Friday, April 6, 2012

Tag Rolodex

While trying to organize my tags today, I couldn't help but notice that they looked like tags on a Rolodex.  



Row after row of tags kept my head spinning as each one silently cried to be captured by the camera.  Such show-offs.


One of my favorite models has been the beautiful Ms. Josephine Baker.

I began making tags back in April of 2007.  Who knew that playing with paint and ink on giant tags would lead to holding workshops and make-it-take-its.  
Their large size of 8 x 4 were perfect for journaling on the back.  This was how they first began and the first set were titled "Lady Birds" because each tag featured a woman with a bird somewhere on the tag.  I wonder if the people who made them that night still have them.  I continued to call them journal tags but the thought of journaling scares a lot of people so I went in another direction with them suggesting that people feature them near their art spaces or give them away as tag cards.  Years later some of us made a calendar featuring these art tags.
The tags I tried to organize today came from make-it-take-its but there were a few that came out of hiding from a few books where they've been housed in.  Keeping them out in the open is a risk factor in getting sun damage but I try to keep my spinner rack away from direct sunlight.
Someone who took a few of my classes once told me that she had her tags displayed in her art room going across the top of her ceiling like a banner.  Another person who's taken my classes switches faces by replacing them with family member's faces and then she gives them away as birthday cards.   I've given some of mine away telling myself that I'll replace them but I never get around to it.  Instead I play with colors and come up with new ideas.
Lately I've been thinking of retiring my tag girls.  It's been a good five years and I've got a filled up composition book with paint chips and scribbled instructions - a sort of memory book I suppose.  But I keep buying tags and paint.  Sigh.  The cord is pretty thick and I'm not 100% sure if I'm ready to cut it.  Decisions decisions.
Oh, guess what I made today?  Yep, a tag girl with a cotton tail and an Easter egg.  To be continued.....     

No comments: