"Muybridge's Fight Club"

Here's a piece I made yesterday that I will have in my solo exhibit opening next weekend at The Broad St. Gallery in Hamilton, NY. I was able to "extend" the dimensions of the piece  (14" x 6"; 35.5 cm x 15.25cm) as it was created from combining two identical cover images from "Science" magazine (remember, my work is all analog; I do no photocopying or digital manipulation). I really like the longer horizontal dimension! The only problem is that the border of the pieces is too clearly visible and distracting at the bottom of the composition. I am hoping to tweak that today at some point (but am a little worried about making it worse). The full title of the piece is "Muybridge's Fight Club: When You Fight, You Get Stoned".

Oldest to newest (legacy and liking?)

I created this blog in January 2010. My first post was of two pieces I made relating to the seven deadly sins. One of the pieces was  entitled "Convolution of Lust", the other "Evolution of Greed". I showed both of these pieces in New York City and "…Lust" sold to an art collector friend of mine. As I have evolved as a collagist, I not as happy with some of the pieces I have created and exhibited as I am with others. I suppose this happens to many artists. Although I still like "… Lust", I haven't been so enamored with "…Greed" for a while. I have decided to "recycle" mats and frames these days by "retiring" works with which I am not that pleased anymore (and thus would never exhibit again). Bottom line… I now have a circular mat to play around with. Yesterday while I was working on two pieces I am getting together for an upcoming exhibit, I did this sketch with the circular mat from "…Greed" from 4 years ago.

small

I so much enjoy doing small dimension collages. Here's a 2.75" x 2.75" (7 x 7 cm) piece entitled "Nothing Much to Say". I think it creates a humorous combination -- late 19th Century engraving with 1950s advertising photograph. The monochromaticity and small size creates an image cohesiveness which, I think "fools" the viewer at first into thinking it's a "legit" image (i.e., serious). Upon closer inspection, there's kind of a "double take" response. I treated this piece well by using a thicker mat and a nice metal frame. The only thing about that is that it is difficult to "re-coop" the expenses. Fortunately, I do not have to make a living on my art.

what a month!

One of my goals was to create more art and to blog more in 2014. I actually started off the new year well. But as I stated in a previous post, around mid January I got pretty sick (diagnosed with pneumonia in fact). Even though I wasn't feeling well, I made the trip to Richmond, Virginia the first week in February for the Southern Humanities Conference at which I read two of my short stories (and led a discussion panel as well). I'm sure that didn't help my recovery. Shortly after returning and trying to get caught-up with schoolwork, a close friend and colleague in the department passed away unexpectedly. Very sad. In addition to doing what needed to be done to talk with students and cover his classes, I also needed to grieve. I was honored when the family asked me to say a few words at his memorial service. BTW, Thom was an active and popular blogger and his "To Gyre and Gambol" blog site is listed on my blog dashboard. I really don't want this  to sound like a "so here's my excuse" post; I simply wanted to explain my "absence". I feel badly because I REALLY appreciate that folks check out this site regularly. I am now healthy again and am starting to get caught-up with my school work, so I hope to be blogging regularly again. I will use a separate post now to put up some images I worked on yesterday. It feels good to be back baby!

getting back, in the classroom

Following my diagnosis with pneumonia, I spent a week trying to get healthy enough to attend the conference of the Southern Humanities Conference in Richmond, VA. I made it to the conference, at which I read two of my own short stories and conducted a panel discussion of the novel "Tinkers" by Paul Harding (a book that changed my perspective on life and death). Since then, I've been trying to get fully healthy and catch-up with school work. Part of that school work is the collage studio course I'm offering this semester. I haven't had too much time to spend on my own collages lately, but I have taught the students in my class the Talbot technique and they have created some interesting collages. Here are some of the students' works. Pretty good, methinks!