Know Your Rights

In addition to finishing my apparently aesthetically-pleasing "fish piece" yesterday, I finished a VERY provocative artwork. The piece is meant to represent a couple of the extremely polarizing moral issues in society today. The piece is not "pretty" and I fear that it may be misinterpreted (or that folks will think negatively about me). I think artwork should sometimes be provocative, in that it serves as a stimulus for thinking. FYI: I am pro-life, but support a woman's right to choose. I am anti-violence and anti-gun (except for normal hunting), BUT DO NOT want to take your guns away from you (although no one should own a gun that can fire dozens of rounds per minute. Count the bullets in this artwork). The title of this piece is actually multi-layered: "Know Your Rights (or Pro-Life/Pro-Gun) (or Maybe He Will Make it Through School Safely).

one fish, two fish...

I probably should have waited to post all three of the fish pieces together; but I wasn't exactly sure if I would get the third piece done in time for the show. I had a great Christmas Day in the studio and got it done (also got another one done and will post it tomorrow). The show to which I am referring will be up at The Tech Garden (Syracuse, NY) next month (Jan.) and has a fish theme (Steve Nyland is the curator). Interestingly, some animal rights folks have contacted him, complaining about animal abuse!? I guess they misunderstood what an art exhibit is all about. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the exhibit. I had a bit of an epiphany about my artwork while working on my fish pieces. My work is typically small format (usually no larger than 11" x 14"), partially because of my style and the fact that I do analog collage and thus do no photocopying or enlarging. Of course, galleries and collectors like and pay for larger pieces. Sometimes I have felt badly about that, and have contemplated doing larger works. But I'm comfortable with my voice and my use of smaller format artwork. My epiphany? Well, jewelers typically make "small format" pieces that sometimes sell for lots of money. So, I guess I'll just conceptualize my work as akin to pieces of jewelry. I certainly spend LOTS of time on my art, working out minute details. So anyway, here's my third fish piece for the exhibit at The Tech Garden...

light, shadow and photography

I finally mounted this miniature piece on a lunar background (I love the palette). I placed the piece on the edge of my night stand and took this photograph. I absolutely LOVE how the shadows and the colors of the nightstand and the frame and composition are all integral! Perhaps it is something special about this piece (I wrote about shadows and photography in my Dec. 1st entry with this same miniature). The photograph then, is the only thing that documents the "entire" composition. Right? The photograph represents the "finished piece", of which, the actual collage is only a part.

Fishy

Here are two pieces for the up-coming fish-themed exhibit at The Tech Garden. I am hoping to get one more done this week, as these are small and will get "lost" on the gallery wall. I would like to have a threesome so that they can act as "one" bigger piece. Now that I see these pieces together, it would make sense for me to have a third piece with the fish facing to the right.

"More Images from a Monkeybrain" by Steven Specht!

They arrived this week! My second coffee table book of collages -- celebrating my 10th year anniversary of doing collage using the "Talbot method" -- is now available. Hard cover with dust jacket. 42 full-color collage images with a blurb about each one. If you're interested, contact me via my e-mail at Utica College.

actual shadows as elements

I decided to give away all but one of the collage lapel pins for Thoughtsgiving. I kept the one with George Washington's eye in it. I really liked the simple two-element composition and the color palette. After searching for a frame for the piece, I placed this frame over the small collage (less than 2" x 2"). What "emerged" was an interplay between the collage, the frame, and the multiple shadows created by the various lights in my studio. I really LOVE the shadows, when considered as additional enhancing "elements" of the collage. But those shadows are, after all, transient, unless I was able to duplicate the positions of the lights in a gallery. Even in my studio, I would either have to have the collage and frame in exactly the same spot to re-create this image; or adjust the lighting. So I suppose that this posted photo IS the artwork (akin to Andy Goldsworthy's transient natural artworks, for which he relies on photography of the work to represent the work).