Cleaning The Studio: A Blast From The Past

Once in a great while the need to clean my studio will actually be rewarded by my desire to do so (please note that desire in this instance should be read as 'reluctant acknowledgement of its dire necessity').  This entails a great deal of moving things around, consolidating similar materials into one container versus three or more, vacuuming sawdust, and throwing things away.  Part of the 'consolidating' process requires going through boxes, buckets, and other containers and re-discovering what is inside.

Pretty yawn-arific stuff, which is why I only tackle this tedium on election years.  However, some discoveries trigger ideas for new pieces or rekindle old ideas with new insight(s).  Occasionally, things actually put a smile on my face.

The most recent partial cleaning effort in the studio yielded a few treasures.  We'll start with bits of billboard and old(er) canvases which have been cut-up into smaller bits/sections.  I have several pieces which have some old billboard collaged in them.  Below is an example to be found in Squishy Rumba -which I will talk about more in an upcoming post.

Yea! Squishy Rumba!

In addition to little bits like this, I actually have several decent sized rolls of multi-layered billboard.  Lovin' those Ben-Day Dots!

I also came across various scraps of old paintings which will someday/somehow find their way back into something.

An early Happy Meal toy.....

Another pleasing 'find' was my stash of Wacky Packages from the early 1980s.  For those of you not familiar with the joy and wonder of the Wacky Package, here is a link to the Wikipedia article so you can get yerself some learnin': Wacky Packages Link.

......and a few more.......

I have many memories walking up to the local five-and-dime store during the Summer and having to make the difficult fiscal choice between purchasing insightful cultural parody paired with a crunchy, crap-ass stick of  bubble-gum or partaking in the unbridled bliss of a chocolate bar.  Also, please note that during 'my day' we still had the term 'five-and-dime', but nothing actually cost five or ten cents.  I guess 'five-and'dime' is catchier than 'a quarter or more store'.

To say that Star Wars was a big deal when I was a kid is kinda like saying that fire was a big deal to the  cavemen (note the total lack of hyperbole).  There were two things that really sparked my imagination as a kid -and they both were unleashed in 1977.  The Rankin and Bass animated version of The Hobbit and Star Wars.

So while organizing some boxes, I came across an old Star Wars folder laden with treasures!

Luke and Leia just before they used the grappling hook to cross the chasm inside the Death Star.  Note the uncanny resemblance to both Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher.

Princess Leia standing next to Darth Vader (I hope).

The princely sum of  41 cents was paid for the folder.

The Imperial Walkers from The Empire Strikes Back.  Even at a young age I resisted the urge to convey snow through the use of something conventional like, let's say.....uh......white.  Instead, Hoth is blue.

Quite the drawing of Yoda.  I think my favorite part is how instead of making his twisted wooden cane longer, the ground just magically raises up to meet the cane.  Man, that guy can use The Force!

Alternate versions of movie posters for The Empire Strikes Back.

A few of these images made me say "What the what?" to myself, none more so than The Bounty Hunters.  The Boba Fett is dead-on with his noodle feet and the precision rendering of his helmet.  It's the suggestive placement the hands/gun combo that makes me wonder......

On final thing that I came across in the folder was this old cover to an issue of People Magazine.  C3PO is certainly holding down the fort on the cover. The part that surprised me was the advertisement on the backside of the front cover.

A relic from a bygone era -the cigarette ad.  It's been so long since I've seen a cigarette ad in print, that I almost forgot they existed at one point.

Ahhhh, the 1970s.......