"Diggin' it"!

 I'm really "digging" this sketch. I absolutely love the saturated colors. It may be close to being finished (although, I must say, I should post some of the other experiments...

"Slowly, The Universe Expands" (15" x 20")

Here's the finished piece (I think). I was contemplating, and had experimented with placing one more small "numbers" element on the lower left-hand side. In some ways, it really "stabilizes" the composition. But when I tried a couple versions, I just wasn't satisfied. I can always add it in the future, if I feel like it. But I think this composition is good as it is. I am submitted this to a mixed-media exhibition in Rome, NY (Sept.).

floodgates

Went into the studio last night to get some things taken out of frames that I purchased over the weekend. I wasn't expecting to do too much creatively. But as it turns out, I had a VERY productive evening, inspired, I think, by this lovely vintage (and large) image (also purchased over the weekend at an estate sale)...

 I had a couple other elements "laying around" that I had done some preliminary sketches with too. I was listening to some wonderful instrumental music by Peter Gabriel and Pat Metheny, and I found myself really "in the zone". I was simultaneously (intermittently?) working on three different sketches! They all seem to have some real potential for final compositions. I was SO happy to be in my creative happy place again, and am motivated to keep working on them!

assemblage beginning

I've got something brewing for an upcoming local mixed-media exhibit. I'm excited about what will emerge from this scaffolding.

FINALLY finished...

 I realize I have posted lots of sketches and intermediates for this piece. BUT, it's finally finished as presented here. Not sure of a title yet. It might be "There's money to be made in medicine".

Book cover art (NYT story)

 There's an interesting story in the New York Times this morning (June, 23) about book cover art. It's interesting to read about the use and impact of a common strategy used by collage artists -- juxtaposition. Here's an excerpt from the article:

"But the look that’s commanding today’s runways — a.k.a. bookshelves — is not so incendiary. It tends to lay blaringly bright type in a sans-serif font atop a painting, usually a few centuries old but not always. Facial expressions are baleful or dyspeptic; an aggressive burst of spray paint can change the tone entirely.

These covers are the new signifiers of stylish literary fiction, telegraphing gravitas, wit and cool. They make a bid for a certain kind of reader — more city than suburb, more pét-nat than chardonnay. They wouldn’t be caught dead alongside a volume decked out in pop art or, god forbid, metallic lettering.

Thomas Haggerty, a senior account manager at Bridgeman Images, which licenses paintings for commercial projects, credits the trend to “the power of juxtaposition.” Gregg Kulick, executive art director at Hachette Book Group, agrees: “Poppy type” reads as fun, he says, while the paintings “hint at the academic.”

and some example...

quick update

SO, here is the finished product... another collaged check-presenter for my favorite watering hole -- The Green Onion Pub.

It's entitled, "Embrace Your Inner Onion".