Modernly Vintage Art by Roberta Schmidt

I’ve loved maps and globes ever since I can remember. Maybe it was that adventure to Greece with my Mom when I was just 12 years old, that made me fascinated with the world around me…geography, history, art…who knows. I do know that the fascination hasn’t stopped, and I am constantly picking up old maps, atlases, and geography school books whenever I see them. I use a lot of postage stamps in my collage work, as well as maps. For me, it tends to “ground” the piece, to help the story I am trying to tell, come alive.

I decided to take that love of travel just a step further, and make wearable art out of old vintage maps and book pages. What a great way to remember a special place you visited, or are longing to see. Or to remember a place where you came from. In my case, Greece is my mother’s home land, so to take that trip with her was special in many, many ways. It was part of my heritage, what makes me tick. It was a trip of a lifetime…and opened a whole new world for me. When I came home, and saw the country, Greece, on a globe…I could proudly say, “I’ve seen it for myself”…it wasn’t just a distant place I had only imagined, or read about in a book.

Three decades later, I have very vivid memories of the countries I have visited since, and each time I see them on a map or a globe, I still get that giddy feeling inside…memories flood back, and I can relive them again.

These pendants are a lot of fun to make. Recently, I created a custom pendant for a friend.  She wanted a special gift for her Mom, who loves to travel. If you would like a custom pendant for your someone special, feel free to email me, and I will do my best to make something  just for you. ArtcyLucy@aol.com

In the meantime, I am pleased to offer my newest map pendants in my Etsy shop. While you are browsing, most likely I will be here creating something fun…maybe something with a map

I have had a love of drawing faces since I was a small child. I still have some of them, the ones I drew those many years ago. Some were of people I knew, some were from magazine pages. The older I got, the more fashion illustration appealed to me…those gorgeous faces in the latest Vogue magazine, staring back at me, with perfectly done hair, and shiny red lipstick.

I left off the drawing for a while…but every once in a while, it would come back to me, and I would sit and draw for bit…only to put away my charcoal pencils again, to get on with real life. But still, that love of drawing…especially faces…was there. And one day, I knew, I would go back to it.

Fast forward a couple decades, and here I sit in my living room late at night, with my sketch pads and charcoals, quietly drawing what comes into my head, my imagination. And again…it is mostly…faces.

When I learned to add paint to my drawings, that was exciting for me…to add dimension to my faces, meant a lot to me. To incorporate drawing, painting and collage…thrills me.

I’m happy to say that my mini face paintings are now being showcased in a beautiful little boutique called The Vintage House, in Brentwood. One of the co-owners, Terrie, graciously asked if I would bring some of my art today…and I did, a mixture of canvas collages, paintings, beeswax collages, and assemblage. I absolutely LOVE her shop, and I am so happy that my work will be displayed there!

As for my larger painted collages, I am offering them on my Etsy shop. The next few weeks, I will be adding more pendants, collages, and paintings to the shop…so make sure to bookmark the site, to check back soon.

I would like to thank my family, friends, and customers (new friends!) for coming out to support me at the Clay Station at Mankas Corner the last weekend in April. It was my very first art faire, and I had such a great time meeting people, and hearing reactions to my mixed media art work.

As artists, we get so used to working alone in our own spaces, creating art that we love, art from our heart. So, to share it with my community made me very proud (though I admit, I was a bit nervous!). But I had such great support, and comments and feedback from all who came.

I am not sure when and where my next art faire adventure will be…but I will make sure to post it here.