Art imitates life imitates art imitates life

A couple years ago, I gave my friend and fellow artist, Anthony Morgan, a collage inspired by Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse 5". He placed it prominently in the Black Gryphon, a restaurant that he owns in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. This week, a fire broke out at the restaurant. Although fortunately no one was hurt, a variety of artworks were lost in the fire and heat and smoke (including artwork of Donna Durr, St. Bradford Brooks, and Anthony Morgan). Here is the residue that was left of my collage. Ironic that a Slaughterhouse 5 collage was destroyed in a fire. So it goes...

Sci-Fi-themed exhibit

My friend Steve Nyland is curating an upcoming exhibit in Syracuse, NY with the theme loosely based on a vintage Sci-Fi magazine theme. I'm excited to be thinking about creating collages to fit the theme. The theme certainly speaks to my voice (pun intended). Here are two pieces "in progress" (the "Het!" piece is close to being finished).

post hiatus

To Whomever Reads this Post,
Once again, I have taken a hiatus recently from posting. If you are one of my followers, I apologize for that. I have been actively involved with pursuing some of my academic/scholarly interests (including my research on nostalgia and grief). I have also been somewhat involved in campus politics again, and that has kept me busy. In addition, the American election of our new President has been...well, more than a little disappointing; and certainly did not contribute to a positive or creative outlook on life. But alas, I am starting to get back into the creative mode and have spent some time in my studio recently. I expect to be spending more time there in the upcoming weeks as well (with a much desired and deserved break from classes). I have some exciting personal art news to share as well, but will do that in a future post.
I went to see the Steve McCurry exhibit here in Utica, NY at the Munson-Williams Proctor Art Institute. I also saw him speak. Both exhibition and talk were REALLY great. The "Afghan Girl" photograph was PHENOMENAL in-person! The reproductions (including the one on the cover of National Geographic in 1985) do not do the photograph justice. Perhaps these latest pieces were subconsciously inspired by McCurry's photography (although his are extremely colorful).
I have always been intrigued by the multitude of variations of blacks and whites when it comes to photographic reproductions which can be found in magazines. Recently I have been interested in using these variations in collage compositions. And of course, I have often used human faces within my compositions as well. The pieces I present here are not meant to be "pretty" (i.e., or necessarily aesthetically-pleasing... although I hope they are in their own ways). I do hope, however, that they are "evocative". At some level, I believe that evocation is the essence of "good" art. The image should evoke emotion... any emotion. Art should also provoke. I hope that these images provoke thoughts.
It feels good to be posting again on monkeybrain! I sincerely thank you for your interest...

Sculpture Space, Inc. CHAIRity Auction

I have decided to donate this piece for the annual CHAIRity auction at Sculpture Space... an international sculpture residency program with which I have been involved since 1999. Hoping it will fetch some good bidding next Saturday night.

"Antidote"

Friend and fellow collagist Anthony Morgan and I had our opening reception last night for our two-person exhibit we entitled "Antidote". We decided to call it that because we hope that our artwork (and artwork in general) provides people with an antidote, even if only temporary, to the myriad of woes in the world. The opening reception was a success! Lots of friends came out and some of the pieces sold (which is always a nice bonus). Toeny and I created this piece to raffle-off (I hated to see it go ;-)

finished product

I know I should wait until I have the finished product, but I'm just so excited about this one, that I had to post the "almost-finished" composition (and the frame goes perfectly too). For now...

"I'm pleased now"

I've been working on new pieces for my show next week at The Dev in Utica, NY. I was hoping to work on some bigger pieces (dimensionally), but find myself drawn more to creating smaller pieces. Here's one that's 4.5" x 4.5". And this one is a bit less "narrative" than usual for my work. I was just attracted to the colors and patina of these pieces of paper (and of course, couldn't resist the text).