bondage aceo

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bondage aceo
Originally uploaded by popcornfeet

Most people think that life's got them. That they are stuck... trapped in situations that they can't get out of... Hamsters on one those wheels.... In bondage to their jobs.... partners.... bills... obligations... wants... needs....

I think the truth is closer to what you won't let go of, chains you to it.

I think we spend our lives wishing for something else all the while dragging what we don't want around with us... always looking over our shoulders to make sure what we have and don't want is still there, wanting something else but never getting so far away from our comfortable misery so we can't see it.

I think there are a lot of reason people have for doing this ...probably as many reasons as there are people. Some people fear change and living in known pain is better than an uncertain future. After all we know how heavy the chains are... What will it feel like without them? What will we do with our hands? What will we do with all the time we spent complaining? I think Lily Tomlin was right when she said, "I personally think we developed language because of our deep need to complain. " People sure so love to complain!


I think some people really don't believe they can get off the hamster wheel and that dooms you from the start. If you think you can, you can and if you think you can't your right too. It's sort of the cosmic version of a pre-nuptual agreement. Sort of like your saying to the universe... Well I think I can sorta do it...probably... most likely.... but if I can't would you mind mitigating my damages? Might as well tattoo FAILURE across your forehead.

Plus there's a lot of letting go and trusting involved in getting what you want - from yourself and others and letting go isn't something most people find easy. I don't, anyway.

I think most of the stuckness in my life is me.


The card looks better than the picture - the card is uneven in height and very glossy so shooting it and scanning it is difficut. This has been an issue with any card Ive done that been a collage pretty much! This one is no different! The card is an aceo blank of mat board and a highly textured black paper (crinkly)... I only used one background paper and it looks like patent leather - its really cool. The chain is a silver plated small linked chain and it all bound there with thick acrylic sealer.

Memories ac-Emo ACEO

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Memories ac-Emo ACEO
Originally uploaded by popcornfeet

You may not like all your memories but they make the whole of you.

In each person you know there are things you might not like but that doesn't take away from the value of the person - and the person is the sum of his parts.

As each person person you know deserves a place in your life each of your memories is worthy.

I've struggled with this.

For many years I'd assumed there were things I'd rather forget. But I can't say I'm sorry who I am, who I've become... who looks out from behind my eyes. How can I pick and choose the memories, than? If I lose this one will someone else be looking out from behind green eyes? Or will it take two memories? Or not those two but two others?

Many years later I can see the value in not fighting the memories. Coming to terms with them...letting them rest.... in peace.

The ghosts of the past ac-Emo ACEO

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The ghosts of the past ac-Emo ACEO
Originally uploaded by popcornfeet

How much stuff do we carry forward in to new relationships ? As much as we truly want to end one before we get into another I think most people keep tugging everyone they ever knew along with them...

People call it baggage but I've seen how heavy it looks on some people - I think it's stone.

ac-Emo

ac-Emo
Originally uploaded by popcornfeet

Somethings been bothering me for a while now. My cards are different... The cards I do are so linked to what I write that they aren't just the artwork but more a sum of several parts.


The images click with me as emotions not just pictures. When I post or list them I always include the emotion as text. When people look at them I think they may be attracted to the image but it's the emotion that chimes for them.


I think people like them but I think it's more the whole experience of the emotion than the card itself. I've had good and bad feelings about this. Does that make me an artist? Or a writer? Or really not enough at either to be good enough to consider myself one without the other?


I think what's happening is that they are just different. They aren't just the cards or just the words but a compliation of the two. Like a movie would be just pictures moving across a screen without the emotion of words. I've decided I'm fine with it and decided to call them something different from now on.

WHAT IF HE WAS JUST CRAZY? ACEO

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I often wonder if he was wrong. I mean, no one's wrong about everything but what if he was wrong about a lot? Or what if he was just as nutty as his patients? I've read a lot about him and he was a bit of a .... well, the guy was... Oh let me just be kind and say he was a carnival of diagnosis codes.

I don't understand why someone who was, without a doubt, on the wrong side of the analysis couch is respected, revered and known as the father of modern day psychoanalysis ... while I am suspiciously eyed because of the bipolar disorder like I might start clucking like a chicken any second.

It's very aggravating.

SHE EATS ACEO

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I did this picture a very long time ago and never did anything with it. Me without a mouth. I look at it from time to time and think - how can I print this? How can I look at this? How can anyone? Who would want to see this hanging in their home above their sofa framed? No one, of course.

I keep coming back to it though and it occured to me today, its not me without a mouth, it's me without a voice.

Eating disorders. What can I say about them that hasn't been said? It doesn't matter if you eat too little or too much... very few people who have an ED haven't done both. I've been both too skinny and too fat. Multiple times. When I was too skinny I felt much bigger and when I was too fat I never felt quite as fat as I was... I never am quite in the same place as my body.
And I didn't get for a long time... this whole thing - what makes you eat beyond being sick... and what makes you not eat..beyond being sick? What is it? If that picture is me now how long do I have to go back in my life to find a picture of myself with a mouth? A voice? How little would I be?

When I did this photograph about a year ago I couldn't imagine doing anything with it... but I kept it.

Maybe if I gave my little girl her voice back I wouldn't have to eat to keep her quiet... and wouldn't have to not eat to give her power and control. Maybe my little girl does have a voice if I can just find her...and let her speak.

This card was done in standard ACEO format of 2 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inchs on heavy mat board. It started with a background collage with multiple art papers to enhance the main image.

I NEVER SAID THAT! ACEO

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How many times have I said to someone, "I never said that...." and they swear up and down I did? I go back in my memory looking for a picture of that conversation... Or what is really a reflection of that conversation like the treeline in water ... Sort of the same but not quite as clear. And I think back and I'm still pretty sure and I say... "I never said that."

And again the person swears I did. And I go back and look inside again and this time I not only see the reflection of the conversation but the wisps of time cutting across the image obscruing some of my recollection. And this time I say I never said that but not with as much confidance because memory is an odd thing. As much as I want to trust it... it's flawed.

Recall is a flawed thing. And in the grand scheme of things taking a stand is rarely a good idea. Once I've drawn a line in the sand - who wants to go back? It's so much easier to just say, with a smile, "you might be right"....than it is to say, "I was wrong."

This card was done in standard ACEO format of 2 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inchs on heavy mat board. It started with a background collage with multiple art papers to enhance the main image. On top of the main image are thready pieces ....

HOW MUCH STUFF DO YOU NEED? ACEO

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How many times a day do you say 'I need.....' Need? Need is a necessity. Need is something like clean water... Food....

People don't need cable TV... I don't need cell phones... Face it, I don't really NEED and internet connection although my life would be very different without one. I'm about to find out what it's like to not need a car what with the price of gas and the state of my junker. But I've managed to find a bit of peace about it... or maybe resignation, karma...peace....
People look at things like dry cleaning... renting DVD's.... take out dinners... like they were a necessary part of life. Sorry, oxygen is a requirement. Dry-cleaning isn't even in the same time zone.
I'm getting a bit sick of consumerism telling me what I need. The store display windows (which is what this photo was of)... the non-stop commercials.... the coupons that come in the mail everyday... Even my phone rings with offers that are "too good to pass up". I'm feeling manipulated, like I don't even know what I want anymore... Like I only know what I've been told I need.
Who started this?

This card was done in standard ACEO format of 2 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inchs on heavy mat board. It started with a background collage with multiple art papers to enhance the main image.

FETAL SET OF 4 ACEOS

Fetal Set

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I've worked with this image before because it tugs at me. Calls to me... It's special to me... It's simple and sad and nurturing at the same time. It's about caring for myself. It's about taking care of my wits and my sanity. It's how I survive when all I have left is my body.

I was drawing like this in the summer of '97, months before I was diaganosed but I was symptomatic. At that time I was more concerned with quickly getting feelings down on paper and I don't think I had started using colored pencils yet; I believe when I did this one I was still only using markers. They were fast to work with, had blazing, sometimes shocking, color and they suited everything I needed at the time.

These cards show the image broken into a set of 4 cards. I've never broken the image before and I've had it for months before deciding to sell it. I didn't know if having this image broken was right but together they make the whole. The is about when it's all - everything and everyone - it's all just too much. How at some point you can't take a thing more - a good thing, a bad thing...anything.... not one thing more. And you know all that works to make it better is collapsing in on yourself. Curling up. Not hearing or seeing anything else until you are ready...

Each card was done on a base of mat board cut into ACEO format. Through the main image you can see the base papers and I think that that gives even more of a feeling of vulnerability... The figure is not only curled into a fetal position but you can almost see through her...or partly...like she's fading away.

This card was done in standard ACEO format of 2 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inchs on heavy mat board. It started with a background collage with multiple art papers to enhance the main image. I'm starting it at the same price I start one card but the auction is for 4 cards.

A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE ACEO

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I end up there pretty often it seems.... Between that hard place and those rocks. And why? Do I set myself up...Plan poorly.... Do I want to be there standing on those rocks.... Staring at that wall....again?

It's frustrating. You would think I would learn from past mistakes. Think I would stop ending up at that same darn wall over and over again. You'd think I could see it coming a mile away... But no. I never see it coming until I'm a foot away. With no way out.
I must really like that stupid wall.

Your fences frame your life

the fences frame you
Originally uploaded by popcornfeet

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I was looking at my photographs the other day and realized I had a lot of shots of fences. At first I thought it was odd. Why would I have taken so many pictures of barriers? Things blocking my path? Objects that stopped me on my path?
I started to work with the pictures and realized that I loved the images and found them beautiful. If the fences hadn't been there I would have continued on my way - walked ahead and never noticed the scene beyond.

Fences - barriers in your life - can be blockades. Places that you stop and feel you can't go forward but maybe there is another way to see them.
The things that stop you give you a frame of reference. They show you where you are now... They show you what's in the future... They shift you.
Stopping to assess your life is never a bad thing. Knowing what could be a ahead is important... Figuring a way to get past a hurdle is growth. Maybe the fences in your life are as important and the open paths. Maybe stopping to see where you are and figuring out how to move ahead is a gift.

Maybe fences are the picture frames of our lives. A pause, a still picture, a place to refect back on how far we've come and to see what's beyond...


ACEO 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inch done on heavy mat board. The background collage uses several art papers and acrylic fixitives. The photograph was placed on top of the collage and the entire card was sealed with a glossy acrylic medium.

This is a photograph taken close to my home on a walk.

looking outside

looking outside
Originally uploaded by popcornfeet

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How many times do you sit behind the windows in your home and watch the world go by?


Sometimes I just don't go out ...No that's not right - I can't go out. Sometimes I just can't. The world is too big and too bright... too scary... too loud.
As gray as my life seems inside, it's safe. I'm safe.


Behind the windows I can watch the hoopla of life and not get hurt.


Aceo 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 on heavy mat board. The card was done in two step - there was a background collage put on first to accent the main image and than the photograph was added. All layers were put on with an acrylic sealer.


The picture was taken at Drexel University.

Tazzy ACEO cards on eBay

Contact tracyreinhardt.art@gmail.com for purchase information of these or similar cards.



Tazzy at the mac machine











Tazzy in space









Tazzy takes a nap








Tazzy has a rose





For many years I've supported animal shelters and bird sanctuarys. Sometimes by adopting; sometimes by donating or sponsoring (cyber-adopting) a pet.



One of the saddest sights is the number of unwanted and abused birds in bird sanctuarys. They are especially harmed by years of poor living and some never recover - physically and mentally.



For many years I've supported animal shelters and bird sanctuarys. Sometimes by adopting; sometimes by donating or sponsoring (cyber-adopting) a pet. One of the saddest sights is the number of unwanted and abused birds in bird sanctuarys. They are especially harmed by years of poor living and some never recover - physically and mentally.



My current bird - a wonderful cockatiel named Taz - called to me from a pet store. Literally. I walked by her cage and he ran back and forth and back and forth screaming for attention. Poor thing had no tail feathers, the worst wing clip I'd ever seen and no crest feathers. My little love, Noodle, a 13 year old cockatiel had died about 2 weeks before and I didn't know if I was ready to bond with another bird but in a week or so I went back and got my sad-looking somewhat featherless buddy.



I have to say Taz took to being loved like a champ despite never having been held - ever. She loves nothing better than having a head scratch, 24 hours a day if I would. Her tail is back and so are her wings. Her creast is another story. While other cockatiels wear their crests proud and tall, my Tazzy, has quite the mohawk going and seems to like my son's punk rock music.



I call her my punk rock-a-teil!While I do alot of crafts, lately I have been doing alot of pictures of my little punk rockatiel and making bookmarks for friends. They seem to like them a lot so I thought I might try some ACEO cards.
A portion of any profits will be donated to help homeless, abused and abandoned pet. I currently sponsor two little parakeets with the money I make from my Tazzy things :O)

Cape May Sky in the abstract

This is a mixed media 6 inch by 6 inch piece I just finished! It's called Capy May Sky.

Even though it appears simple doing it was a time consuming process. First I applied mulberry paper to gessoed masonite and than painted the

background. The clouds came last.

I guess you could call it an acrylic mixed media painting on mulberry paper on masonite... although that is a mouthful.

The image was based on a photograph I took a few years ago. I kept drawing drawing it and each time kept simplifying the elements. At some point it didn't really look like a sky anymore and that is where I liked it best. From a distance it's 'sky'... up close its color and shape.

Fences

ACEO AVAILABLE

I was looking at my photographs the other day and realized I had a lot of shots of fences. At first I thought it was odd. Why would I have taken so many pictures of barriers? Things blocking my path? Objects that stopped me on my path?

I started to work with the pictures and realized that I loved the images and found them beautiful. If the fences hadn't been there I would have continued on my way - walked ahead and never noticed the scene beyond.

Fences - barriers in your life - can be blockades. Places that you stop and feel you can't go forward but maybe there is another way to see them.

The things that stop you give you a frame of reference. They show you where you are now... They show you what's in the future... They shift you.

Stopping to assess your life is never a bad thing. Knowing what could be a ahead is important... Figuring a way to get past a hurdle is growth. Maybe the fences in your life are as important and the open paths. Maybe stopping to see where you are and figuring out how to move ahead is a gift.

Maybe fences are the picture frames of our lives. A pause, a still picture, a place to refect back on how far we've come and to see what's beyond...

ACEO 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inch done on heavy mat board. The background collage uses several art papers and acrylic fixitives. The photograph was placed on top of the collage and the entire card was sealed with a glossy acrylic medium.

This Beach, Cape May 2006

This is another of the Acrylic Paint on mulberry paper on canvas pieces that I've done in my attempts at peace.

It's based on a photograph I took in Cape May, NJ. This one has a stronger border than some of the others - where the dark border melds with the scene. The peace, for me, comes from the simplicity of color and design.

This Beach is done on a 16 x 20 stretched canvas with painted sides.

Fetal Aceo

I've been working with some tough images lately... This is a picture I just found and it's an early one. I was drawing like this in the summer of '97, months before I was diaganosed but I was very symptomatic. At that time I was more concerned with quickly getting feelings down on paper and I don't think I had started using colored pencils yet; I believe when I did this one I was still only using markers. They were fast to work with, they had blazing, sometimes shocking, color and they suited everything I needed at the time.

This card is about when it's all - everything and everyone - it's all just too much. How at some point you can't take a thing more - a good thing, a bad thing...anything.... not one thing more. And you know all that works to make it better is collapsing in on yourself. Curling up. Not hearing or seeing anything else until you are ready...

The card was done on a base of mat board cut into ACEO format. Through the main image you can see the base papers and I think that that gives even more of a feeling of vulnerability... The figure is not only curled into a fetal position but you can almost see through her...or partly...like she's fading away.

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Mommy Aceo

I did this Aceo a while back and it never sold... I think I made the discription too personal.

How the card was about seeing Mommy as such a big person and me so little - but not in a good way.

It wasn't about being safe; it was about being less than...

Aceo set

Mania and Depression in Aceo

Empty space

I find empty space relaxing. When everything is full... When there is no where to rest my eyes... When visual clutter is everywhere all I want to do is run.

I find the spaces between things to be like breathing room.

This is an aceo card based on a photograph of an empty planter.