Dr. Omed: SCISSOR DANCES

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:28:55 GMT

FRESH SCISSOR DANCE

WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF LIFE

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 21:10:12 GMT

FRESH SCISSOR DANCE

CARPE NOCTEM / SEIZE THE NIGHT

Sun, 01 Jul 2007 14:09:17 GMT

FRESH SCISSOR DANCE

THE ARTEMIS OF INSOMNIA AND THE MILK OF AMNESIA

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 20:58:05 GMT

FRESH SCISSOR DANCE

IF YOU PRICK ME, DO I NOT BLEED?

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:06:35 GMT

SCISSOR DANCE POSTCARD

PACE, REQUISAT

When you're as dumb as a bag full of Air Force hammers you don't need any nails, because you're playing whack-a-mole.

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 04:41:21 GMT

FRESH SCISSOR DANCE

ASKING FOR IT

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 06:00:55 GMT

FRESH SCISSOR DANCE

WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 03:41:50 GMT

FRESH SCISSOR DANCE

THE TIME IS NOW

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 14:43:31 GMT

FRESH SCISSOR DANCE

(CLICK TO SEE LARGER IMAGE)

and, an ape with angel glands,
erased the final wisps of pain
with the music of rubber bands.

Leonard Cohen, The Master Song

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 06:50:17 GMT

FRESH SCISSOR DANCE

Please sir, may I have some more?

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 07:01:43 GMT

FRESH SCISSOR DANCE

THE SHADOW KNOWS...

Forgive me for speaking so soon.

Thu, 20 Jul 2006 04:23:00 GMT

SCISSOR DANCE POSTCARD:

(THIS THE FRONT. THE BACK AWAITS DIVINE INSPIRATION.)

JESUS AND THE MIRACLE OF THE ARMADILLOS AND THE LEOPARD SKIN PUMPS

Sun, 18 Jun 2006 02:34:20 GMT

SCISSOR DANCE POSTCARD:

FRONT

"I AM THE AMERICAN DREAM"

BACK

This card I had almost completed, but couldn't figure out quite how to finish it off. I had Fiona in mind as the recipient, but I made her wait for a long time and she doesn't even know it. I fiddled around until Rome burned, and decided it was done a day or two ago.

Sun, 18 Jun 2006 02:10:18 GMT

SCISSOR DANCE POSTCARD

FRONT

BACK

I made this card in the "wake" of Katrina for Kate at Broken Windows. It got lost in the middens until I excavated the desk and found it, along with a number of things long lost, some of which I thought for sure my stepdaughter had kiped. My wife Elspeth buys postcards for me when she travels on business, and the card this scissor dance is constructed on is from her last trip to New Orleans—the New Orleans that was. This dance was the first in which an empty suit appears. Hurricane season is here again and Kate's back at her blog. I wonder if we'll get all the way through the alphabet this time. I wonder what Mr. Bush will be standing on this time, as well. Let it be in Florida.

Mon, 27 Mar 2006 05:57:59 GMT

FRESH SCISSOR DANCE

(CLICK IMAGE TO SEE LARGER)

TOAST

Mon, 20 Mar 2006 13:27:18 GMT

FRESH SCISSOR DANCE

(CLICK TO SEE LARGER IMAGE)

FAT CHANCE, OR, THERE IS ONE GOD, AND HIS NAME IS LEGION

Sun, 22 Jan 2006 15:34:32 GMT

RAIN DANCE

This is not a collage, per se, and scissors were not used in its creation. This is a frottage. I did it in Denver about 1992. I did a whole bunch of frottages in Denver in the early '90s. I was wandering around, an unmedicated Manic Depressive, talking to myself, making rubbings (with Caron Dache watercolor crayons on 60lb. drawing paper) of anything that was relatively flat and had raised or incised shapes, patterns, or texture. I had to walk from place to place to assemble a composition. The "rain bird" was a rubbing of the top of a lawn sprinkler. The triangle eyes came from a Ten Commandments monument in the Civic Center park hard by the corner of Colfax and Broadway. I wonder if those 10cs are still there. I post it in remembrance of rain; the rain we're not having here in Oklahoma. I remember rain...little drops of water falling from clouds in the sky, right? Makes the earth smell good. Yes, that's it. There's poetry in it, too.

Sun, 22 Jan 2006 00:10:03 GMT

A DIFFERENT DANCE:

RAY LAFFERTY'S DOOR

Ray Lafferty was a Tulsa science fiction writer. He died in 2002. I never knew him, but I have heard many stories about him from the members of the OSFW (Oklahoma Science Fiction Writers) group who were his friends and admirers. This was the door to his study, I am told, and if I understood correctly, every flat surface not covered by books was covered by collage, of which Ray himself was the creator. When he was moved to a nursing home after a stroke, all his stuff was cleared out of his house, I think so the house could be remodeled and sold. (The University of Tulsa was offered his papers, but shamefully, they don't seem too interested.) The writer and poet Warren Brown managed to save this door from the trash. I'm glad he did. Every time I visit Warren's house, I am drawn to stare at this extraordinary object. I find it rather like watching a strange movie with the sound turned off—I know there's a narrative in the images, but I can't quite suss it out.

It is too late for you to withdraw. The damage is done to you. That faintly odd taste in your mouth, that smallest of tingles which you feel, they signal the snake-death. "Die a little. There is reason for it.

R. A. Lafferty 1914-2002

Fri, 02 Dec 2005 14:28:55 GMT

SCISSOR DANCE POST CARD

FRONT

BACK

HORUS STILL LIVES AND FEEDS

I made and sent this card to Dick Jones, proprietor of PATTERAN PAGES, back in July, as can be seen by the date, but he never got it—last I heard from him. Dick hasn't posted for about two weeks, and he's going to end up on the Virtual Milk Carton if he doesn't hop to it. Excuse the speckling; in this smaller format, the patterns the scanner picks up from images cut out of magazines are more noticeable and harder to eliminate—I lack the skill or the software to get rid of them.

Sat, 19 Nov 2005 04:14:01 GMT

SCISSOR DANCE POST CARD:

PIGGLY WIGGLY ALL OVER THE WORLD

(FRONT)

(BACK)

I made this card for Fiona because she might appreciate the story behind it. It is made on a Tulsa Ballet postcard. My company did some of their mailings, and they always sent designs that either violated postal regulations, or they wanted it in a size or shape or made out of slick or heavy stock that jammed in the printers and other machinery. Also, whoever was doing the graphic design had a distinct tendency to make a very well defined crotch of one of the male dancers the focal point of the visual composition. This became a joke around the company, and people would cut out the dancers from a program or flyer, paste a xerox pic of the head of their department's boss onto the dancer's body, and pin the resultant chimera on the walls of their cubicles. Did I mention they were always late delivering whatever data or material we needed to do the job? At one point, the director of the ballet, an Italian "maestro" with a heavy accent, called my boss and demanded to know why we hadn't mailed these cards. My boss replied that, well, you haven't sent us the database (of mailing addresses). In an operatic falsetto, and in a stratospherically high dudgeon, the maestro replied: "I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE DATABASE, JUST SEND THEM OUT!" We were sorely tempted take addresses at random from the phonebook.

Fri, 18 Nov 2005 07:44:10 GMT

SCISSOR DANCE POSTCARD:

GREETINGS FROM NEW ORLEANS / FEMA'S NEW VACATION LAND

(FRONT)

(BACK)

Note: I made this and another Katrina/New Orleans/FEMA empty suits themed card, for Kate, back when it was all going down in the aftermath of Katrina. As Kate has pointed out, the aftermath ain't anywhere near over yet for the people of New Orleans. The actual card is in the mail, I don't know whether she's gotten it yet. I hope she likes it.

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 15:14:48 GMT

FRESH SCISSOR DANCE

MAKIN' BACON WHILE THE WORMS TURN IN THE HOUSE OF CARDS

(I reinstalled my scanner software and rescanned the dance. It looks a bit better.)

Sun, 30 Oct 2005 16:24:01 GMT

FRESH SCISSOR DANCE

UNTOLD STORIES OF THE UNNAMED SOURCE

(CLICK TO SEE LARGER IMAGE)

Sat, 22 Oct 2005 06:55:06 GMT

SCISSOR DANCE POSTCARD #1

THE EYES HAVE IT

I had it in mind for some time to start making Scissor Dance Postcards. That I did, sending out scanned and completed scp-cards to various pilgrims by snail mail as...something like a cross between a party favor and a holy relic...a little piece of Dr. Omed in the mailbox. I like postcards. I like buying them, sending them, and recieving them. I have a lot of them. Hundreds. I liked the idea of doing collage in a smaller format, and working over the pre-existing image and text on the postcard, incorporating it into the composition. Most of these little collages I made as gifts for specific friends. I do both sides of the postcard, and mail them in an envelope. Oddly enough, it usually takes longer to complete a postcard than it does to do a full size Scissor Dance. The card you see above is a bit different. It is the first one I made. I used a blank watercolor stock postcard, and just did one side. I wondered if I was done wih it for a while, thought about sending it out, but somehow I didn't. Then I found a frame that was perfect for it. So now it's hanging on my wall. Those of you in the congregation who have not recieved one of these cards, and are suddenly feeling neglected, please email Dr. Omed a current postal address (even if you think I already have it), to get your very own personalized scissor dance postcard. I'm not promising quick delivery; it may take some time, but eventually it will arrive.

Mon, 10 Oct 2005 05:43:03 GMT

FRESH SCISSOR DANCE

IF YOUR MOTHER WERE HERE

(CLICK IMAGE)