Boonika.org

Boonika.org is a new Boonika Art Project. You’ve probably visited famous Boonika.com at least once in your life time. Or maybe not?
Well, Boonika.org is something similar but, at the same time, very different. Boonika.org also supports top artists but in a whole different way. It works like “news directory” with news and news excerpts from most interesting art blogs and web sites out there.
Boonika.com is a great portal...with lots of really fresh and invigorating artists and ideas. I am psyched to be participating in boonika.org!!! Visit the site and get the down-lo.

David Hochbaum @ Corey Helford

Corey Helford Gallery
presents new works by
David Hochbaum

Corey Helford Gallery is pleased to present “To The Winds” a continuation of “Fool’s Paradise”, first shown in New York in the spring of 2007. Exhibiting his first solo for Cory Helford Gallery, artist David Hochbaum explores the ideas of detachment and confusion in one’s home and familiar surroundings. Creating a narrative about human behavior, his work is an alchemic mixture of history, astronomy, sex and iconoclastic symbols. The characters, an extension of Hochbaum and those close to his life, are messengers, either lost or distracted from their course who search for their higher purpose, as they yearn for peace and of mind and spirit. But these characters are not without hope and strength. They continue their mission to relay the message of love and the overcoming of doubt and fear. They listen, and they tell. Striving towards enlightenment, they stand atop the constricting cities carrying the burdens of the human condition, exposing the beauty and truths for all to see. The exhibition will feature a sculpture installation created from hundreds of ladders and faux birds, completing the theme of nomadic displacement. The reception is open to the public and will take place on Saturday, September 15 from 7 to 10pm. “To The Winds” will be on view until October 6, 2007.

Born in 1971, David Hochbaum was raised in suburban New City, New York. Feeling like an outsider, he connected with the energy and decadence of Manhattan. Hochbaum turned to art as a form of self-expression, and in 1991 attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts. Upon graduation, he returned to New York where he currently resides on Manhattan. Hochbaum is known for his unique photo constructions — paintings built on photographs and images — which take on a sculptural quality. He has exhibited in numerous galleries worldwide, including McCaig- Welles Gallery, James Anthony Gallery, Strychnin Gallery, in Berlin and New York, and the Standard Hotel in Los Angeles, and his work has been included in several art fairs such as Scope and Bridge Art Fair. For more information about the artist, please visit www.davidhochbaum.com

Located in the Culver City Art District, Corey Helford Gallery was established in April 2006 by Jan Corey Helford and her husband, television producer and creator, Bruce Helford (The Drew Carey Show, George Lopez, The Oblongs). Passionate art collectors, the Helfords are producers on the art documentary The Treasures of Long Gone John and have partnered to open their fi rst gallery. Corey Helford Gallery presents a wide range of artists, from members of the new fi ne art movement, such as Andrew Brandou, Natalia Fabia, Korin Faught, Eric Joyner, James Naccarato, David Stoupakis, and Sage Vaughn, to early Modernist William S. Schwartz. Notable shows include Charity By Numbers, which was co-curated by Gary Baseman and featured an unprecedented lineup of artists including Mark Ryden, Marion Peck, Shepard Fairey, Todd and Kathy Schorr, Camille Rose Garcia, and Michael Hussar. Corey Helford Gallery presents new exhibitions approximately every four weeks. For more information and an upcoming exhibition schedule, please visit coreyhelfordgallery.com.


Opening Reception
Saturday - Saturday, September 15, 2007 from 7-10pm
On View September 15 - October 6, 2007
Corey Helford Gallery
8522 Washington Boulevard Culver City, CA 90232
T: 310-287-2340
www.coreyhelfordgallery.com
Open Tuesday - Saturday, Noon to 6:00pm

Press and Media Inquiries
Angelique Groh / angelique@charmschoolcie.com
T: 323-363-9338

Provisional Beauty: New Work by Lance Letscher

GG, 2004
Collage on Board
6 5/8 X 5 1/4 inches
SOLD

Amusing Story, 2004
Collage on Board
35 3/4 X 27 3/4 inches
SOLD


I heard from my friend Amy Eckler today and she tipped me off to the very linear work of Lance Letscher. Some of his pieces remind me of quilts...as tho papers and covers were reworked into a large patchwork. There were others that had a geometric style reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright's stained glass windows.
My favorite is this last one, because of it's utter intensity. It is a large work. In person it must be quite impressive.

Surprise Ending , 2004
Collage on Masonite
48 1/8 X 30 7/8 inches
SOLD
You can find more pics on the dBerman Gallery website. I also found some nice shots over at artnet.

John Evans

"The neo-Dadaist and East Village mail artist John Evans made a collage a day from 1964 to 2000, mostly using things he found on the street that day."
—quote from ARTNET

"In a tiny side room in a small, neat apartment on East Third Street near Avenue B, the artist John Evans stores the fruits of 37 years of quiet, obsessive labor. Every day from 1964 through 2000, Mr. Evans collected flotsam and jetsam that caught his eye on the streets of the East Village. He picked up playing cards, business cards, ticket stubs, cigarette packs, fortune cookie fortunes, leaflets advertising rock bands and escort services, and labels for products like Cry Baby Table Grapes and Fitrite ("the Underwear of Modesty"). He also gathered political fliers, scraps of newspapers and magazines, ripped-up snapshots, matchbooks, foreign coins and bills, postcards, an angry note to an incense-burning neighbor, shreds of fabric and wrapping paper.

And every day, Mr. Evans would sit down with an inexpensive notebook, turn to a blank page and paste some of this discarded ephemera against a painted background, creating a collage. Then he rubber-stamped the day's date on it. "
—quote from NYTIMES

Quantuck Lane Press has published a large book of his works. Information about purchasing can be found here.

I really like the freshness of his work, the variety, the mere vastness!! Something happens to collage when one does hundreds of them, they become almost magical.

Laura Levine * April Gertler * in CANDY

I was perusing the latest issue of CANDY, and found a couple of gems within. First there is Laura Levine, who does these crazy collages with stamp backgrounds that I was getting into...

Then there was April Gertler. I adore her deer. And her comment.

Image excerpt from "CANDY"


"You consider yourself an artist as opposed to
photographer, or maybe painter, collages seem
to form a big part or influence in your work?
It is always so important that we are labeled,
and quite honestly I find it a bit hopeless these
days. I, like many other artists, am interested in
many things, and I find it to be too limiting to
say that I am a photographer. I think the word
"artist" is just a bit more open ended.
But in terms of collage, well I started out
making collage and doing books. It was out of
necessity as I didn't have money to buy film or
paper when I was in art college, even though I
was technically in the Photo Department. So I
just made do with what I could find. Collage
has continued to play a very important
element in my work. If I am not making collage
directly then my photography work is
definitely informed by my ideas of the
juxtaposition of images. I also think that what
we see everyday is a collage. Layers upon
layers of things plastered on top of one
another... it seems so obvious."

quote by Abe Ajay

Collage-making, for me, is basically an act of painting, allowing me to indulge in an appetite for immediacy.

Nancy Scheinman

Measure Out the Time of Stars

"The dreamy, jewel-like images of Nancy Scheinman’s paintings
on copper dazzle the senses. Using a rich combination of media:
acrylic, watercolor, charcoal, oil pencil, graphite, and collage,
she creates a complex narrative on both the natural and spiritual
world. "
First, she tools the copper and waits for a suggestive narrative to appear. I like this DADA method of determining the subject matter.

Her work is sold thru
ALLEN SHEPPARD GALLERY
530 West 25th Street
New York, NY 10001
212.989.9919
Tues - Sat 12 - 6
As usual, I want to see these up close. Feel them with my fingertips.

TERRAH

Bizarre pages. Bizarre work by Ilija Terrah, collage artist from Slovenia.

BradyART—Street Life Exhibition

< uprooted
2006, 13 x 13 x 2 in. (framed)
Mixed media with found object, thread and oil on canvas. Available for purchase or corporate lease.

Street Life
David Brady and Norm Maxwell
Norm Maxwell Gallery Presents Street LIfe, an exhibition of recent paintings and mixed media works by David Brady and Norm Maxwell.
Exhibition Runs through August
Norm Maxwell Gallery
2049 Sawtelle Blvd.(@ Bundy)
Los Angeles, CA 90025

Man, what beautiful and intense work is done by David Brady! I have to say that I was quite moved while looking at his newest series works, Street Life. There is a really nice match up between subject matter and choice of media. I felt the subtle political messages built up in his work simply by the textures that he chose to reflect them. EXCELLENT work here...I really wish I lived on the other side of the country so I could see these in person! I can't feel the texture from here....except in my mind and imagination!

I am a sucker for the street art movement and I have been watching graffiti since I was a child visiting my grandparents in Brooklyn and Long Island. It gets a serious response from me, especially when used so appropriately. His site has a lot of pieces, including works from his new show, Street Life. I think my favorite piece is "Apathy", shown below.


< apathy
2007, 33 x 61 x 3 in. (framed)
Mixed media with found objects, wire, thread with oil on canvas. Available for purchase or corporate lease.

Wotartist

"Wotartist is unique in being an artist directory run voluntarily by artists themselves. It is a non-commercial site, with the sole aim to promote some of the best artists currently exhibiting on the internet. Designed with ease of use foremost as a consideration, we hope that the buying public, publishers, art students and art agents will all find wotartist a useful tool. Please contact directly with individual artists if you are interested in their work and send selective artists e-cards - which can be used for all occasions. New artists are actively sought out and added to this site daily, so please visit frequently to discover new and exciting art work."

There are a lot of excellent visual artists represented on this site, Wotartist, including several collage artists. This site is one of the 50 internet sites for 2007, according to Time.

I am happy to be a participant of Wotartist, and suggest that you take a look at some of the artists represented there.

SoulCollage—A meaningful Deck of cards

excerpt from book "SoulCollage"
Lois Parks DeCastro does something called SoulCollage. She fascilitates workshops based on the book "SoulCollage' by Seena B. Frost. (available on Amazon.)
Using a 3 step process: 1) collect images 2) create collage 3) interpretation of collage, one goes thru a series of self understanding and discovery.
I have read bits and snippets about collage art being used as a technique in psychotherapy. I can understand this, since images provide links to thought and idea in a different way than words do.
"The author describes a college process leading up to the creation of a personal deck of cards consisting of four categories:
"
--Committee (aspects of the self, such as Inner Critic, Good Little Girl, Drama Queen, you name it
--Community (persons of significance in the life of the persons making the card, whether personal friends or persons of inspiration from history)
--Companion (totemic figures representing chakra forces); and
--Council (archetypical figures such as Death, the Warrior, and other larger forces in one's life).

The process of collecting images to assemble the cards, and working with the cards after making with them in a divinatory or reflective way, provides a way to access one's own inner wisdom while bypassing the verbal part of one's mind. Because the cards are assembled from images that have personal resonance, the deck can have an impact that no purchased tarot cards ever could."
—quote from Amazon reviews.
It reminds me of tarot, but I am not certain if the cards are used in a similar way since I haven't read the book.
"SoulCollage® Cards are for personal use only. They are not intended to be sold, traded or bartered."
Interesting. This is the direct opposite of ATC, (artist trading cards) which were purposefully created for trading, sharing and bartering. OR--ACEO (Art Cards, editions and originals) which are created for the purpose of selling.

Johnson's Petit Musee

Planetarium

Happened upon the Petit Musee online today.
"My work is anything but what I would call clean. Like me, it is subject to time. I like to look at work I've done twenty years ago and see the changes time has brought. Time has always been a preoccupation in my art. I include in my assemblages fossils, metals older than the solar system, strange symbols time has lost, and things of a recent past.
The artifacts made by humans are a puzzle. I have a great deal of trouble with the word natural. To me all that is created in the Universe is natural. I have no trouble with that, it's the "Why of it" that is the problem. I think of these things and do boxes, that to me represent a microscopic image of mind.
In the end it's all a throw away. Some day the Sun will Nova and all the artifacts will be gone. The remembrance of the history human or roach, equal to zero. A Universe now with no color, sound or shape, just being. Maybe ideas too, I have trouble with that, I can't fit them into the fundamental forces or find them in the electromagnetic spectrum. Conclusion: I don't know too much and like a child I still wonder and play...... "
More can be found here.

The Altar of Alter

Ian Francis

A Girl Sleeps Through A Storm Thinking About Something Else
mixed media on canvas
SIZE: h: 27.5 x w: 39.5 in / h: 69.8 x w: 100.3 cm

This mixed media work is really fluid, loose, and so modern that I really love it. The colors are splashed and worked....these are beautiful works. I hate it that I am so rutted in Victorian imagery! My room is chock full of aging papers. I get tired of that look, and so it thrills me to see the color and timely work of Ian Francis. I am not certain how much of this classifies as "collage", but I thought it was worthy of a post.
These works were displayed in a show that just ended at BLK/MRKT Gallery called, Super Coma Fantasy.



Two People Lose Track of Where They Are
mixed media on canvas
SIZE: h: 23.5 x w: 35.5 in / h: 59.7 x w: 90.2 cm

Veil of Secrecy

I have been working on a collage project of massive proportions for over a year now. I did some collages of a decaying town in upstate NY called Sharon Springs. I am working on the digital portion of it now. Download a 10 mb clip of my first collage movie.

Sara - Flora - Floura (Detail)

Sara - Flora - Floura (Detail)
Originally uploaded by guy_on_the_streets

This beauuuuutiful piece of work was done by Elbow Toe--a talented artist from NYC. I really like his work, both from the streets and also this delicately executed breadbox that i found on Flickr. What a treat!
I cannot say enough how I am impressed over the creativity of Elbow toe. He is an inspiration!

Non-Face vs. Face

In looking at Clifford Faust's collage work online, I was immediately forced to notice some obvious differences between his work and mine, but particularly in his treatment of human figures.
In Faust's work, there is a lack of facial features. His figures are silhouettes...and thereby the faces are detailed outlines only, and the features themselves are missing. This immediately detaches me from the expressions that might be on faces, and i am forced to look at the context of the character in order to take a reading on emotion. Most of his works don't include a crisis...so peering into a face isn't exactly a must in order to read into his work. I end up having this kind of floaty attitude about his pieces, since I don't have to look at the face...and I am able to detach a bit from it.
With my work, I end up searching endlessly for faces. (and I always pick these vintage babes with wistful looks. I bet Freud would have something to say about that!!) I know that it is one of the parts of my work that I fret over often. A lot is told in the facial expression...and I suppose even when it is lacking, that also send a message.

Intruder

intruder
Originally uploaded by misphit

Sometimes looking at your older work can be a hoot.

Fun Times!

1000journalsfilm.com

I am in the video clip "the experiment" that is on the 1000journals film site!
I am in this flick...and I cannot wait to see it!


how cool is that???
:)

Julio Falagan

“Central eléctrica”
Pintura y papel sobre telas, 25 x 25 cm. 2005
Wish I could say more about this artist. I don't read or speak Spanish. The work speaks for itself.

Filipa

Waiting for Icarus & Exit

Found a great blog today. Took a look at the work of Filipa from Portugal....this work is painterly but surreal. I just want to feel the texture of these works and rub my fingers on the paint. I can remember seeing Matthew Rose's work up close> I was oblivious to the fact that the entire surface of the paint was crackled and textured. I have a feeling that seeing these works up close would fascinate me. The faces he creates are very expressive. Hannah Hoch's work always seemed so morbid underneath. I don't get that dark feeling from Filipa's work, yet there is something there reminding me of Hoch. Maybe the large faces, the large eyes?



Rapunzel & Venus & Just Waiting & and waiting

collage is the liberation of art prejudice

"If in individual possesses a pictorial sense, whatever he creates guided by this sense will always lie within the domain of painting. Wood, paper, cloth, leather, glass, string, oil cloth, majolica, tin and all metals, colors, blue etc. etc will enter as most legitimate materials in our present artistic constructions.
The quantity and selection of this material will be regulated case by case by our creative spirit, which in matters of art, is the only authoritative arbiter that we admit.
Thus if all categories become modified and destroyed, categories which were completely arbitrary in any case, and which made of art an artificial game perpetrated with colors and canvas, for art this will be an advantage, for it will be liberated from every prejudice and will manifest itself in its greatest sincerity and purity."

—from IN Defiance of Painting, Cubism, Futurism and the Invention of Collage

Mini Artefakts at Borelli Space Gallery

Organized by Linda Feldman in CA, the Mini Human Artefakts show was a secondary show and an offshoot of the larger Human Artefakts exhibit which has already traveled across the world to several galleries from the US to Germany to Australia and New Zealand. Participants of the first show have had to cope with the logistics of sending large artworks across several continents in tandem. The mail costs for art can be astronomical. These pieces were shipped cooperatively by their prospective owners to various locales, thereby reducing the costs.....Participating in this who required a certain amount of digital dexterity on the parts of all involved! Most communication was via the Yahoo newsgroup and even contracts were sent digitally for signing. The show is virtual in addition to being a traveling exhibit, and it can be viewed here. I am going to have to look into an online exhibit for the mini pieces. I have to see if this is possible. Magikglasses would be happy to sponsor this in a permanent place online...

The Mini Human Artefakts exhibit is at Borelli Space Gallery until August 30. Several international collage artists are represented in this exhibit of collage and assemblage. I am pretty excited, one of my pieces sold!


Borrelli Space Gallery
4411 Park Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92116
Opening: Monday, July 30, 2007
Reception: Saturday, August 18, 2007
4pm-6pm public and 6pm-8pm Gallery party for participants and invited guests
Closing: Thursday, August 30, 2007

Anne Polashenski

Chiyogami Faux Pas Obliteration, 2006, 9 1/8 x 7 1/8 x 1 3/4 inches, C-print, Chiyogami patterned paper, museum board, gouache.


From Her Site:
::"My current work incorporates textile patterns and photographs of figures in patterned garb. The patterns act as camouflage that hides and protects the figures. The patterned worlds that I am creating have a vulnerable aspect, in that, if the figure shifted out of position, one pattern could overlap onto another and the figure would be revealed and left exposed. Therefore the body is locked into place in order to ‘survive’. The idea of pattern leaving your clothing and obliterating your environment is quirky and humorous, but it is also self-critical and psychologically charged, dealing with issues about control, power, entrapment and escape."::

This is ultra patterned art...and I just adore patterns that overlap each other and send your eyes colliding with each other to see what is happening....This work is extremely enticing with it's 3-d construction. I am enamored!

Thomas Schostok's Gluebooks

Thomas Schostok....a few years ago we featured him in our little zine Art Erratica. He was generous enough to share hi-res scans of his work across the seas from German to our little production. He does really loose collage and gluebooks. Gluebooks. We don't generally call our books gluebooks over here in the states...at least I don't. It is an interesting and descriptive term tho.
He did these books a few years ago. I am not certain what he is up to at this point, altho from the looks of his site, he has a bit in print these days. His site is definitely worth a look. And follow the links to his Gluebooks for a really radical viewpoint.

The Golden Mean - Fibonacci Series

The Golden Mean, the golden spiral, the golden section. They all stand for the same thing...a special proportion found prevalently both in nature and also in classical architecture and art. The proportion is almost magical in its ability to create a pleasing ratio of space. I feel it is a perfect example of the math behind the scenes at work. I have read a lot on this topic over the last few years. The concept was revealed to me when I read this book on Maxfield Parrish and learned of Dynamic Symmetry. This is another mathematical-related formula upon which a supposedly superior arrangement of space is based.
I find the math behind things most fascinating. The connections between these ratios and music, art, architecture and even more important, species in nature is most amazing and probably more than coincidental.
I at one point was doing collage on pieces of paper that I had cut to golden mean proportions. I really enjoyed working with a slightly longer piece of paper. However, framing these works is much more expensive. They are not a standard size and mattes and frames had to have custom sizes. I haven't delved into framing too many of these older works due to the financial cost of this. But I won't deny that I still am tweaked over the idea of using the Golden Mean. In fact, reading about this book for sale has me all fired up again to do something with all this math.
"Because of its aesthetic qualities, embodied in its unique ability to relate the parts to the whole," writes Olsen, "golden ratios are used in the design of many modern household items." Credit cards, for instance, are very close to the 8 by 5 Fibonacci approximation of phi. Surely no one ever designed the first credit cards to reflect phi, but the ratio does seem to be inherently attractive. Olsen demonstrates that phi shows up in spirals of DNA, in human proportions, in icosahedrons, and so many other places. His handsome and accessible book is an exercise in an appealing numerology."
Recently I ordered this book from Amazon called The Elements of Dynamic Symmetry. It is heavy on math and quite deep. I am not certain I need to go over the top anal about this, but I want to incorporate this idea into my work further.

Human Artefakts in Christchurch, NZ

The Centre of Contemporary Art in New Zealand is hosting the Human Artefakts exhibit. This show was formed by a core group of collage artists from the yahoo collage group. This group, which is spearheaded by Cecil Touchon, is a great place to find other people that work in layers.
This exhibit has traveled across the world and been shown in the USA, Germany and Australia before heading to New Zealand. Works can be seen here online, at the site of Dale Copeland, who is a New Zealand resident and an established collage and assemblage artist.
Another exhibit called the Mini Artefakts exhibit will be shown in San Diego in August. More on this soon.
I have 2 works that were in this show, but they were something I tried on canvas, and not representational of my usual work. I had thought about pulling them and sending along 2 others, but the logistics behind the scenes of having this amount of artwork traveling together across so many borders already caused havoc & work for those involed. I didn't want to rock the boat and add more stress to them by switching things around. I have also moved twice since the exhibit started and that also seemed like a bothersome thing to have to inform them about.
I really like this marketing idea. Having the exhibit online allows a gallery to see the works and preview what will be shown in their space. Is this being done "out there" in artland? I am too naive and far removed from any gallery scene to be able to know about these things...I may end up sending an email to Eva Lake and find out what her thoughts are on the subject. I have been reading her blog lately and there is a lot of good stuff there.

a new look

today this blog sports a new look. i don't have the time to design html for my own unique template page right now, but i did get a chance to do a small tweak!

i really feel as tho this whole moving thing is like a huge turning over of compost. first of all, in my stuff, since i have uprooted everything and made a huge and complicated mess of 7 years worth of collage clippings! second of all, because during my small studio hiatus, i have been doing a lot of thinking, a lot of sorting, and a lot of starting over. i look forward to trying a new approach and doing something phresh when i get set up.

as usual, things seem to bleed across all levels in life. i have changed the look of collage clearinghouse. why not change and start over on a new level even on this blog?
in fact, i think i shall change my desktop picture too. this digital life sometimes needs an update.

Kerry James Marshall

Lost Boys: AKA Baby Brother (1992)


Kerry James Marshall does some very thoughtful work. I have seen his Lost Boys series a couple of times, but I didn't really see the depth in them until after I checked into them further. In an interview Kerry relates his reasoning behind the use of collage in one of his Lost Boys works, "And as far as those images, before I started the Lost Boys paintings, I had been doing a series of paintings with the covers of Harlequin romance novels collaged onto the canvas, and those images in the background of the AKA Baby Brother painting, are from those Harlequin romance novel covers. One of the things I was thinking about while working on that painting was in a way, you look at those images on the Harlequin romance novel covers, and they're a certain type of stereotype themselves. They are a stereotype of white women, they're a certain kind of stereotype of the beauty of white women. And then you have this image of Baby Brother, who is this guy . . . I mean that plastic bag on his head. It's like, the shower cap, the Jheri curl cap, and stuff. Well, in a way they're sort of clashing two different kinds of stereotypes in that painting. One is to say something about beauty and desire and the other which says something about a combination of desire and repulsiveness at the same time."

His artwork, oftentimes but not always infused with collage imagery, show an entirely different side of human condition, one from the perspective of a black person. I think it is quite refreshing.



Voyager
date
1992
medium
acrylic and collage on canvas
size
91-7/8 x 91-3/4 in.
credit line
Gift of the Women's Committee of the Corcoran Gallery of Art
Accession Number
1993.1.2

i liked this quote

When science becomes art and when art
> > > > > becomes a way of life, living
> > > > > > becomes momentary realized ever present Art.

moving day

today is the big day of the big move. i have been moving progressively for a week or 2 now, and I am anxious to have all this behind me instead of in front of me! the last thing i packed and moved is the studio stuff. i wanted to be able to do any projects i could up till the last minute. as i went briefly thru all the boxes of ephemera i was pulled in like a magnet. before i knew it i was on the the floor pouring thru it all....in anticipation of my new digs...NOT NOW! i told myself, as i wanted to do some art right then and there. sigh. lets get this over with!!

i will return tomorrow with pix of the new studio and the chaos that is before me!

David Hochbaum

I can't believe that I haven't mentioned David Hochbaum in this blog yet. The man does some seriously illustrative and creative work!!! I love the story telling nature of his pieces.
"David Hochbaum's art is the construction of paintings built on photographs and images that are not only the contemplation of human behavior, but also a reaction to history, astronomy, sex, and iconoclastic symbols....David Hochbaum's medium is built from a melange of wood, metal, and paper, both photographic and printed matter. Each work is painted with oil, acrylics, varnishes, pencils and inks. These images are layered physically as well as historically, combining the figurative approach of the 19th century photographer with the medieval alchemist projected through the eyes of a 20th century cubist."
There is a decent explanation of his technique on his site. He uses posed photographs as his basis for these beautifully haunting and involved stylistic works. I am not certain about his collage techniques, it's all so mysterious.

Susanna Lakner

Interesting german collage work i found today looking thru the humus zine. Susanna has a surreal sensitivity. I liked her work enough to travel out to her site. It's worth a peak!

Samantha AllFlatt

"I use very fine pilot pens on paper, MDF, or wood sheets. These are worked on directly without being primed or sanded, so that the pen, on this raw surface, works almost the same way as a tattoo needle does on one's skin:
the ink doesn't flow easily onto the grain."
Fascinating Flowing technique and use of materials. Visit her portfolio.

A J Bocchino

Shock and Awe (March 22, 2003), 2006, Digital c-print, L.72 in. x W.132 in.

Found this on re-title.
With incredible precision A J Bocchino creates collages with snippets from the NY Times. Very intellectual, and apparently highly planned, these linear works contain messages pertinent to our times. More can be found here.

Mini Artefakts Exhibition

Pure Honey
4 x 6 on L'anaquarelle mounted on board
acrylic, lomo colorsplash photo, cough drop label, caution sticker, honey label, tea bag label, rice label, vintage wallpaper, vintage yellow ribbon, mirror handle, leather cord, wire, vintage costume jewelry

The Mini Artefakts Exhibit is an exhibit that is still in the gathering stage. This is one of the 3 pieces I am entering. I will have more on this later.


Borrelli Space Gallery
4411 Park Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92116
Opening: Monday, July 30, 2007
Reception: Saturday, August 18, 2007
4pm-6pm public and 6pm-8pm Gallery party for participants and invited guests
Closing: Thursday, August 30, 2007

Zero Sum Art Project

I read about The Zero Sum Art Project while digging around at diggingpitt. I had to look further into the situation and turns out this is quite an interesting project.
Basically, "The goal of the Zero Sum Art project is to create a financially isolated studio environment, in which every cost and every profit is documented and made visible to the viewer, and see if it is possible to create a self-sustaining studio practice." It is quite a fascinating idea, and the fact that Marc Snyder is turning it over and making it happen is very encouraging!
Even more interesting to me of course, is the fact that Marc is creating collages, and he is documenting is work on them with his blog, the internet, and ebay. I really like the documentation of the artwork. Cool idea.
Check it out. The details can be found here.

Zero Sum #12, Marc Snyder, 2007
pencil, charcoal, acrylic matte medium, acrylic paint, a NASA postcard, and 4 postage stamps on white BFK Rives paper, attached to a larger sheet of white BFK Rives.

The Art is Only Half of It

I have spent most of my lifetime learning and growing into the artist that I am today. I have experimented with media, techniques and ideas. I have a nice foothold in my own style, and I am just starting to fulfill the dream that i AM indeed an artist. Being published in a couple of books, selling my own independent works, the stacks of finished art in the corners of my apartment, are my evidence.
As I work to now try to bring my artwork out of hiding and into the spotlight and the hands of collectors, I am finding that even with all the learning and reading and creating that I have done, I still have so much more to learn. In fact, I am a babe in the virtual art woods. There is an entire side of art that I was unaware of. The business side.
How could it be that I have spent years in fact a couple of decades learning and growing as an artist, but yet I am totally clueless about the art "system"?? I know so little about it all! With the internet at my fingertips, I have been spending countless hours reading reviews, reading reports, looking at exhibits...and what a world of things I have found out that I didn't know!! There seems to be so much information out there. How could I be so naiive about it all?
Truly! I thought about the nice little family that makes a fairly decent living in their little middle class home, sitting in their living room with empty walls pining away for a piece of art. How they will "happen" across my artwork, fall in love with a piece, and just HAVE to purchase it for their home. Good grief, how could I have been so far away from the mark here? This scenario is NOT the way it works. As I read about the political part of collecting over at Ed Winklemans blog, it scares me. I read articles about artists being chosen by age (or good grief, gender!!! what century are we in?) over at Anonymous Female Artist, or the tale of art market rookie Susan Hancock and how she bought artworks because someone else did which I read on artnet. There is just so much going on behind the scenes in the business of Selling Art. I had no idea.
I am wondering about the real meat behind all this bullshit. The art. Doesn't that matter at all? Does it really come down to gender? age? or good grief, mass popularity??? How entirely depressing! And discouraging.
The art apparently is only half of it. The smaller half.
Well it's a damn good thing that money and fame are not what drives me to create! I end up not wanting to read anymore about it, and depressed, I go Make More Art!

Collage Workshops with Jonathan Talbot

I received this email from Jonathan Talbot this past week. Here is some relevant information:

Hi,
I have scheduled a 4-DAY COLLAGE INTENSIVE WORKSHOP called NEW EXPLORATIONS IN TECHNIQUES & CREATIVITY at my studio in Warwick, NY from Tuesday, July 31st thru Friday, August 3rd, 2007. Warwick is 1/2 hour from Stewart International Airport(SWF) and a little over an hour from Newark International Airport (EWR, one of New York City's 3 big airports).

The material to be covered during this 4-day workshop will be determined jointly by all the participants when we gather Tuesday morning. Possible topics for exploration include: Composition, Creating a Personal Style, Adhesive Options (including Collage without Liquid Adhesives), "Getting Started," Accessing our Creative Energies, "Paperless" Transfer of Printed and Photocopied Images, Preserving Found Materials, Collages on Canvas, Preparation of Substrates, Collage / Construction, Sources of Tools and Materials, Presentation and Framing of Finished Works, Marketing our Works, Copyright Issues, Computers and Creativity, and more.

The workshop is limited to 7 participants. The workshop fee for 4 days is $500 which includes all Materials, Lunches, Refreshments and Optional Evening Hours on Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday at no extra cost.

Registrations will be honored in the order in which they are received. For a registration form you can print out and send in visit this link. On the same webpage you can also find a link to accommodations information within the specific workshop description.

If you have questions please e-mail me at jonathan@talbot1.com. If you wish to speak with me on the phone put your phone number in your e-mail and tell me when it is best to call you.

Please consider passing this message along to others who might be interested.

Cordially,

Jonathan

the gateway keepers

the gateway keepers
Originally uploaded by misphit

I really have to wonder about my muse. There are 2 projects going on for me at the moment (besides moving and a full time job!!). One is a super hot project, 3 small collages for the Mini Artefakts exhibition. This is due in 2 days. The other is a large piece that I started last week, not with a deadline--it is "just" a personal work. So which one do you think I keep working on? Well of course it isn't the project with the deadline. You know sometimes the muse is uncooperative with such things. I WANTED to work on the big work. I kept finding the right pieces, I was in a green mood, I was FEELING the gateway...I know I was supposed to do the smaller ones that are due. But why is it that I couldn't tear myself away from this one?
I seem to work under this semi-rebellious mode.
"What???!! I am doing art!" I say to myself, "As long as I get something done, I am okay."
So now tonite, I have to be right on my game and get to finishing those 3 little mini pieces. No procrastination.

Charles Farrell Blog

I got an email from Charles Farrell the other day in which he shared the link to his wondrously colorful blog. I really do like visual blogs. Of course, i like to read stuff, don't we all? But there is something nice about browsing through images...
Looking through Charles' work I felt as though I was going thru layers of time. The people he uses in his work are from disparate centuries, places and times. Seeing them posed together seemed to make the specifics disappear. Underneath, I found commentary on the human condition.

Clearing House

I must apologize to any faithful readers who may have realized that the clearinghouse is slow these days.

I am Clearing House!
I am in the process of moving to a new personal residence. This means the usual packing, sorting, throwing away, and moving of many boxes, but also it involves the massive movement of an art studio full of unorganized and unwieldly ephemera. I have an extreme and vast collection of old papers. Some are all neat and precious and in white folders which are like huge security doors to me when i am working. They scream at me when I open them....DONT CUT THESE UP! Others are boxes that are falling apart and busting at the seams with paper dripping over the edges. Then there are not 1 but TWO cabinets full of vintage magazines in various states of disarray some with covers missing, pages in signatures. There are boxes and boxes of cut up papers and good pages that were never used that i might use some future day. There are paints, brushes, and collage mediums, pencils rulers photos food labels Did I mention the 2 bookshelves full of books I am destroying? The other 2 bookcases of reference books? The roll of tyvek, the yupo, the paper moose signs I picked up at the lumber yard, boxes of beads, fabrics lace and birch bark???...um, The list seems endless. Organizing all this is a major undertaking and it has me stretched to the limits...and at my wits END! it is tantalizing to handle all these wondrous textures but not be able to address them. I get a strong pull from the ephemera as I sort thru it. It wants me to express myself!!! I fight the urge, but I am saving up a huge creative burst for when I get situated. That is certain.

The time needed to devote myself to seeking out endless collage fodder online just hasn't been there as of late. On August 1, the move will be officially over and at that point I will resume my quest to report collage items of interest. For now I will continue to post simple things....images....but not with too much commentary!

First Friday Collage in Burlington, VT

There is a First Friday Art Walk in Burlington, VT on July 6, 2007. Included in the art walk is an exhibit by Sara Altieri at One Wall Gallery of her paintings and collage work. More info can be found at her site.
Studio D-3 and The One Wall Gallery
420 Pine Street, Second Floor
(802) 922-8005
The One Wall Gallery: “Beautiful Faces”: Acrylic collage and paintings on canvas by Sara Altieri; Marie Davis: polymer clay jewelry and sculpture; Aaron Stein: license plate art; Ginny O’Reilly: watercolor paintings; Carol Norton: paintings in watercolor and oil. Open for First Friday Art Walk and by appointment.