The Power of 2? or The Queen Gets a Makeover

My cousin Dan is in from Guadalajara. He's been doing some collaging as of late and we've decided to embark on a little project akin to Joel Lambeth's "The Power of N" idea. Dan and I have decided to each use the same image (we both have the image shown here) and create two collages that we can put together as a diptych of sorts. We will not show the other what we are doing until we're done. It should be interesting to see what comes of this project. Check back soon to see the finished works!

Carry on

My cousin Dan, from Guadalajara, Mexico made this digital collage for me fashioned after the "Stay Calm; Carry On" sign that has recently become popular. Thanks Dan... I love it! Enjoy!

painted and decoupaged furniture

I spent some time this morning drinking coffee on the back porch and showing a friend some of the pieces f furniture I have painted in the past (mostly as donation pieces for the annual Sculpture Space "CHAIRity" auction). Mary Carol suggested that I post some of them... including "The Periodic Table Table" and the "Table of Contents". Enjoy!

a couple new pieces

Now for the new work. Both of these works integrate multiple media unlike what I do most of the time.  For the colorful piece I used an old book cover that I really liked. The second one includes a piece of car metal that I found while walking to work one day. Enjoy!

too long

It's been way too long since I have posted anything on this site... way too long. I have been very busy this summer with my academic work -- teaching at Cornell and working on a new prep for a class and trying to write a manuscript describing the research I conducted with colleague Dr. Tyson Kreiger. But I spent the morning reading a short book about creativity by Justin Kleon and the rest of the day in my workspace avoiding the oppressive heat and humidity. I happy now to have some things to post. First, the book. It's a quick read and quite nice. I would recommend it to anyone; but especially to a budding creator. Enjoy!

Kurt Seligmann

Kurt Seligmann was an influential American surrealist painter who passed away in 1962. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Seligmann's death, Jonathan Talbot curated an art exhibit this summer at the Seligmann Center in Sugarloaf, NY. My fellow collagist Julie Takacs and I both have pieces in this show. You can view the exhibit (and click on individual pieces for enlargement) at this website http://www.kurtseligmann.org/homage_exhibition/
(btw, I absolutely love this web design that enables you to 'click' on pieces and see them individually). Enjoy!

two collage books

Over the past month, I received two new collage books that are so good, I just had to share information about them on this blog. One of the books is a technical book about various image transfer techniques by my friend and fellow collage artist Jonathan Talbot and Jessica Lawrence. The book can be purchased through Jonathan's website at www.talbot1.com. This book should be useful for any level of collage artist. The second book is written by collage artist Randel Plowman, who curated the Collage Masters book (what a gem!). Randel's new book is a wonderful in that it covers some design basics in the first half of the book and then presents 50 short exercises to stimulate creative thinking as it relates to collage making. It's a GREAT book and I highly recommend it for beginnings and experts alike. I am hoping to use it in the future with my students. The book is published by Lark Crafts. Randel's blog site is listed in the blogs I follow. Enjoy!