In the Name of Art

BB's Metamorphosis

Well, here's my problem child and I did have to cover vast swaths of details that I liked but they needed to go. First the contrast was too great and then too little. I added gesso to cover much of the offending detail, then graphite to darken the gesso, then erased much of that. I'm not completely happy with it, there were, unfortunately, no AHA! moments on this one. But its hanging together and is fairly well unified. The longer I look at art the more I think unity is key to the success of a work. I'm afraid though, that a piece that is a slog tends to look like a slog and that can drive the delight right out it. On the other hand, I'm convinced I learn something every time that happens. So, for better or worse, here it is:

Habitual Red

I started out wanting some blue-violets and blue-greens in this, I'd just seen some older work that a friend of mine owns and loved the cool colors in it. 40 minutes later I had another quasi-valentine. The refrain of this blog seems to be the work has a mind of it's own.

The Thick Plottens

I think my problem child collage is beginning to start telling me what it needs. Oh frabjous day! 14 inches of new snow, 3 hrs shoveling and malicious art that is starting to be more friendly; can't get better than that!

Last 2 of 6

These are the last 2 of this set and I'm happy they're finished. This morning nearly everything is canceled so I'll tackle my problem child collage. Since I've shoveled and gotten a work-out (who needs a gym in the winter?) and my mind is clear, perhaps I can finish it. I have to walk away from work that doesn't resolve, at least for awhile. I remember in painting class all the students who sat in front of their work, just looking, hoping to see what it was the painting needed.....this act of contemplation seemed to be part of the ambience of a studio. My work never says anything different to me when I'm staring at it. I have to look away. There's some kind of law in physics about the observer affecting what is observed, and my observation generally makes the work shut up. So we'll see what happens, until then, here's the last 2 of 6:

Waiting for another snow storm

We've still got perhaps 12 inches of snow on the ground, much of it transformed into ice and the winter storm warnings are out again, predicting between 5 and 11 inches! I don't walk the dog as much as I climb, canti-lever and pirouette her, the piles of ice and snow make for quite a work-out. But for all its trouble and cantankerousness it is so beautiful. The fall and sparkle of snow beats any other season.

Lately I've been attempting to resolve a piece that is difficult. I really like the parts but they don't work together. Since the parts appeal to me, I don't want to pitch it. But oh, it's really compositional trouble. Once I read an article about graffiti and law enforcement calls that "malicious art".....it may be the  piece is related to that. But I do have more of the spring-like collage to post here today.

Parts of 6

I finished these 2 or 3 days ago but before that, they were sitting on my "unfinished" shelf gathering dust for 3 months. Its hard for me to  throw things away and as a result I have projects from 5 years ago waiting for the muse to whisper in my ear. Once in awhile, the solution will present itself.

I received good news last week that my collage proposal was accepted by Summit Art Space for January 2010, so a dozen collage artists (myself included) will be very busy this year!

Simple Play

Perhaps this is recognizable as one of my previous visual posts. I've pretty much ignored the possibilities of photo manipulation using the computer but sat down last night and started playing with some of it's effects on collage work. This is the result. There's really too many possibilities to choose from and some of tools are counter-intuitive but it is fun to see how different the original source looks. 

In Love with it All

So today I was doing the mundane and organizing my income tax files and one thing always leads to another.......so I had to organize my art files. I discovered this reduction print I'd done for an example for printmaking class lo these many moons ago. Printmaking is one of the passions I rarely practice and I loved cutting and pulling this, I might have to do some more. Collage is a jealous art though.

Valentine Exchange

Remember the 10 valentines I posted awhile back? These are the exchanges that arrived today on my doorstep in a bold box painted with hearts! My thanks to Anne Bagby and Bonnie Benson for hosting the exchange to benefit Habitat for Humanity. Creative people creating money for a good cause! How wonderful is that?

6Popdone