99% of the printed materials I use in the backgrounds of my paintings are things I find at thrift and antique stores. I am always on the lookout for vintage sheet music. I usually find it in a neglected pile at the bottom of a bookcase just waiting for me to look through.
What am I looking for in these stashes of unloved ephemera?
I think what draws me the most is the title of the music. Some titles just lend themselves so well to my nature based art. Sometimes it is the composer of the piece that draws me in. I have a lot of favorite classical composers that I look out for. Sometimes it is the notes themselves. I want to make it clear that I can't read music. LOL! That is not in my skill set. I do like looking at the patterns the notes make. Some of the pieces that I have in my collection are really beautiful when one looks at them as art.
Sometimes I come across a piece that I know that I MUST buy, but have no idea what I am going to do with it. This is what happened when I found this beauty at a thrift store.
"Java Jive"? I have never heard of this song, but oh, the possibilities for this neglected piece of sheet music! It is dated 1940 which blows my mind when you think that this sheet music is 83 years old! It's too good to be on the bottom shelf of a bookcase at the thrift store. Here is what I found out about the song:
"Java Jive is a song written by Ben Oakland and Milton Drake in 1940 and most famously recorded by The Ink Spots. The lyrics speak of the singer's love of coffee".(Source: Wikipedia)
So I used clear gesso to coat the music page first. This allows this fragile piece of paper to accept art materials to it. I used Inktense color pencils and Prismacolor pencils and washed down the Inktense to give it a watercolor look.
I debated back and forth whether to paint over "I love coffee" and "coffee and tea". In the end, I just had to keep those words in it.
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