I was very impressed with the Cogar Gallery reception last night for the "Makers of Mohawk Valley" exhibit. The college is only about 20 minutes form where I live, but I had not visited the campus before, and I had never been to the gallery. Bravo to curator Justin Como! The show is up until November 10th. Check it out.
I finished this piece last night. It's a small piece (3.5" x 10"; 6" x 13" framed). The title may be "Fish out of Water?, although the frame reminds me of a project about artists' identities that Jonathan Talbot was involved with a few years ago that involved him fabricating a "back story" for a collection of his paintings. The fictitious character was named "Vernon Hart", and Jonathan used frames that had a "vintage" look (like this one). So I am seriously contemplating "echoing" that project (and making the title of this more obscure), by renaming it, "Vernon Hart Often Felt Like a Fish Out of Water". I think it adds a bit of a Dada component to the work... which I love, of course. I think I've talked myself into it ;-)
I haven't posted any sketches for a little while; so I thought I would share these from this week. As anyone who follows this blog knows, I am an analog collage artist. I use no digital images or photocopied elements. The only way that I do "multiples", is to have more than one copy of an image (e.g., from the same magazine issue). Isn't that the same as photocopying? I don't think so. And, by the way, it's a weird self-imposed restriction in my creative work, that is sometimes challenging and frustrating -- but it's a restriction that I embrace. Anyway, the first piece shown here, is an example of using multiple copies of the same image (i.e., I obtained multiple copies of this image at an auction I was at). It creates an interesting effect, I think. I'm aware that these images are emotionally/spiritually charged and should not be "disrespected". I am contemplating altering them more, so as to diminish any perceived disrespect (there is absolutely no disrespect intended).
This is the third in my "Seeking a Brain" series. This is a small piece (3" x 4.5").
Here's a piece I finished over the weekend. It 10" x 10" and is entitled "Mr. Fibonacci Makes an Adjustment (and... I know, it was intentional)". This is another two-element collage composition, although the far right, bottom cylinder image was actually excised from another area of the element and "transplanted" to the position that it is in. Does that make is a 3-element collage (or perhaps, a 2.5-element collage ;-)? The subtitle is based on the fact that, I assume at some point, an astute viewer will notice that the blue building element is actually upside-down (if you look closely, you can see some people on the balconies). I was aware that the building was upside-down, but wanted to use that architectural element not only for its structure, but also for the direction of lighting -- so that it matched the lighting shining on the cylinders.
My good friend and fellow collage artist -- Anthony Morgan -- and I have been producing some "coordinated collages" over the past couple years. What are "coordinated collages", you may ask. In this particular iteration, we each made a diptych collage from elements from two National Geographic magazines (January, 1989 and August, 1989). That is, we had duplicate copies of these magazines,
