yet - anticipating a move, they are one of the many studio projects waiting patiently in an envelope - thus the photos, so that I can assemble them the way I laid them out, later, when the time comes ;)


Actually, I may not glue them at all, glue comes from the same place as meat, after all. Maybe there is vegetable glue out there. I will have to look into it in my copious free time. More likely, these pieces may get lost in storage forever, wedged between a sketch and a paper doll... so I guess it's not that bad that I took time out from move related tasks to share them here.

I am a fan of breakfast. Even though I no longer eat wheat, I find this picture gives me very hearty feelings.

Please, if you have your own altered post card art to share, feel free to post a link here. 

A special nod to my family members and all the nice folks in the Denver, CO area.