Collage exchange

I recently participated in a private collage exchange and here is one of the collages I submitted. It is 9" x 7" and mounted to an 10" x 8" piece of watercolor paper. Part of the image was a collage that was scanned and printed on W/C paper, then additional imagery was added.

New felt artwork

A few weeks ago, I posted a blog with new spinal drawings here. Although I don't work directly from my drawings, I do use them to map out where the major elements fall on the page as I want to get proportion right. I saw a post about Rapid Resizer, a software program that allows you to enlarge your drawings that I had heard about some time ago but had never tried. I downloaded a trial of the product and found it very easy to use. Here is an enlargement of one of my drawings:

As you can see, it turns your drawings/sketches into line drawings that can be used for patterns or for placement. Below is my latest felt artwork derived from the line drawing.

Density; 24" x 24"; industrial felt, paper, thread; 2009

Density (detail)

Artist Recommendation – Marilyn Pappas

Marilyn Pappas has been included in exhibits at the Snyderman-Works Galleries in Philadelphia and had a solo exhibit at the Nancy Margolis Gallery in NYC. She taught for many years at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Marilyn will be exhibiting her work and speaking at SOFA Chicago in November.

I'm particularly drawn to her new work titled "The Life of Beauty." Marilyn says about this work that they are "meditations on Western concepts of beauty throughout time." She also states that she is interested in the "imperfection of beauty and the beauty of imperfection." She also talks about the comfort of hand work, the meditative quality and the slow development of her work. You can read more of Marilyn's statements here.

Here are some examples from The Life of Beauty series:

Nike and the Life of Beauty (left and detail, right); 2006; 102" x 59"; cotton, linen, gold

Left: Nike with Broken Wings (detail); 2002-2008; 68" x 33"; cotton, linen, gold. Right: Venus, Marilyn and the Life of Beauty (detail); 2009; 70" x 52"; cotton, linen

And from the Fragments Series: left: Fragment of a Wounded Amazon; 2000; 32" x 23"; cotton, linen. Right: Fragment of Killimachos Aphrodite; 1995; 36" x 15" x 2"; cotton, linen

Conversations

I am participating in a project called Compositional Conversations. This was conceived by Terry Jarrad-Dimond. There are 14 artists in the group and my contribution will be featured today. Terry will be posting updates once a week, so check in on Mondays to see the progress and please join in on the conversation. All input is welcome!

As part of the process, I made full size patterns to test how they worked before making any fabric choices. Below is the composition with the paper pattern after I had made my final shape choice. Read the full story here.

Collage and sketchbook pages

New sketchbook page

New collage, sketchbook and tiny painting

This is a small (6" x 6") collage of two kinds of handmade paper stitched onto watercolor paper. It is fascinating to me how the holes in the paper become such a strong design element:

And here are two pages from my just completed sketchbook and a tiny painting of my funny spine "forests." The sketchbook pages are 9" x 12" and the small painting is about 6" x 6". The sketchbook pages are done with graphite and the painting is Pitt pen, gouache and pencil.

New Artwork

Geomorphology; 24" x 24"; 2009; paper, thread on felt

Recommendation – Eleanore Mikus

Here is an example of Eleanore Mikus' artwork with her lines caused by the folding and re-folding of paper. Images from her website below:

Three Horizontals, folded nacre paper, 1968, 13.625"x10.5"

Architectural White Paperfold, 2000, 5"x14.5"

White Nacre Handfolded Paper, 1980, 33.5"x23.25"

and from her Black Paperfold series:

Ate, Ink on Handfolded Paper, 2002, 30 1/2"x23"

and from her Colored Paperfold series:

Red Ink and Oil Crayon on Handfolded Paper, 2005, 7" x 7 1/8"

I have her book, there is also a catalog from The Drawing Center on her work as well. The book information: Eleanore Mikus: Shadows of the Real by Robert Hobbs and Judith Bernstock; Ithaca: Groton House, 1991. Amazon link here.

Alyson Stanfield and basketry

Alyson Stanfield writes a newsletter weekly and I enjoyed this one - "Listen, read, act, repeat." Alyson discusses how we automatically respond to people "I already know that" when just stopping and listening may open yourself to new experiences. Scroll down to check out this good read.

This title was followed up yesterday by her newest newsletter topic "Stop, and then get to work." This topic refers to falling into the trap of doing endless research or endless searching as opposed to just doing. Alyson writes, "Stop! Stop gathering information, stop looking for something that doesn’t exist, and start doing." Good advice.

You can sign up for her free newsletter to be delivered once a week via email. Highly recommended.

I love this basket by Japanese bamboo artist, Fujitsuka Shosei. See more images at Tai Gallery here.

And a sketch from my journal based on the image and my fascination with boxes: