One of my favorite places to drop by for activities in Front Royal is Stone Branch Center for the Arts. I dropped by the gallery to make adjustments to the new telephone exhibit, including adding a mailbox for the Royal Visit and switching the website to my personal domain. Upon leaving, I noticed a sign out front advertising an Art Cafe from 6-9 pm with free art and music. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I often enjoy dropping by for fun projects and to talk with like-minded individuals. I decided to drop by later and check it out.
Upon arrival that evening, I saw one table with the Sashiko squares that reminded me of a quilt. I had talked to the director about these squares a few months ago, when she gave me some background on their origins and uses. Another area featured a few tables stocked with supplies: coloring pencils, markers, glue, glue sticks, paint brushes, scrapbook paper, ribbons, scissors, watercolors, rubber stamps, magazines, and more. At the end of the table was a familiar Art Card display featuring past cards, including one I made back in October that I call Atlantis.
The main attraction was making art cards, which I had tried once before back in October. One of my cards was still on the make-shift miniature clothes line of twine inside a rustic picture frame, along with a half dozen other trading cards. That time, I made a couple of them and was pleased with how they turned out. This time, I only made one, but it became more involved than I expected.
It ended up being double-sided, interactive, and tied loosely to an idea I have been thinking about for the upcoming “Behind the Mask” exhibit.
Van Gough
Self Portrait
Vision of
Starry Eyes
Dream – Art is Everywhere
Looking out
from Stars
At first, I imagined making a face that could open up and reveal something hidden inside. That seemed like a good fit for the theme: a surface identity, a hidden layer, and maybe something unexpected underneath. But once I started working with the materials available, the idea became trickier. We had stiff cards, magazines to cut from, tape, and glue. I also forgot about the gluing step, which turned out to be lucky later.
The front of the card began with a self-portrait of Van Gogh. Nothing especially artsy on my part there. I simply found the image, liked it, and placed it on the card. On the back, I found a magazine image of a starry night sky over a desert, from a National Geographic book. I cut out just the sky and fitted it to the back of the card.
While flipping through magazines, I also found the words “Dream” and “Art is Everywhere.” I taped “Dream” near the top and “Art is Everywhere” near the bottom. That left just enough space around Van Gogh’s eyes to try something more interesting.
I cut a rectangle around his eyes so the piece could flip from one side of the card to the other. On the front, Van Gogh’s face now had a block of stars where his eyes should be. On the back, his eyes appeared inside the starry sky, as if they were part of the dreamscape.
That was the concept, at least. The engineering took a little more figuring out.
Because I had not glued the pieces down, the smaller rectangle was still free to move. I taped it up to reinforce it, then taped the cut edges of the main card as well. I had to trim and tape the block again because it was now too big to fit in the hole. I cut notches at the top and bottom center of the inner block, then matched notches in the main card where they met. I found a thread and used it to hold the inner piece in place.
At first, I thought I could simply thread it through the card, but then I realized the block would still fall out. It needed something to anchor it. So I taped the thread onto the back side of the starry sky card, blending the upper piece into the “A” in “Dream.” Below the block, I taped the thread to the starry night image itself, then placed another matching piece of starry sky over it.
It is not perfect, but the concept works.
That is part of what I enjoy about these art cards. They are small, quick, and experimental. I didn’t walk in with a complete plan. I started by cutting out things that interested me and waiting for something to suggest a direction.
Before Van Gogh, I had been looking at a photo of Gwendoline Christie, who played Brienne of Tarth in Game of Thrones. I thought about making a kind of door that would open to reveal something. I found images and words like “Treasure Island”, “Dream”, “Art is Everywhere”, and a compass, but nothing really connected with her. The pieces were interesting, but they were not speaking to each other yet.
Then I found Van Gogh. Then I found the starry sky. Then the words “Dream” and “Art is Everywhere” made sense. From there, the card started to make sense.
All the while, a patron of the center was playing music on the “new” grand piano. The piano is very old, and was in storage for a long time. It was tuned after it first arrived, but someone came in and said it needed a proper tuning to really get the sound out of it for a better quaility, and so it was tuned twice by different people.
The transcriptions played tonight were different and beautiful. I could make out parts of some melodies, like “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and the theme song from “Mash”. I joked that while “Mash” was playing, I felt like a kid again, and it was time to go to bed. The songs seemed so disconnected from what you would hear in the movie or on TV, but very good and relaxing. I asked whether the pianist was just playing freely from the heart or playing particular songs. He was playing a transcription by sight from a performance. After he was done for the night, he said a few keys were a little sticky. Either way, listening to the music while getting creative created a nice, relaxing atmosphere.
The director mentioned that some of the magazines came from the local library, where they are given away for free. She and her husband flip through them first, then donate the rest to the center for various projects. I like that. Old magazines get another life, cut into pieces and rearranged into something new.
I also enjoy seeing what other people make. Everyone starts with the same general pile of magazines, cards, scissors, tape, and glue, but the results are completely different. Some people lean into color. Some look for words. Some build scenes. Some make patterns. Some make something funny, strange, personal, or quietly beautiful.
For me, today’s card became a small experiment in masks, dreams, and hidden eyes. Van Gogh’s face was on the front, but the stars were looking through him. On the back, his eyes floated inside the night sky. Hopefully, people see it and admire it, and possibly take it for themselves.
It was accidental, improvised, and a little awkward in construction.
Which, honestly, feels like art.
One response to “Artist Trading Card: Starry Eyes”
[…] of our conversation from Friday’s Artist Trading Card, Starry Eyes, the original image I was working with was of Tilda Swinton, whom I mistook for Gwendoline […]