titles

If you have any history reading this blog, you are well aware of the fact that I certainly love playing with titles of pieces (as Jo Murray recently acknowledged). In fact, as I have mentioned before in this blog, I think titles are integral parts of a piece of art... they're part of the "collage" of collage. In this spirit, I enjoyed entitling this piece. This one is a bit of a different composition style for me... I was experimenting a little tonight. The title of this piece is "Her Stories During Family Night Often Reminded Him of When He Was a Young Girl". For those readers who may not have English as their first language, I will assure you that you have read that title correctly. It's a funky play on words and images... it's part of the "collage" of thoughts. I hope you enjoy it (even in its weirdness). By the way, this photo is not the finished work (I have done some touch-ups and will add a final piece tomorrow).

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motivation

I found out last week that I will be exhibiting this September at a place in Utica, NY called The Dev. The curator - Steve Nyland - said that "it's a tradition"! That's cool. I have shown the past two Septembers there; but wasn't assuming that I would be this year. Anyway, I'm excited about it!  The Dev is a bar/music venue/art gallery. They do a great job at all three and attract many of the young "arterrati" in Utica. Being informed that I have an up-coming exhibit is just the kick-in-the-ass I needed to get me creating (instead of cleaning and organizing forever). Of course, the cleaning and organizing has helped me with the creative process as well. I'm heading to Copenhagen, Helsinki, and St. Petersburg in August for 10 days; so I'm actually feeling a little pressure to get pieces cranked out (without compromising on quality, of course). I could show pieces I have already made; but I like trying to create as many new pieces for exhibits as I can. I also have a somewhat interested following of my work in the Utica area, so I want to show them new work. Here are a couple I completed today. One is entitled "Her Name Rhymed with a Part of the Human Body". The other is entitled "The Sabine Family Scrabble Game Got WAY Out of Control".

guitar followup

Okay, here is the finished front. Now on to the sides; which will be more technically challenging given the curves.

Guitar collage

I sanded and coated this guitar about a year ago and there it sat in my studio, staring at me. A bit intimidating to start it (even though the guitar only cost me $50). So I "dove in" with the Eiffel Tower element. I had that element for a little while and LOVE it; and wasn't sure I wanted to use it on the guitar. BUT, I LOVED the way it looked on the guitar. Then what? Lots of experimentation with placement of various elements. I didn't want the guitar to look too "messy". I needed larger elements with interesting color and design. The guitar is acoustic, but has built-in electric pick-ups; so I'm not too concerned about how the colaging will affect the sound. I'm pretty satisfied with how it is coming along so far.