Perpetualplum’s Weblog

Barney the Clown is a mixed media collage Artist Trading card (ATC).   He’s one of quite a few pieces I’ve been working on using the Anatomy man I received from one of my co-crafters, Marci.  I decided to turn Anatomy Man into a organ donor…and that’s only part of my story.

Here’s the real story.

Barney the Clown loved being a clown.  He started in the clowning business when he was a young lad of 16.  For 30 years he traveled from town to town with the Fantastico Circus.  The circus was a small family business.  In those 30 years the world changed and the family grew older and the kids left the circus business for high technologies jobs in Silicone Valley.  Barney suddenly found himself with no job, no home and no money.

The circus enterprise was not the only thing that changed in those 30 years.  At 16, Barney had a beautiful head of yellow-gold hair.  At 46, Barney had more nose hair than hair on his head.  Barney tried to get a job in show business, but everyone wanted a clown with a bright beautiful halo of hair.  Barney had a big problem.

That’s when Donor Man stepped in.  Donor Man donated a beautiful set of blue lungs to Barney.  The staff at Donor man quickly and safely transplanted the blue lungs to the sides of Barney’s head in an afternoon outpatient procedure. 

Barney now works 3 nights and one Sunday matinee for the Cirque de Jeunesse.  He now has a job, a fancy trailer in Las Vegas and enough money to play the slots and see the shows at Circus Circus on his days off.

Anyone can do mixed media collage.  Many people can put together a well-balanced piece of art.  No mixed media collage piece is complete until it has story.  Without a story the piece is just a bunch of diverse material attached to the same board.  With a story, your mixed media collage piece becomes a work of art.

Note: Here’s my blog entry that included Anatomy Man and a few other pieces I picked up in swaps, Altered Materials Swaps.