My last piece of 2020 (which has been the worst year of my life). I have not titled this piece yet (just finished it this morning! I am SO looking forward to the new year and the creative journeys in which I will partake. Wishing everyone good health, peace and love in the coming year!

 

The Fable of Cytopisces

Here is the finished piece and a couple detail shots...

Cellular transfer

 I think I will post two posts today. I will make a "clean" post of the finished work as the next post. I would like to use this post to talk a bit about transfers. As many of you know, transfers are always a bit of a crap shoot, in terms of them turning out satisfactorily. Before I commenced with the transfers on this piece, I did a mini-experiment to determine which would potentially be best: light coating or heavy coating (as well as light heat or heavy heat). I did each of the four possibilities with an image from the same book from which I took the ultimate images. I believe light coating works best (with light and heavy heat not an issue). With that information, I was ready to apply the primary transfer image. It turned out well and I had VERY little (none) "paper ghost" (i.e., when a bit of the paper is left behind in the acrylic coating). With the primary image applied, I decided, for balance, that I would add another transfer. I was SO worried that I would end-up ruing the entire piece. The challenge was that I wanted the next transferred image to appear to be behind the leaves of the tree... but I couldn't cut the tree, because the substrate is not paper, but vintage cardboard (viz. the cheap art you can buy in K-mart). So I used tracing paper (actually, it was wax paper, because I didn't have any tracing paper), to make a line drawing of the tree outline. Of course, compounding the challenge was the necessary "working in reverse" that you have to do with transfers. Anyway, I ended up doing that TWICE... without ruining the piece! I am VERY happy with how it all turned out. But it WAS nerve-wracking!

Premature, but...

After finishing the piece that I posted yesterday and working more on finishing-up the piece I posted before that, I was experimenting with some other elements in the studio last night
, when I created this sketch. I probably shouldn't post this yet (at all), since I'm not certain it will become a finished product. BUT, I am so excited about the saturation of the colors in this piece, and by the fact that the fish elements are such a strong match with the colors of the substrate. I realize that the composition might be somewhat cliche (i.e., fish out of context), but I really like this so far. My plan is to use a transferred image of a beautiful drawing of a diatomic organism as "the sun". But as those of you who have experience with transfers know, sometimes transfers don't "work out" (and can thus actually ruin a composition). I will need to give it my best shot and see what happens; because I suspect that if it does work, it'll look really good!

Tentative title: "In the Garden of Currency"

 Once again, I have been enjoying my time in my studio, since the "oppression of the semester" has ended (submitted my grades yesterday). Here is a piece for which all of the added elements to the base etching came from pieces of one-dollar bills. The eye of the woman is the eye which appears above the pyramid on the bill. I was going to replace the light blue mat with another color (perhaps something to match the distressed color on the frame)... but it is kind of growing on me. Let me know what you think.

Emergence example

As promised, I am sharing some sketches from the past couple evenings in my studio. These photos hopefully provide some documentation about how my creative process emerges as I spend time exploring and experimenting in my creative "laboratory". As I peruse the many magazines and books I have in my studio, I come across potential elements that strike me as either interesting, beautiful or evocative. I rip out the page, or cut out the image, and it either goes "on the pile" (I have thousands of individual elements in various stacks in my studio!), or it gets coated and goes on a wire rack, or it "floats around" from tabletop to tabletop for a while. Sometimes I get to a potential element right away; sometimes the element is untouched for years. These photos show several such elements. The skull and torso/half head images were fairly recently extracted form a medical textbook (a book I was given by a fellow artist whose OB/GYN husband recently retired). The pinkish/purple element was form a science magazine (I think it's a type of pollen spore, magnified with an electron microscope?). The dark B&W photo of the buildings came from a book recently given to me by my friend Goody, from Boston. I have been experimenting with various combinations of placements with these elements (you can also see the "collage" of my studio table with other elements as well). With design considerations in mind (e.g., matching patina; depth; color complementation; linear continuation), and through a bit of trial-and-error, a working composition begins to emerge from my experimentation (from my "creative play"). Of course, then the work begins, in terms of precision cutting, final arrangement, layering of elements, and tacking down of individual elements. This particular piece is yet to be finalized, as I am considering placement of a transfer element in the center of this piece. I am a little nervous with that decision; as sometimes a transfer can be incomplete (not matter how good you are with the technique). I wouldn't want to "ruin" the piece with placement of the final image (i.e., after ALL of the prior work has been complete). I will decide soon. One of the points of this post is to convey the fact that my work is very rarely ever a result of some preconceived thought about what I want to create as a collage -- my work is most often a result of what emerges from the interplay of experimentation and evocative elements. It's almost like getting lost on a road trip, sometimes you find that some of the most enjoyable times are experienced when you get lost and come across a great "find" that wasn't planned ahead of time.

COVID update

Well, the good news is that I am alive and "well" and have managed to avoid the COVID virus thus far. My last post occurred two months ago, because I have been a bit overwhelmed with the work I had to do to manage what I think turned out being a somewhat successful semester. The school -- Utica College -- at which I teach psychology classes, did a GREAT job keeping faculty, staff and students safe (although we had 40-50 COVID cases; none of which were serious enough to require hospitalizations, because of constant testing and contact tracing). Anyway, the level of stress caused by juggling on-line and hybrid classes for close to 100 students , as well as staying healthy, was quite challenging. And I will admit, I am still grieving over the death of my sister Kathy and my "baby girl" dog Frida. In addition, one of my best friends lost both parents this summer/fall, and I lost another friend with whom I had dinner every other week (pre-COVID). Another friend of mine lost her mother to COVID; and I also found out that my graduate school advisor passed away from a brain tumor as well. Yes, so 2020 is the year that just keeps on giving <sarcasm, of course>. Too much death. In addition to that, one of my best friends and his family currently are working their way through being positive with COVID; and the guy who does my framing and his family have it as well (IT'S REAL FOLKS!). And of course, American politics has been a depressing mess. My desire to do anything creative seemed to die this fall as well (even though you might think I could find "refuge" in my creative endeavors). I have been worried about it too -- depressed really -- and that, in itself was contributing to the nadir of creativity, and the stress (a vicious cycle, as they say). BUT... more good news is... since I have completed the grading for the semester (I have just some finishing touches left), I have been down in the studio several times and feel great about exploring and creating again! I will be down there again today, of course! And I'm happy to say that I have a few sketches that might turn into finished compositions. That's a good thing -- especially now, since I am scheduled for a solo exhibit in April at 4 Elements Studio, in rica, NY!!! I only hope that COVID will be under control so that we can have an in-person exhibit. I will post some of my sketches and works in progress very soon. I hope this post finds all y'all well. Be safe, and be kind.