As you can see, I'm contining to add big areas of color via chunks of paper to get the background filled in so I can work into the piece with further detail.This collage is so big that I'm incorporating sheets of kraft, rice, and wrapping paper -- along with the usual found and repurposed papers. If I used my typical materials (the size of a typical magazine page or smaller), the overall effect would be far more busy and kinetic than what I envision. I need an interesting, but simple, band of layers upon which I can develop the root structure of the aspen grove.Can you tell that I have to stand on a stepladder and hold my camera over my head to get this all in??!! That's why these process images are a bit skewed... I'm working on a counter height table and don't really have any other way to see the whole image assembled!
Collage Art
"Rooted together" commission in progress 4.29.13
in Collage Art, Studio
Here's an update... I'm working away on getting the big areas of color applied so that I can go back with more papers to represent the details: aspen trees, undergrowth, and roots.I also was videotaped and interviewed while working today to document the development of the collage. The hospital will have QR codes near each commissioned artwork so that the creative process can be seen by interested viewers as part of a virtual art tour. I responded to numerous questions and rambled away... here's hoping it will be both insightful and a good diversion for those who may watch it online while in the surgical waiting area!
Hardhat tour at commission site
in Collage Art, Studio
I've been commissioned to create a four-part collage for the new Castle Rock Adventist Hospital. A fun first step was a hardhat tour, with all the commissioned artists, to see where our art would ultimately be located. My work will go on a wall in the surgical waiting area.
The commissioned pieces will all relate to the aspen tree in some way. After measuring the wall, and spending time thinking about the root concept that was requested, I drew up a series of rough, thumbnail ideas with some notations about intent. These were presented by the art consultant who is managing the process.
The hospital art selection group decided on a quadrant format that will have a hillside cross-section motif. The root idea, a nod to connectedness and community, will be the focus of the piece. Did you know the aspen tree is the world's largest living organism? Really! Whole groves are connected by a single root system.The four panels are now getting prepped with gesso in the studio and I'm anxious to get the project underway. More on this endeavor to follow...
Recapping... "To EXPAND" at the Madden Museum
Stretching out in the studio, September 2012.I spent a good portion of my studio time this year experimenting with how I could make bigger work after I was asked to participate in an exhibition at the Madden Museum. Six artists met with director Hillary Reed, toured and considered the venue, then decided that we all needed to respond in some way to the very expansive space with our artwork for this exhibition... and preparations for "To Expand" were set in motion.Because I use so many magazines to supply color ingredients, my collages have always reflected that source material and tended to be more intimate in scale. For this exhibition, I wanted to work with some larger papers. Included in the new collages are pieces ripped from shopping bags, from large papers I painted, and from make-ready press sheets set aside by a friend at a printing company. For the first time I also painted color on my supports and worked into that with my paper compositions.It was a stretch, literally! I'm so glad I pushed myself because I have new confidence in my ability to produce original work in sizes appropriate for corporate or public spaces. I've already realized that I can do small pieces and enlarge them through digital technology and now I know what it takes to do original work at a large scale. It's been a big year :)
Above: A portion of my work at the Madden Museum, November 2012.So the exhibition included the largest collages I've created to date, some 80" in height! It was a bit of a whirlwind when our show date moved forward, but it all came together and the work of all six of us was amazingly cohesive with lovely unexpected relationships in color and composition. It was great working with painters Ken Elliott and Karen Scharer; encaustic artist Victoria Eubanks; fabric artist Carol Ann Waugh; and sculptor Mary Williams. The "To Expand" group will also show together at the Teal Gallery in Breckenridge, Colorado in January.
Above: This view shows less than half the museum space... my work in center, rear.
Above: The artists' reception, October 2012. Thanks to all who came out!