NCS postcard show award winners

Check out "www.nationalcollage.com/exhibitions/10pc.html" to see this year's award-winning post-card sized collage from the annual "Wish You Were Here" exhibit. Nice pieces! 16 out of a total of about 150 received awards.

A new piece by Julie Sadler

Wanted to share this new piece by Julie Sadler. I really like it. You can read about the creation of this piece and more at Julie's site at "collageclearinghouse.blogspot.com". Enjoy!

RACC 2010 Regional Exhibit

I went to the opening reception of this year's juried Regional exhibit at the Rome Arts and Community Center last night. The exhibit was superb with 57 beautiful pieces selected by Mary Murray (Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Munson Williams). There was a nice mix of various media, including collage and mixed media. My friend and colleague Tom McCarthy won one of the awards (sponsored by the Rome Sentinal). Congrats Tom (seen here in photo with Norm Landis from the Rome Sentinel)! Here is a sampling of the works focusing on mixed media and assemblage. The pieces with the large white area and the red circles are by Amy Bartell. The piece with the large reddish swatch is by Michelle Southgate. The assemblage piece is by Dan Bacich (a former student of James Ridlon from Syracuse University -- another great assemblage artist in the style of Joseph Cornell). This exhibit is definitely worth seeing! Enjoy!

Sweet art and kind thoughts

This summer I have been touched by the artistic culinary efforts put forth by two friends. Each made a cake that was very special to me (and others). My friend Linnea Franits created a cake for the reception that her and her husband Wayne hosted for me and Tom after the 60/60 Event at the Everson. She fashioned the cake after a collage I wrote about in my April 10th blog post regarding placing a circular element on a checkerboard background. She decorated the cake in a checkerboard pattern using licorice and then asked me to place the "circular element" (an Oreo cookie) appropriately. I was very touched (tear in eye) by her thoughtfulness. Thank you Linnea!!! The second culinary artwork that I experienced was just this past weekend in Boston. The band that I used to play in while I was in PA all got together for a reunion (from Wisconsin, New York, PA and Mass). The band was named "grimace" and we used to have a sticker of a frog. Heather (our gracious hostess) asked her neighbor if she could create some kind of special cake for the events of the weekend. What a fantastic job Liesl Weiss-Catanzano did for us! We were all very touched by the creation. I am blessed by the friends and creative spirit that surrounds me! Enjoy!

Heat baby

This post has little to do with collage except for the fact that I am a BIG BABY when it comes to heat like we're experiencing. It's difficult for me to motivate to do anything, and it squelches my creativity as well. BUT, I will spend this afternoon in the only air-conditioned room in our house reading a little of Rudolph Arnheim's classic writings in a book entitled "Art and Visual Perception" and one entitled "Visual Thinking". This will help me prepare for the "Psychology & The Visual Arts" course I'm teaching in the fall at Utica College. Stay cool folks!

events worth attending!

July 9 - 7:00 Rome Arts and Community Center Regional Fine Arts Exhibit (I saw some of the work and it looks like a great show which includes a number of collage, mixed media and assemblage works).

July 17th - 4:30 "Cazenovia Counterpoint" art exhibit and gallery walk (with LOTS of musical events in the village too. Check out the series of events across a number of days at their website)