Dreamythology

From a work in progress: 'The Outkeeper'

2012-01-13T14:49:00.000-08:00

"Subtitled Aartwork for an Aardvark, she featured a woman wrapped in a Mexican blanket, a lanterned hand showing the way. Looking back on myself it was clear that my own transformation was nearing the next level of completion. Gone were vestiges from that evening of my first arrival. Investigating and slew footing were now of the meta variety and the lit lantern suggested an uncertain path towards the unthinkable.”

From 'The Outkeeper' by:
Jeffrey Riordan Hinich © 2012

Artwork : Leslie Anne Cochran © 2012

happy birthday dad 9/15/11

2011-09-16T18:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday would have been my dad's 90th birthday. I called my brother and we talked about getting signs or dream visits on auspicious occasions such as this. Jeff happened to be just beginning a renovation on dad's aluminum trailer parked for many decades now on his property. I reminded him that it was called the 'Zenith' and we spoke of a long ago favorite photo of Dad and I in front of the trailer. "Oh, I have that framed upstairs in my office", I said. We talked more about dad's nature, and Jeff made the comment "He was very Zen". I had never really thought of Dad in that context, but it is true. He lived fully in the present moment, more than anyone I have ever known. Ok, now here's the 'sign' I am talking about. Still on the phone with Jeff, I went up into my office to look again at the photo and got a good dose of goose bumps. When I framed that photo a couple of years ago, I had to crop it in such away that the only 3 letters visible for the Zenith trailer logo is: ZEN
Never noticed it until now and we both knew dad was present.
Photo credit: Jeff Hinich

Latest collaborative Tarot card creation

2011-08-20T13:17:00.000-07:00

The Magician Card I submitted for the Travelers of H’Art Nick Bantock style collaborative Tarot deck.

Created in Photoshop using scraps of vintage maps, stamps, an old postcard, tag art and a pen and ink sketch I did in high school. A tulip sways in full bloom, its bulb firmly planted in the earth. Included are Mayan, North American Indian, and Eastern imagery. The initial inspirations for this card were the postcard sent to me from my dad when he visited China, and the swirling embroidered fabric from a Magician’s robe.

Merry Solstice/Merry Christmas

2010-12-21T16:41:00.000-08:00

This card is the High Priestess digital collage that I submitted for The Tarot Christmas Tree Trumps mailart project in 2007 by Museo de Taroccchi in Italy and Frank Jensen. Of course our lovely cat 'Nemo' (like the Captain, not the fish) is featured. When I look at it again, the cabin in the background looks like one of those 'tiny houses' that I have been hearing about of late. A new movement that aspires to living simply in small spaces. Like 97 square feet. At times that sounds very enticing, maybe 10 books (one of them an e-book, loaded with the other 1500!), a chair or two, 99% less of everything. At other times it sounds like a nice getaway, but impractical. But we do get bogged down by things and thinking about things and maintaining things. Especially this time of year, when it is easy to get caught up in the 'We need more things' mentality. But on this winter solstice that teamed up with a total lunar eclipse (the next sync will be in 2094), it's time for me to reflect on paring down and simplifying just a bit every month. Maybe by next year, while we won't be in a 'tiny house', we'll have more outer and inner space to reflect upon, and that can only be a good thing.

Happy Halloween 2010

2010-10-03T17:39:00.000-07:00

These are the kind of gems you can spot on the back roads of Wisconsin. An unintentional 'haunted house', a structure still held together by wood and glass and many layers of paint, but with a most decided slant......

I like the sticker in the window 'Plan'. Plan for what? Any guesses?

Affirmation Shrine

2010-09-24T13:41:00.000-07:00

An assemblage shrine I made out of recycled materials for the Escondido Arts Partnership Municipal Gallery Recycled Art Exhibition. It's called the Affirmation Shrine, as I affixed snippets of text to the pincushion, like 'alternate', 'mystery', 'memory'...

Materials used:

Cigar box, sushi tray and 'garnish', vintage pincushion, text, old maps, keys, spiral notebook coil and cover, wooden spools, scouring sponge, plastic protractor, plastic toy, plastic push pins, optometrist lenses, ribbon, cellophane tea bag envelopes, artificial turf, eggshells.

Green shrine

2010-08-22T17:37:00.000-07:00

My surroundings are full of informal shrines, that get assembled on ledges and tabletops, sometimes containing the 4 elements, and they are never static but evolving. They make me happy when I pass by or stop to consider what they convey.

This is a portable shrine I made awhile back, looking at it again, hoping for some inspiration. I call it the green shrine, or harmony shrine, after the dictionary snippet that is framed at the top.
I used a ready-made trifold wooden hinged piece and an old wood cigar box, and antique drawer. The silver 'tin' frame is actually aluminum plumbers tape that I inscribed with stars and flowers and then rubbed black paint into it. The box, drawer and triptych were battered with a hammer and other tools and then painted to give it my favorite deep green malachite color. Silver hearts, crystals, coins, key, and a collaged optometrist lens were wired on to the shrine. There is room for a candle and a crystal dish with pink tourmalines in the drawer part of the shrine.

Rolling Stones (what I am listening to now)

2010-07-03T20:37:00.000-07:00

for anyone who might want to revisit the distant past...I had completely forgotten what a masterpiece 'Exile on Main Street' is.

Sun version 2

2010-07-03T20:34:00.000-07:00

Another version of the Sun card for the Honeycomb Tarot. More traditional. I played with it most of the day. I stopped myself from taking the text into Illustrator, I might have been there the rest of the holiday weekend. Even though I like this card, I can see that I could take it an infinite number of different ways, alternate realities, obscuring, layering, uncovering, warping...till it would be nearly unrecognizable.

Sun version 1

2010-07-03T20:27:00.000-07:00

One version of the Sun card. I was invited to participate in the Honeycomb tarot (hence the shape). It involves 2 photos we took out at Warner Springs. One is of the sun that Chris took of me (I am obscured beneath a layer, so you can no longer see me) and the way the camera caught the sun
rays. The other is a photo of a raven I took in a tree, with a 'find edges' filter. The little bee I added. Here is a Native American story that fits with this card:
In the beginning, Raven was a snow-white bird, and as a such, he pleased Gray Eagle's daughter. She invited him to her father's longhouse. When Raven saw the Sun, Moon and stars, and fresh water hanging on the sides of Eagle's lodge.......As soon as Raven got outside he hung the Sun up in the sky. It made so much light that he was able to fly far out to an island in the middle of the ocean. When the Sun set, he fastened the Moon up in the sky and hung the stars around in different places. By this new light he kept on flying......

Old Gus

2010-03-07T12:20:00.000-08:00

"Old Gus ponders the question as his image merges with the night sky....."

This is the collage 'Old Gus', I did in 2004. It was published in Townies Magazine, Ontario Canada, and currently appears in the YouTube video of the song 'Old Gus', co-written by Rick Charbonneau and Jeff Hinich. August Stamm, born in 1908 was a legend in Northern Ontario. My brother Jeff Hinich (pictured on the right) knew August as a friend and has written about his life.

Page of Swords

2010-02-20T09:44:00.000-08:00

This is a card I will be submitting to a collaborative Tarot Deck. I chose the Page of Swords, and made a composite figure which includes the face of my grandfather Frank.

The bird in flight has just delivered a missive of peace, to the eagle? hawk? resting in the Page's arms. The stone 'wall' is one of my own photographs of an ancient limestone escarpment in Chilton Wisconsin, the home of my Irish ancestors.

Victorian Button Cuff

2010-02-07T15:04:00.000-08:00

I started with a deep violet fabric, and added velvet, metallic and hand dyed silk ribbons. All the buttons are antique brass, one has a dragon holding a crown and the large button is inset with a mirrored surface under the filigree. It was fun to work with the intense colors and different textures and load it up with fancy buttons.

Recyled Cuff Bracelet

2010-02-06T13:37:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to make another cuff bracelet, using some vintage fabrics, actually an old shirt with a black/white rose print. It has almost a Dios de los Muertos look to it, the roses have a kind of aura - I always hoped to use it for something. I added a piece of well worn levis to give it a sturdy back and also a deconstructed feel. Final additions are pieces of a silk 50's blouse and an antique brass button. The shirt fragment already included a button hole, so I didn't have to make one. I originally was going to use a delft (blue and white) and silver pin as a large center piece. But I like this result better, comfortable, broken-in, and the great fabrics speak for themselves. Finally a use for the boxes and jars of antique buttons, the odd scraps of fabric and faded trims. The process reminded me of making doll clothes when I was a kid, mostly hand sewn, no pattern, no rules.

I think the rose print would make a cool wallpaper, so I will scan that in later for a digital project.

Underside of bracelet, close up of the roses with 'auras'. The blue silk fabric will have to be better featured in another project.
It is printed with bees and squirrels and apples and caterpillars...would make a great mid-century garden wallpaper too.

QWERTY

2010-01-30T17:08:00.000-08:00

Brought home a functional 1930's portable Royal Junior typewriter today. Found it at a garage sale for $ 20. The woman said her aunt still used it until she passed away a few years ago. I thought that was pretty cool, I now wish I had asked : "What did she type"? Letters to the editor, or to a dear friend far away? Recipe cards? Or perhaps she wrote stories, clicking away on the gleaming glass-covered keys, words hammered out in an iconic font that we strive to duplicate today on our modern keyboards. With a manual typewriter, given the varied pressure on the keys and the age of the ribbon, some letters appear bold and crisp, while a lighter touch produces a fainter result. Ghostly letters might appear sans ink, stamped into the page in relief. There is a randomness and literally a 'depth' that the modern keyboard and downloadable typewriter fonts are missing. I just read that the older typewriters (like mine) have no '1' or the exclamation point (!!!!) Even older ones did not have a zero. So the lowercase L was substituted for the numeral 1 and the uppercase O for zero. The exclamation point was a three-stroke combination of an apostrophe, a backspace, and a period. I guess the 'l', '0' and '!' were considered redundant since there were "work-arounds" , so it made for a simpler more economic design. You can bet my first experiment on the Royal Junior will be an attempt to create something that requires expressing a strong feeling !
Oh and QWERTY...its the stuff of legends in typewriter lore.......
Postscript: Apparently Hemmingway's typewriter of choice was a Royal.

Thistle buckle cuff bracelet

2010-01-30T16:55:00.000-08:00

I had this old silver buckle, maybe it is Scottish - a shoe buckle perhaps. The motif is thistle blooms and leaves. I thought it would make a cool bracelet, so I inserted some layered embroidery ribbons through the buckle loop and finished it off with a hook and eye.

Bee Necklace

2010-01-16T12:08:00.000-08:00

This necklace started with a vintage bee pin. She is resting on some filigree from a broken mirror and suspended from antique glass rosary strands and tarnished chains.

Jewelry Assemblage

2010-01-16T12:00:00.000-08:00

I have hundreds of antique optometrist lenses. a few years back I collaged them and hung them from simple ball chains as pendant necklaces. Just recently I got some of them out and incorporated this one into a necklace assembled from broken vintage jewelry. I started with an old mother-of-pearl rosary, there is an antique clasp, an old holy medal and other fragments. The collage is a girl with a wolf and a dictionary clipping 'mythology'.

left brain right brain words and pictures

2010-01-02T14:44:00.000-08:00

What did I just read? That a person can either think primarily in words or in images. And that the completely visual thinker may be less empathetic. But what interests me is checking out how I think and when do I choose to think verbally (in complete sentences I have noticed) and when am I primarily visual? Do I switch back and forth depending on the situation? Am I thinking words and pictures simultaneously? When I am working on an art project, do I abandon the constant comments of the linear left brain? Am I flexing the right brain and reveling in imagery? It might depend upon the task - either primarily carrying out a planned construction or processing the (ever evolving) idea of the piece.
hmmm.......

Christmas circa 1974?

2010-01-02T08:41:00.000-08:00

In this photo it looks like I am emerging from, or part of, the mobile that Jeff made from rare Canadian woods. We all appear to be enthralled and waiting for our turn with the latest technology, a (pocket sized!) calculator with a power cord! Actually I think that I am showing off that I can spell my name numerically on a calculator, 317537, which upside down reads "LESLIE"

Our house in Milwaukee

2010-01-01T15:55:00.000-08:00

Mom, Dad and me in front of our house on 67th Street in Milwaukee. I guess my big brother Jeff is taking the picture.

My Studio, work table

2010-01-01T14:30:00.000-08:00

This is my art work table for anything not digital. I am crazy about it because it has a glass top with space underneath to stash items for view. All my little interesting collections come to rest there, safe from dust and can be rotated out at whim. On display right now: an antique Mexican cross covered with milagros from my brother, a beautiful collaged box made for me by artist Arnell Ando, an old clock face, a wooden scrabble stand and tiles that spells out 'deja vu', the Chariot card from my tarot deck, 'The Dreamythology Tarot', a collection of old alphabet stamps in an old drawer, a compass, antique holy water font and some beautiful twigs that my husband and I collected on a camping trip. They all tell a story and provide inspiration. The suitcases store art supplies as does the closet (out of view).

My Studio, desk, mirror

2010-01-01T14:21:00.000-08:00

Another view of my desk area. The lucky cat beckons from the bookshelf. The lion mirror from my mother is a little feng-shui device that helps me have a view of the doorway. Can't have anyone sneaking up on me! To warm up the ice-y blue and white, I incorporated orange and hot pink here and there. I love the antique tray on the wall and vase - they add a beat-up tarnished silver look that contrasts nicely with the clean white/stainless elements.

My Studio, desk, monitor

2010-01-01T14:09:00.000-08:00

This is my art space, web page design studio, and all purpose refuge. I totally revamped it from a cramped crowded rather dark cave into basically the space of my dreams, early last year. It was the first time I took a room that had been stripped of everything and designed it to my specifications. The paint color, formerly dingy white, is now an ice-y blue gray green.

June Hinich, 1936 Milwaukee's south side

2010-01-01T11:07:00.000-08:00

YouTube video 1936