Art Work - Forty-six years in the making

Glass bricks with 35mm slide films collage

Art school days seemed like a fun blog post story, but only two words remained after edition out all the bullshit. Dunning - Kruger.  Nevertheless, retirement from the junker business has freed up some time for hobby projects.  

Forty-six years in the making?  In the early seventies, we were doing some batik fabric dyeing, clothing and scarves that we sold in a couple craft shows.  Set up a table at Pike Place street fair one summer with a guy who cast candles in the shape of an outsized dildo.  Lots of interesting shopper reactions.

My idea for visual art pieces with the dyed fabric was to sandwich cutout shapes between layers of glass and hang in front of a window.  Backlit in the day casting colorful shadows in the room, front lit under room light giving an altogether different look.

Didn't work. One framed scene hid behind the dresser or in the back of the closet year after year, damned lucky the thing never shattered.  Glass can make a nasty cut.  

Made these two a few months ago.  Super-glue adheres to the film and glass, dries clear but it is hard to get an even layer of glue.  Too much and it oozes out in all directions, not enough and bubbles under the film between globs of glue are unsightly.  

Before this project, the only thing I've ever successfully stuck together with super-glue has been my fingers.  Actually used to use it to close cuts when I was fishing. 

 Couldn't do this barehanded, and nitrile gloves instantly stick to the tiniest drop of the glue, so that isn't a help.  Discovered that light cotton gloves I find in the make-up isle over at Bartell's work great for manipulating the bits of film without sticking my hand to the glass.

Could almost see myself sitting in ER waiting to be seen, both hands stuck to the glass cube.

Haven't figured out the details of the simple wood frames, or how to treat spaces that are filled with grout in a regular glass brick

Probably make a few more, also plan to experiment with images sandwiched between layers of flat glass.  Fun to have a hobby project going.