Collage play

Quinacridone Gold – the all-purpose “band-aid” for any art project, and a great color for collage backgrounds

I had some unexpected time in the studio yesterday because of the threatening  weather, so I worked on some small collages for the upcoming Beacon Hill Art Walk in Boston on June 4th.

In my mind, I knew exactly what kind of collages I was going to create, but as usual, the process took over and drove the bus, and nothing ended up as I had planned. But the results were fun.

One of the background materials I played with was Yupo synthetic paper – if you haven’t used it, it’s really almost impossible to mess up. I painted some diluted Quinacridone Gold acrylic on the Yupo, then scraped and brushed and distressed it, and wiped the paint off through some stencil shapes.

You can see this technique in the background of the collage below, called “Asian Pear.” There are layers on top of it which have been glued to squares of archival matboard to create dimension.

Here’s another “pear-with-Yupo-background” piece, below. This one is simpler, but I like the simplicity. The scrap of blue paper went on as an afterthought, and it really makes the piece. The title is “Comice.”

The next collage also has a Yupo background and features a stock photo of an amaryllis that I altered in Photoshop. Those spatters that I flicked on just happened to follow the lines of the flower stamens!

Again, it’s a very simple collage with just three layers. I use a Scotch permanent glue stick as an adhesive for most of the layers. You can even heat-set the glued layers with a warm iron and a cover sheet to super-adhere the layers.

The next two pieces are kind of a set – both include tissue paper that I printed in my inkjet printer and then layered onto the Yupo background. I added some Portfolio oil pastel marks to both of them and stamped one with “No” and one with “Yes.”

Renaissance faces continue to fascinate me as collage images, and the titles on these are “The Game #1” and “The Game #2.”

This last one might be my favorite – it has more layers than you can shake a stick at. I tried to control what went on it, then painted the whole thing white in frustration, then wiped most of that off. It got uglier and uglier.

Finally, I just let it be itself and added a “ghost bird” as a top layer and stamped the word “Caw” on it.

The layers that were created as I kept trying to rescue the thing by adding more stuff actually gave it a richness and a history. Here’s a detail:

If I had to sum up yesterday’s collage play, I’d say it was a re-affirmation of my mantra, Trust the Process. At every stage, I looked at what the piece was trying to ask for, then tried to find it – sometimes it wasn’t what I would have chosen if I had been driving the bus. But it pretty much worked. Trust the process, y’all.

PS If you want to see a very cool woman experimenting with Yupo paper, check out Miss Millie on YouTube!

 

 

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Cathedrals and cheese

We left a week ago from Texas for a river cruise on the Rhine, and it’s been an extraordinary learning experience. I’ve never been on a cruse of any kind until now, and I’ve learned a lot about that environment. Very very interesting, still processing the wheat from the chaff. We’ll dock in Amsterdam tomorrow, home in a few days.

One of my goals on this trip was to shake up my design aesthetic by exploring some galleries and museums in the cities we visited. Unfortunately, the way the trip is structured, there’s not a lot of time for that kind of individual activity. However, there have been two experiences that will stay with me once I’m home.

The first was visiting the magnificent Cologne Cathedral. I was quite literally moved to tears as I approached it from the plaza. The structure defines the range and scope of inspired human achievement. And it’s still a work in progress. You can read more abut it here.

The second memorable experience was this afternoon’s trip to a family cheese farm near Kinderdjik, Netherlands.The Kaas- en Zuivelboerderij Kuiper (Cooper’s Cheese and Dairy Farm) is a family-run operation, now in its third generation. The farm makes gouda cheese using their own milk and starter enzymes that they buy from a commercial firm.

There is a sense of timelessness on this farm, and the rhythm of the seasons and generations resonates strongly. The cows were pretty wonderful, too. They stay inside during the cold months, but on the first day that they are allowed back outside, they go bonkers, according to the farmer, dancing across the fields and falling into the canals.

Cheese and cathedrals both take a long time in the making – and it all brought me back to my favorite saying about art, “Trust the process.” There is such beauty in every step that humans take in creating something that enhances the spirit, whether is a magnificent soaring structure or a creamy gouda from happy cows.

I’ll have lots to think about when I get home, but paying more attention to the process and less to the frantic rush-to-completion will be something I’ve learned on this trip. Home soon!

Trust the process . . .but visit Papa Jim’s

I’m showing some new work at La Vida Gallery, opening on December 5th, and, in my typical procrastinative way, I’m still figuring out exactly what to do. So far, I know that some of the new work will be earthenware assemblage. Here are a few of the pieces in no particular order that are in my “Trust the process, you’ll get an idea” pile.

So for extra inspiration, I took a visit to that old San Antonio icon of eclectic voodoo and spirituality, Papa Jim’s Botanica. Here, you can find anything you might need for protection, luck, attracting a mate, getting art ideas, or paying a jail bond.

I did pass up the opportunity to buy the Special Mojo Bag ( IT WILL CONTAIN HERBS, STONES, TALISMAN, POWDERS, MEDALS, AND ANIMAL PARTS SUCH AS RATTLESNAKE FANG), but I came away with some nice incense and a fresh supply of ideas. Look! Something is starting to emerge from the “Trust the process” pile . . . . ooooooh . . . .stay tuned.

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