Collage by Dan

My cousin Dan is a collector of Mexican movie memorabilia (mostly posters and books) and other ephemera. So it's not surprising that when he has been up from Guadalajara to visit, he enjoys working on collages. I taught him the Jonathan Talbot technique and , of course, this has allowed him to exercise his creativity without worrying about other "messier" techniques. Dan has created some really nice collages; but I think this is one of his best. Color composition is exquisite and if you notice, he uses a depth cue which is not too common. The background is printed in a way that makes it look somewhat blurry (especially relative to the crystal clear face). This creates something akin to atmospheric gradient and enhances the depth in the piece. Enjoy!

where have I been?

Argh! I have really been neglecting this blog over the past weeks. The problem is that I am on sabbatical. You might think that this is a good thing, and at some level it is of course. I am working on a book (a textbook perhaps) about research design. It's pretty dry stuff indeed. It has turned out to be much more difficult writing it than I had anticipated. But probably the biggest problem for me in terms of artwork is that my work day (and work week) is very open-ended. There's not much of a defined end to my day or week so that I can say at some point, "Cool, it's time to create some art!" As most of us are aware, creating art and playing music are the first casualties of a busy "work" or family schedule. Fortunately, these "problems" happen to coincide with what I am perceiving as a natural break point in my work. I have had a very satisfying and successful couple of years. But I do have a little something to share in terms of a new image. My mother-in-law went with us to Italy recently and loved it. For her birthday (today), I decided to do a souvenir-type collage. I think she'll like it. Enjoy!

from the sea

On Friday evening after dinner, MC, Dan Sue and I sat down and poured over the sea glass and tumbled stones we brought home from Italy. We each "designed some jewelry pieces" (nothing was fixed) and shared with each other our favorites. It's almost like jewelry collage. What a fun time! Enjoy!

playing card alterations

And here's what I did with the cards...

playing card collaborative

Collagist Liz Cohn is conducting an extensive collaborative collage project involving playing cards (see previous posts). After doing three cards last month, I wrote to Liz and told her I enjoyed it and that if she wanted me to do more, I'd be interested. Here are the additional four cards she sent me. Although I like to photograph the cards before I do anything to them, I wrote with white ink on the queen card before I remembered to photograph it. The others are "raw".

9-10-11

This is one of the most non-premeditated pieces I have done. Although I have been interested in the 9/11 anniversary coverage this week (and anxiously awaiting our departure to Italy tomorrow), I wasn't thinking of doing any kind of collage to commemorate the event. I went to an opening reception for Jan Burke at the Hamilton Fine Arts Center Saturday (nice show) and was inspired to do a bit of work in the studio that evening. After working on some playing card pieces for Liz Cohn's collaborative project, I was looking around at some of the elements in my work space. This piece emerged after only about 8 minutes. I know it might seem a little creepy, but certainly 9/11 was an intense event. RIP to the victims of 9/11 and thanks to all the police, medical, military and civilians who helped their fellow men and women.

how long?

After being woken up by a couple of quarrelling cats this morning at 5:00 am, I was cleaning up my photos on the computer and looking back at some of my past posts on this blog. I found that in February of 2010, I posted an entry about a couple of interesting elements I had found but wasn't sure what to do with at that time. The fetus/pelvis illustration was one of them. As it turns out, it was just last month that I incorporated it into one of my better pieces (now getting matted and framed) that will be in the "The End is Near" exhibit at Utica College in the spring. So sometimes when people ask "How long does it take you to do a piece?", I don't exactly know how to answer. Sometimes I will find an interesting element, cut it out and coat it and then put it in one of my "map" drawers only for it to be used at some later point in time. Of course it's not all constant work, but I never underestimate the power of preparing and "being ready" for something to emerge in the future. Enjoy!