Capolan Masquerade

I cannot tell a lie, I am in love with Nick Bantock. His books and art are simply one of a kind and I would expect that Capolan exchanges will never really go out of vogue. The Belle Époque is described in the dictionary as; An era of artistic and cultural refinement in a society, especially in France at the beginning of the 20th century. I liked it because it rhymed with Bantock, but really just want the art in this swap to reflect any antique or Victorian period. I'm thinking things like Nick's antiquities and Pelicos and perhaps even strange flora and fauna. The masquerade theme
evokes things such as a ball, masquerade, new years eve, dance cards, ladies and gentlemen in evening wear. Shauna Palmer: August 02

Karen Wakefield,
While researching La Belle Époque I saw antique "ballspenden" for the first time- so much more exotic than the American counterpart dance cards! I was completely swept away by their intricacy and beauty. To me, they epitomize the whole essence of that era- the grandeur, romance, social rituals, and decadence.
"One Night in Vienna" represents a few hours in the life of a young >American woman at her first ball abroad. Sadly, things did not go as she wished, and we are left only a few clues that speak of her hope and her despair.
On a technical note, it was a real challenge to shape a story in such a small space.

Heather Cockrell
I knew I had the tiny stamp " Capolan" and would use that, and my bird
man from Stamp Out Cute needed to be used, but had no idea where I would
go with the swap. I went through my Griffin and Sabine books to get inspired
and that did not work...not one thing popped out at me. I decided I would
>definitely do the small art canvases, since I had not worked on any
for a while. I took Claudine Hellmuth's class back in February and fell in
love with the torn paper backgrounds, so from there I started the three
canvases each in a different color. Still no idea what central images to use.
I found the nude lady in a bag of stamped images, then found the
headless duchess from a Book of the Month club advertisement and the third I
found in a Victorian Calendar. I had my images, I had the canvases prepared
and went to town creating. Pretty happy with the results...the last idea to
turn them into postcards came when I showed them to a friend. She told me
the nude lady needed a whip. I remembered I had the quote, A snarl, a
sneer, a whip that stings....so that did it, they all became postcards with
quotes and stamped images and the birdman on the back.

Martha Bickford
"That I may know you" wove one of the original influences of the Belle Époque, Asian art, in with Nick Bantock's mail art type images. The play of masking and revealing appealed to me. Water images kept appearing as the piece took form.
I used all the things I have been playing with lately to create
the piece; CDs, polyclay, fabric, fibres, beads and stamps. The computer allowed the combining of images and color on the envelope. And all the pieces became a story about love and searching in my mind.

Astrid Zucker
When doing the art for this exchange I was thinking France, and a Grand Ball so with this in mind I went "shopping" in my studio. With most of my artwork I just start and one thing leads to another. I am also amazed when I see the finished product since I had no idea how it would turn out. Lately I've had a fascination with France and especially the Eiffel Tower and Impressionism.