Good Things Come In Small Packages…

For those of you who live near the Quinlan Visual Arts Center in Gainesville, Georgia you are in for a treat!

The Center is hosting this year’s National Collage Society 19th Annual Postcard Show. Comprised of small works, the exhibit features art no larger or smaller than 4″ x 6″ in size. The theme for the show is: “Expansive Art can be Found in a Small Format.”

The opening reception is Thursday, April 14th at 5:30 pm. The exhibit runs through Saturday, June 4th, 2016.

My entry this year is “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'”. Using a weaving technique, I brought together art paper, hand-made paper, an ad from a trade magazine and husks…which I acquired from a local cornfield.

As with all NCS exhibits, the show promises to be a visual smörgåsbord with something to delight everyone’s palate.

To view the exhibition opening, gallery photos and more please visit the Quinlan Visual Arts Center online.

The show certainly supports the axiom “Good things come in small packages”!

 

 

Where You Should Be…

Coney Island – Wish You Were Here

A bloodshot sun is hanging heavy in the sultry sky.  There is no better time to draw seasonal inspiration than during these lazy, crazy days of Summer.

With perfect timing our current Lunagirl Moonbeam Design Team Challenge is Retro Summertime. Although it’s been cool and rainy here in Central Pennsylvania, we are now experiencing the heat and humidity of a typical Mid-July.

All the Lunagirl images are so tempting, but as soon as I saw the group of lovely ladies enjoying a day at the beach I knew I found my inspiration. The life savior with the words “Wish You Were Here” said it all.

I was lucky to spend my childhood growing up in the Boro Park section of Brooklyn, New York. Even though we spent our family vacations at Montauk, nothing says Summer to me more than Coney Island.  With just a subway ride away, it was the perfect place to find a bit respite from the city heat and humidity.

I couldn’t wait to get started. I recently visited a local flea market and discovered a Coney Island souvenir postcard booklet. Printed in the late 1950’s I knew it would be perfect for my mid-century inspired art. The digital collage came together quickly, as I easily pulled images from my collection of ephemera. But the finishing touch was from another Lunagirl image. The handwritten message was to the point: “This is where you should be for that rest you need. It’s grand down here.”

And for me, reminiscing about Coney Island is where I should be. The memories are more than the subway rides, or peppers and egg sandwiches, or the cooling Atlantic renewing me with each wave. It is as much now as it was then, a time of sharing the joy of spontaneity with my family. It is reviving the gift of a magical childhood.

Where should you be?

How Do Your Dreams Influence Your Art?

HUGO’S XYZ

I love returning to Art History. It is a comforting place…like a warm sweater on a cold night…nurturing, enveloping, familiar. And every time I return I discover something new and inspiring.

The National Collage Society hosts a Postcard Exhibit annually. April 2, 2015 to May 12, 2015 marks the 18th Annual Exhibit. The entries, all 4″ x 6″ postcard size, are on show at the Tucson Jewish Community Center Art Gallery in Tuscon, Arizona.

Lately I have read a lot of Art History books and articles. They have influenced my thinking while awake and asleep. And oh the dreams! One night I found myself at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich, listening to Hugo Ball reciting a Sound Poem. Like most dreams, images juxtaposed themselves without thought of cohesion…just random images shooting through the kaleidoscope of my nocturnal mind.

I felt my Muse was encouraging me to return to the world of the Sound Poem. And so began my entry for the show.

The substrate for the collage is a canvas board. The photo of Hugo in his shaman’s hat and Cubist costume took center stage. I paid homage to his poem by incorporating the title KARAWANE. I added metallic acrylic paint sponged on to canvas. It was finished with a Swiss postage stamp, and a Dada inspired pointing finger and the word Cacodylic.

The Society chose sixteen winners from the entries. I am delighted and honoured to be among them. You can view the collage work chosen here.

Musings by day and night shape our world as artists. How do your dreams influence your Art?

What Brings Spice To Your Life?

Spice of Life. Collage. Pay It Forward

Some time ago I signed up to participate in the “Pay It Forward” exchange. The idea is to produce a small work of art and exchange it with another participant.

As I was looking through my box of ephemera, I found a line of type I had cut out of a book. It listed spices..cinnamon, pepper, sesame, anise… In the same envelope was a reproduction of  a painting of a woman. Languorously reclining amid a bed of roses, she wistfully smiled. As the year drew to a close, I could imagine being her presence surrounded with a heady scent of roses and the piquant quality of spices in the air from her Holiday cooking.

And it made me think…what is the Spice of Life? Is it variety as the popular saying suggests? Or is it something deeper, more personal and divine? Is it what makes each one of us unique and brings passion to everything we do? Is “spice” just another name for the magical quality we strive for in our work as artists?

The substrate for the postcard is illustration board. I covered both sides of the card with gesso. I sponged the background with a selection of metallic acrylic paint. The woman, the line of type, a wax infused doily, tea bag paper, painted gauze, art and vintage papers complete the card. And off it went to its destination in Washington State.

As the New Year begins we all have a chance to build a new recipe for ourselves. What will spice up your life in 2015?

May You Find Your Way To Your Treasures!

An Airplane Took Us – Postcard

As 2014 quickly draws to close, memories of the year…some good, some not so good…come rushing back to me. But over all, I am hopeful and looking forward to a New Year with new possibilities.

I designed this postcard for the LottoHEART exhibition hosted by Camp Rehoboth in Delaware. The exhibit displayed over two hundred cards. The theme of the card was set when in a magazine I found the Thornton Wilder quote:

“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”

How true this is at all times of the year, but especially when we are saying good-bye to the old year and anticipating the start of the new.

Have you thought about what you treasure most? For me it’s not only the cherished people in my life, but the feeling being creative, and listening to my Muse, gives me.

I warmly look forward to 2015’s opportunities, the newest of which is my joining the Lunagirl Moonbeams’ Design Team. I am excited and honoured to be part of the Team.

The substrate for the postcard is illustration board. Gleaned from magazine pages are the Wilder quote and the title edit at the top of the card. Postage stamps, a photo of the women, a decorative leaf, art and vintage papers complete the card.

As we move through the Holiday Season may your days be filled with all that your treasure!

The Muse Moves in Mysterious Way…Like Seven Evening Stars

Angelsea

A song came on the radio last week. The singer/composer is Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam.

I have been working on a postcard sized collage. I was stuck. Everything I tried just didn’t seem to “fall into place” as it does when the Muse is my guide, taking me along on a journey of discovery.

Then I heard Angelsea. It was serendipitous. I had come across a vintage photo of a folk dancer.  Two lines of the song kept going around and around in my head…

“She moves like and angel…And seven evening stars…”

I knew I was moving in a better direction.

The collage uses a canvas panel as a substrate. I covered it with sewing pattern paper. I applied Ranger Distress Inks to give it a warmer feel…the feeling you get when the heat of the day is leaving and night is swiftly approaching.

A shipping tag, again altered with Distress ink and rubber stamps, handmade paper, mulberry paper, printed tissue paper, pressed flowers, Polyester Organza fabric, and the image of the Dancer all became part of the collage.

If you are in Ohio and wish to see this collage, it will be on view with the National Collage Society‘s 16th Annual Postcard Show. The exhibit is held at the Downtown Gallery, School of Art, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio from June 19, 2013 to July 20, 2013.

 Sometimes the Muse moves in mysterious ways….