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Paper in the Retort

offerings from Aria Nadii & C.P. McDill's vast collection of old book page ephemera + various collaborations with each other and those dearly departed anonymous souls whose paper ghosts we have rescued from obscurity.

Showing posts with label found art. Show all posts

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Flying Balloon Cat (inside back cover)

Flying Balloon Cat (inside back cover), originally uploaded by Aria Nadii.

Contemporary artists dream of achieving such a balance of composition and innocence.

Posted by Aria Nadii at 2:02 PM No comments:

Labels: cats, doodles, drawings, found art, vintage book cover, vintage book pages, weird

Monday, January 11, 2010

Mad Mother Goose

Mother Goose (detail), originally uploaded by cpmcdill.

Mother Goose, originally uploaded by cpmcdill.

Posted by Hermetic Arts at 10:42 PM No comments:

Labels: birds, doodles, found art, mother goose, vintage postcards

Friday, January 8, 2010

The Bird Children

The Bird Children, originally uploaded by Aria Nadii.

1874 era graffiti.

Posted by Aria Nadii at 9:28 PM No comments:

Labels: birds, doodles, found art, vintage book pages

Sunday, January 3, 2010

The Practical Speller (inside covers)

The Practical Speller (inside covers), originally uploaded by Aria Nadii.

Posted by Aria Nadii at 12:10 AM No comments:

Labels: doodles, found art, victorian, vintage book cover, vintage book pages

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Positions - ink and watercolor

positions-inkandwatercolor, originally uploaded by cpmcdill.

ink, pencil, and watercolor on vintage paper

Posted by Aria Nadii at 9:23 AM No comments:

Labels: brownies, doodles, found art, palmer cox, victorian

Friday, December 18, 2009

Motion - ink sketch

motion-inksketch, originally uploaded by cpmcdill.

Posted by Hermetic Arts at 10:09 PM No comments:

Labels: brownies, doodles, found art, palmer cox, victorian, vintage book pages, weird

Walkin 2 - ink sketch

walkin2-inksketch, originally uploaded by cpmcdill.

Posted by Hermetic Arts at 10:08 PM No comments:

Labels: brownies, doodles, found art, palmer cox, victorian, vintage book pages

Walkin 3 - ink sketch

walkin3-inksketch, originally uploaded by cpmcdill.

Posted by Hermetic Arts at 10:06 PM No comments:

Labels: brownies, doodles, found art, palmer cox, vintage book pages

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

The Weathervane House

The Weathervane House, originally uploaded by Aria Nadii.

The weathervane birdhouse looks a bit like a retort.

Posted by Aria Nadii at 7:36 PM No comments:

Labels: birds, doodles, drawings, found art, vintage book pages

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Ned Makes Baby Mason's Aquaintance

Ned Makes Baby Mason's Aquaintance, originally uploaded by wildmuse.

Posted by Aria Nadii at 1:14 PM No comments:

Labels: birds, children, found art, victorian, vintage book pages

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Once I Was Carried Off By An Eagle

Once I Was Carried Off By An Eagle, originally uploaded by wildmuse.

Posted by Aria Nadii at 8:51 PM No comments:

Labels: children, found art, victorian, vintage book pages, weird

A Hawk! A Hawk!

Posted by Aria Nadii at 5:28 PM No comments:

Labels: children, doodles, found art, victorian, vintage book pages

Older Posts Home

What is a paper in the retort?

In alchemy the retort is both symbolically and literally the vessel in which a purifying fire distills matter into essence. Although it does not consume the source material, a scanner (or possibly a camera) does distill a sort of essence from the object it pictures. Digitizing a piece of paper gives it an incorruptible, ethereal and nearly universal diffusion, indeed a transmutation that even the ancient alchemists couldn't have imagined. Thus do these old pages and pictures pass from obscurity and decay (putrefactio) into a disembodied spectre (spiritus) which can be encountered anywhere in time and space (the internet). Enjoy!

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"Art doesn't go to sleep in the bed made for it. It would sooner run away than say its own name: what it likes is to be incognito. Its best moments are when it forgets what its own name is." - Jean Dubuffet

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animals (6)
bears (1)
birds (5)
brownies (4)
cats (7)
children (7)
collage (3)
death (2)
devotionals (1)
doodles (12)
drawings (6)
eagle (1)
fairies (1)
found art (12)
golden age (1)
kitsch (3)
monkeys (3)
mother goose (1)
mushrooms (1)
palmer cox (4)
victorian (19)
vintage ads (2)
vintage book cover (3)
vintage book pages (27)
vintage postcards (1)
weird (13)
wild child (1)
wild children (1)
wolves (1)

Aria Nadii & C.P. McDill Links

Wild Muse Notes
Webbed Hand Records
Memory Palimpsest
Rain On Your Apocalypse
CP McDill discography

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This photoblog pools the found art, ephemera, and collages of Aria Nadii and C.P. McDill, a pair of visual and sound artists who toil creatively in their mountain homestead. Everything posted here is a construction or remnant of old paper either made by us or found by us.

Pictures are scanned from original source material in our collection, mostly rare and out of print old books, vintage journals, scrapbooks, doodles on book pages or inside covers etc. We share them here for the reason that they would otherwise never be seen.