Thanks so much
Thanks for being here thru 477 posts of collage goodness.
Thanks for giving me a reason to keep involved with my profession.
Thanks for allowing me the ability to grow here right before your eyes.
Thanks for commenting now and then, prodding me on.
Thanks for sending me emails and messages to let me know about upcoming events.
Thanks for sharing your art with me, and coming here to participate while I share mine.
Thanks for using the things you may find here to enrich your life and artwork.
Thanks for being apart of us.
11/28/2008
11/25/2008
Eat Me, Drink Me in Scotland
There is going to be an explosion of Victorian Psychedelia on display in Glasgow, Scotland on Sunday the 30th. My artwork will be displayed on some kind of slide show ...stop in and do wear your best kilt!
11/19/2008
Hyde, Copyright and YOU!
I was reading the most recent post over at Ed Winkleman's blog this morning and it really caught my attention. Copyright was the subject, fair use and unfair use, my FAVORITE topic (haha!)...He had a couple of links there that I recommend you read about if you follow copyright stuff, which you should if you are a good collage dooby.
He mentions the article on about the German artists that are pissed off about having their images in the google image search, Catherine Spaeth's blog which speaks about writing and the copyright issue, and also the story of Paddy Johnson's Helmut Newton escapade...But it was the comment section that tipped me off about the Hyde thing.
Hyde is someone exploring the nature of our creative commons. Using "gift" societies as an example, he is doing us all a good service by dedicating his time to researching the current copyright conundrum. The article is on the NY Times site. Its a great read. I would also follow the links above from Ed's blog, because all of this stuff is relevant, important, temporarily Earth shattering, and definitely life threatening.
He mentions the article on about the German artists that are pissed off about having their images in the google image search, Catherine Spaeth's blog which speaks about writing and the copyright issue, and also the story of Paddy Johnson's Helmut Newton escapade...But it was the comment section that tipped me off about the Hyde thing.
Hyde is someone exploring the nature of our creative commons. Using "gift" societies as an example, he is doing us all a good service by dedicating his time to researching the current copyright conundrum. The article is on the NY Times site. Its a great read. I would also follow the links above from Ed's blog, because all of this stuff is relevant, important, temporarily Earth shattering, and definitely life threatening.
11/17/2008
Erik Foss — Smokem if u Got em
Erik Foss has some hard core collage going on...And it is up for your viewing pleasure at Gallery 3 in San Fran.
Gallery Three is pleased to present the first West Coast solo exhibition of New York based artist Erik Foss. A deftly crafted mixed-media mélange of painting, collage, drawing, photography, assemblage and sculptural installation components, Smokem If You Gotem lays bare the personal demonology of Foss’ visual obsessions along with the greater social pathology of our culture on the brink. At once eminently seductive and deeply disquieting, Foss iconography of cultural critique collapses the perceptual boundaries between pornography, poverty and politics to underscore the collective anxiety and violence of our time.
An intrepid scavenger of visual artifacts in which memory, melancholia and madness invoke a visionary topography where the mortality of dreams engender germinal quotients of relativist understanding, Erik Foss locates the fearful symmetries lurking within the miasma of pop culture at the nexus where representation and witness converge. With the raw vernacular of the streets, Foss makes fine art fodder of the smug complacency and delusional democracy by which our failing empire lulls itself to terminal sleep. How else might we read his bold re-imagining of our national emblem, the American flag, as a composite of needy pleas and desperate amusements culled from the signs of begging homeless? His is the itinerant semiotics of national shame reeking behind spectacle of patriotic glory.
In conjunction with his exhibition at Gallery Three, D. A. Arts (located next door at 135 Sixth Street) will concurrently be presenting an ambitious new installation Erik Foss is producing especially for the space. Entitled Arizona Graves, this haunting elegy for the tangible presence of loss is at once an interpretive recreation of a Native American burial ground near where the artist grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, and a mythopoeic invocation of the darker legacy of the American Dream.
the skinny:
Gallery Three
66 Sixth Street
San Francisco, California 94103
November 15- December 13, 2008
Artist Reception: Saturday November 15th 7-11 pm
11/11/2008
Issuu — you publish!
Imagine your very own publication on the same shelf as Art Forum. Now it can happen.
Issuu is a super cool site that feeds out pdf's of publications. ALL kinds of publications. Like thousands of pdfs.... I mean this is the motherload of pdfs!!! After joining, you have the ability to upload your own publications for viewing. It formats your work into this super cool web-reabable pdf. It's really quite amazing and it's FREEEEE. You can bookmark pubs and pages. You can share your own work. You can also find friends there and do all that social web hoo doo stuff...
I found several collage people out there and there are so much more I am certain.
I uploaded 3 publications that I did a few years ago. My pubs can be found here. I have blogged about cless before and his pubs may be found here.
Do you have any pubs on Issuu? Let me know...because if I get enough response, I will put a link section on the side and we can share our pubs.
Atomic Autobody — Warren Dykeman
I was really drawn to these collage pieces done by Warren Dykeman. These are super graphic works. The colors are the first thing that I feel....the primaries. There is a retro feel to these works but they are still so ultra phresh ya gotta love them. If you are in Seattle, you can see 'em up close and personal at BLVD gallery real soon. The show opens this Friday, Nov. 14.
The downlo:
BLVD Gallery Presents
“Atomic Autobody – New Works by Warren Dykeman”
November 14 - December 6, 2008
Opening Reception Friday November 14 6p - 10p
BLVD Gallery
2316 2nd Ave Seattle Wa 98121
Influence III — Materials
Influence comes from so many places, isn't it true? My newest game is to identify the source that gives me inspiration and share it. (to prove that my brain really is a big collage....?) No, seriously now. Since I am becoming almost ridiculous as to the source of my ephemera for copyright reasons, I seem to have carried this thought process over into my brain and I am now seeking the source of my techniques, ideas, and visions.
Today I bring to you the story of Gabriel Combs. He's a young struggling artist living in the challenging state of Minnesota. I say challenged because for some reason, unless you are living in NY city, it just seems so damned hard to make a living doing art. Truth is, it's hard doing art EVEN in NY city. Being an artist ain't easy no matter where you are.
I read about Gabriel back in March, in a blog called The Chronicle of Artistic Failure in America. Wow, heavy duty title for a blog. But the article really was a good one, and it tugged on my heartstrings. It described Combs as " an artist struggling to get noticed in a market overflooded with artists." Sound familiar? Turned out Mr. Combs was hard on his luck and at the time he had turned to selling pieces on ebay. The whole thing moved me and at the time I had a few spare bucks, so I went to ebay and bid on one of his works. Afterwards, I felt bad, it didn't cost much and I knew that he would have charged me if his situation was different, but I was hoping that some money to him was better than none.
The piece was a super cool futuristic one, and I loved it right from the start. The coolest thing of all was that it was done on a piece of wood that so obviously was previously a dresser drawer!
My boyfriend immediately announced he didn't like the idea that you could tell it was a dresser drawer. I told him that was the thing that I liked the most about it!!
Several months pass.
Chris is outside ripping up antique furniture that is beyond repair. I find myself staring at a pile of dresser drawers in various states of disarray. I picked out one and it became one of my latest works. I can directly point to the inspiration of Gabriel Combs as the reason why I used this particular piece of wood. I got so much more for my money than I had imagined in that auction....I got a new idea that could take seed in my pea brain. A new idea that could be dragged out later on and used in my own way. Copyright free.
This piece is called "Eddie had a Pileated Heart". The little box that juts out in 3d fashion used to be a lime green silk box with no bottom. I am thinking it may have housed a little oriental doll at one time. I painted it all black and made the new bottom so I could use it. The pileated woodpeckers are the ones with the red hoods. I like them cuz they are huge and eat from my birdfeeder. And the dude in this piece? Somehow he reminds me of my cousin Eddie, hence the title.
To vary things a bit, and to perhaps grow on Gabriel's idea of the dresser as canvas, I painted the little wooden dowels black and white, using them as part of the design of the piece.
And whatever became of the starving artist Gabriel Combs? I found he still sells pieces on ebay. With a tough economy and winter on the way, perhaps some of us can find a way to sponsor someone. Even just a little effort goes a long way you know. And I just proved to you that you get even more than you paid for.
Today I bring to you the story of Gabriel Combs. He's a young struggling artist living in the challenging state of Minnesota. I say challenged because for some reason, unless you are living in NY city, it just seems so damned hard to make a living doing art. Truth is, it's hard doing art EVEN in NY city. Being an artist ain't easy no matter where you are.
I read about Gabriel back in March, in a blog called The Chronicle of Artistic Failure in America. Wow, heavy duty title for a blog. But the article really was a good one, and it tugged on my heartstrings. It described Combs as " an artist struggling to get noticed in a market overflooded with artists." Sound familiar? Turned out Mr. Combs was hard on his luck and at the time he had turned to selling pieces on ebay. The whole thing moved me and at the time I had a few spare bucks, so I went to ebay and bid on one of his works. Afterwards, I felt bad, it didn't cost much and I knew that he would have charged me if his situation was different, but I was hoping that some money to him was better than none.
The piece was a super cool futuristic one, and I loved it right from the start. The coolest thing of all was that it was done on a piece of wood that so obviously was previously a dresser drawer!
My boyfriend immediately announced he didn't like the idea that you could tell it was a dresser drawer. I told him that was the thing that I liked the most about it!!
Several months pass.
Chris is outside ripping up antique furniture that is beyond repair. I find myself staring at a pile of dresser drawers in various states of disarray. I picked out one and it became one of my latest works. I can directly point to the inspiration of Gabriel Combs as the reason why I used this particular piece of wood. I got so much more for my money than I had imagined in that auction....I got a new idea that could take seed in my pea brain. A new idea that could be dragged out later on and used in my own way. Copyright free.
This piece is called "Eddie had a Pileated Heart". The little box that juts out in 3d fashion used to be a lime green silk box with no bottom. I am thinking it may have housed a little oriental doll at one time. I painted it all black and made the new bottom so I could use it. The pileated woodpeckers are the ones with the red hoods. I like them cuz they are huge and eat from my birdfeeder. And the dude in this piece? Somehow he reminds me of my cousin Eddie, hence the title.
To vary things a bit, and to perhaps grow on Gabriel's idea of the dresser as canvas, I painted the little wooden dowels black and white, using them as part of the design of the piece.
And whatever became of the starving artist Gabriel Combs? I found he still sells pieces on ebay. With a tough economy and winter on the way, perhaps some of us can find a way to sponsor someone. Even just a little effort goes a long way you know. And I just proved to you that you get even more than you paid for.
11/09/2008
Fox in the Wood
Art on Sunday.
Another piece towards the shapeshifter series I am doing.
I am a little bummed on this one, it is a little too busy for the initial design lines to show.
Another piece towards the shapeshifter series I am doing.
I am a little bummed on this one, it is a little too busy for the initial design lines to show.
11/06/2008
Go Global — Creative Caucus
A message from Cecil Touchon, forerunner of a new idea...
Greetings all,
Today the coup d'état that began in the year 2000 in the United States
has new been delivered a coup de grace. Today people all over the world
take a sigh of relief as the American people state clearly "Yes we
can!". Today America begins the arduous task of rebuilding itself from
the ground up and repairing its reputation and position on the world stage.
It is on this great day that I would like to introduce a new
organization that is focused on the long term effort to define and bring
into self consciousness a global demographic that has yet to organize
itself as a group and that is: the creative community. Today I announce
the formation of the Creative Caucus and invite artists, architects,
designers, composers, performers, actors, entrepreneurs and anyone else
working in any creative field to join together to discuss cultural
issues and to work together to create positive change that encourages
widespread creative freedom and freedom of expression. It is the
creative community who is the first to see the possibilities and design
a better future. If we will work together we, who usually live quietly
on the fringes of the larger culture, may encourage the kinds of changes
in the global community that make the world a safe and peaceful place in
which creative people all over the world may work openly without fear of
suppression.
The Creative Caucus is an experiment in dreaming of a better way that
people from all over the world, from all different points of view might
work together to identify common goals toward which we might all be
willing to invest a small amount of our individual efforts. We seek to
find those things that we hold in common rather than argue over our
differences. We seek to listen to and understand each other more than
convince each other our own rightness. We hold the principle that a
diversity of views enriches all of us and strengthens our capacity to
see the big picture.
The Creative Caucus is a gathering of forces from across the spectrum
who believe that there can be unity of purpose while cherishing a
diversity of views. When we engage in debate it is not for one to win
and the other to lose but rather to shine the light of intelligence on
the issues that we face that we may more clearly understand them.
Creative people all over the world are those who strive to see beyond
what is to explore what could be. The creative impulse strives to
uncover potential and possibility rather than accept the commonly held
assumptions. Creativity apprehends with intuition what reason alone
cannot reach. The Creative Caucus seeks to encourage a dialog among
those who believe that creativity is a vital and important part of a
vibrant culture that should be
nurtured, cherished and protected.
Please visit CreativeCaucus.org for more information and to join us as
we form this organization.
Cecil Touchon
http://creativecaucus.org
Terry's Journal pages
Terry's Journal Pages
now with special insanity notations!!!!
Theo was a good fellow so they tried not to stare.
I loved Terry's opening page so much. The winged ears cracked me up, such a departure from the ever-tiring winged fairy option.... I decided I needed to give Theo a bigger identity. There's a story here to tell.
Theo had a brother. (he thought it wasn't fair...)
He was unlike any other.
I wanted to put words on the second page here..but I got stuck with 2 alternatives and did neither... He thought it wasn't fair would rhyme nicely with Terry's page, however, unless you looked and thought for a moment, you might not get what wasn't fair. (body alterations!) He was unlike any other...hell that's the truth.
This certifies that you are the source of the strange young sons.
He certainly could have been the father...he has wings plus antennas on his head. And his hands are doing a shadow puppet in his crotch. He is strange enough to have a son with winged ears and another son with a butterfly body, which is quite phallus-like. It's believable.
No words on this spread.
Let me fill in the blanks...Father looks fondly on at his eldest son, Theo while graffiti sprouts from his already winged ears. Maybe he used to be a city boy?
Again, no words on this spread.
Theo is hanging out in his natural habitat of flora and fauna...pointing to his not-so-lucky brother who appears to be wrestling time out of a faucet.
again, no words
Theo's brother appears to be in Theo's forest hood....not sure why. This is for Terry to figure out!! And maybe he will have a name for Theo's unlucky brother.
The journal already is home in Minnesota with Terry. Theo probably will have some new antics to share with us at a later date....
now with special insanity notations!!!!
Theo was a good fellow so they tried not to stare.
I loved Terry's opening page so much. The winged ears cracked me up, such a departure from the ever-tiring winged fairy option.... I decided I needed to give Theo a bigger identity. There's a story here to tell.
Theo had a brother. (he thought it wasn't fair...)
He was unlike any other.
I wanted to put words on the second page here..but I got stuck with 2 alternatives and did neither... He thought it wasn't fair would rhyme nicely with Terry's page, however, unless you looked and thought for a moment, you might not get what wasn't fair. (body alterations!) He was unlike any other...hell that's the truth.
This certifies that you are the source of the strange young sons.
He certainly could have been the father...he has wings plus antennas on his head. And his hands are doing a shadow puppet in his crotch. He is strange enough to have a son with winged ears and another son with a butterfly body, which is quite phallus-like. It's believable.
No words on this spread.
Let me fill in the blanks...Father looks fondly on at his eldest son, Theo while graffiti sprouts from his already winged ears. Maybe he used to be a city boy?
Again, no words on this spread.
Theo is hanging out in his natural habitat of flora and fauna...pointing to his not-so-lucky brother who appears to be wrestling time out of a faucet.
again, no words
Theo's brother appears to be in Theo's forest hood....not sure why. This is for Terry to figure out!! And maybe he will have a name for Theo's unlucky brother.
The journal already is home in Minnesota with Terry. Theo probably will have some new antics to share with us at a later date....
Influence II — Collaboration
Thanks to the wonders of internet and this ongoing blog, I have met some new people and now I am embarking on some new art adventures.
It's a lonely place out here on the net sometimes, as you may have heard me bitch about, and hearing back from peeps is truly the coolest moment...knowing you are actually affecting something out there in the aether feeds me somewhere inside. Terry Garrett is a someone I met here on the blog thru his many gracious comments. We struck up a few email convos and decided that maybe we should collaborate on a journal. Now, I don't know about you, but it's difficult for this artist to not make some kind of little picture in my head that I think you look like, even tho I haven't met you. So Terry, he became a 40's something, dark haired women to me. I have met a few Terry's in my life and they all had dark complexion, dark long hair, and they were women. Therefore, this Terry had a mold to fit!! As usual, the joke was on me. My assumptions were totally incorrect. Terry is a man in his 50's. Oops. And he's also gay. Which for me is a non-issue, but it certainly did something to my habit of making up peoples' faces in my own head prior to know more about them....(so you, dear reader, are safe!!)
I haven't done a collaborative thing in a few years, since I had to put aside some private time for my own art to grow. But lately I have been eager to tangle with some other artists and see if they can help push me in new directions. I consider these collaborative projects as playtime in kindergarten. There's some really basic rules to follow, but basically I let myself go crazy and experiment like a kid with a new box o' crayons.
And so we were off. We both chose a journal and sent it to each other. I was especially intrigued with the content and subject matter of Terry's journal. I am so used to working with women on projects, and most of the time women seem to be the subject of the artwork. Here comes Terry's journal, loaded with male images and male ephemera. How terribly exciting! I was pretty amazed at this for some reason and decided that it's such a good thing to now and then expand ones'z horizons. I am always using these old Victorian lady pix that I get a hold of, mostly I think because my work is somewhat autobiographical and I try to find a face to fit a certain look I have in mind. And here comes this journal that's just reeking with testosterone and maleness....I just loved the change. It pointed out to me how boxed in that I am with subject material. I just love a good personal revelation!
Time to grow. Time to bring some males into my art stable and see what new things can be conjured up. I don't know if it's simply because I am working on a journal with a male, or if it's because I am working on a journal with a gay male, but I tend to think it's because I am working on a journal with another individual with a totally different refreshing point of view --so it's all new again. I don't have tons of male ephemera. It's all grrrls grrrls grrrrrrls. So I am on the prowl for some Vintage males. Some male nudes especially. That's a tough and tall order. So far, the only place I can get any variety is on vintage porn sites!
(note to self: Of course, maybe you are avoiding the alternative, which is to paint yourself some, you lazy girl.)
It's a lonely place out here on the net sometimes, as you may have heard me bitch about, and hearing back from peeps is truly the coolest moment...knowing you are actually affecting something out there in the aether feeds me somewhere inside. Terry Garrett is a someone I met here on the blog thru his many gracious comments. We struck up a few email convos and decided that maybe we should collaborate on a journal. Now, I don't know about you, but it's difficult for this artist to not make some kind of little picture in my head that I think you look like, even tho I haven't met you. So Terry, he became a 40's something, dark haired women to me. I have met a few Terry's in my life and they all had dark complexion, dark long hair, and they were women. Therefore, this Terry had a mold to fit!! As usual, the joke was on me. My assumptions were totally incorrect. Terry is a man in his 50's. Oops. And he's also gay. Which for me is a non-issue, but it certainly did something to my habit of making up peoples' faces in my own head prior to know more about them....(so you, dear reader, are safe!!)
I haven't done a collaborative thing in a few years, since I had to put aside some private time for my own art to grow. But lately I have been eager to tangle with some other artists and see if they can help push me in new directions. I consider these collaborative projects as playtime in kindergarten. There's some really basic rules to follow, but basically I let myself go crazy and experiment like a kid with a new box o' crayons.
And so we were off. We both chose a journal and sent it to each other. I was especially intrigued with the content and subject matter of Terry's journal. I am so used to working with women on projects, and most of the time women seem to be the subject of the artwork. Here comes Terry's journal, loaded with male images and male ephemera. How terribly exciting! I was pretty amazed at this for some reason and decided that it's such a good thing to now and then expand ones'z horizons. I am always using these old Victorian lady pix that I get a hold of, mostly I think because my work is somewhat autobiographical and I try to find a face to fit a certain look I have in mind. And here comes this journal that's just reeking with testosterone and maleness....I just loved the change. It pointed out to me how boxed in that I am with subject material. I just love a good personal revelation!
Time to grow. Time to bring some males into my art stable and see what new things can be conjured up. I don't know if it's simply because I am working on a journal with a male, or if it's because I am working on a journal with a gay male, but I tend to think it's because I am working on a journal with another individual with a totally different refreshing point of view --so it's all new again. I don't have tons of male ephemera. It's all grrrls grrrls grrrrrrls. So I am on the prowl for some Vintage males. Some male nudes especially. That's a tough and tall order. So far, the only place I can get any variety is on vintage porn sites!
(note to self: Of course, maybe you are avoiding the alternative, which is to paint yourself some, you lazy girl.)
11/04/2008
Half Past North
A striped ship was hopelessly lost on a polka dotted sea
Perilous creatures of the deep were lurking nearby suspiciously
A mermaid took advantage of the desperate situation
Turned the ship half past north toward it's destination
The ocean is such a scary place to be
What became of them is unknown to you and me.
Mixed Media on Canvas
16 x 20
acrylic, wrapping paper, sheet music, vintage netting, compass
Influence
Sometimes you work on a piece, and you think you are all in your own head and using your own special visions and all that secret special stuff, and when it's all said and done, you look back and find out you are not oblivous to what's going on around you. In fact you are a freakin' sponge.
Yea, that's me.
I was working on a canvas this past week. I had already prepped the canvas with gesso, since I am recycling one of 100 used canvases I purchased recently. I had laid down coats of cobalt and green and let them all mingle and drip. I had already done 3 laser transfers, and I was ready to give this whole thing some life.
And then I got my David Hochbaum catalog in the mail. All these luscious pages of aqua blue, dripping with oceanic collages, ships, and mystery. I poured over the pages a few times, trying to get a better glimpse into the techniques and the meaning.
The next day, I went to work on the canvas that was awaiting me. I took a hard look at the piece, and it looked like water. My boyfriend also agreed, this was ocean!
My latest series of works is involving shape shifting, animals and humans morphing together. Continuing on in this fashion, for this canvas, with it's obvious oceanic tendencies, I did a mermaid. When it was all done, I couldn't help but drastically notice the influence that the catalog had over my work that day. It was sitting over on the table, and when I "came to" (the phrase I use to describe how I feel as I finish up a piece and rise out of it) all I could think of was the Hochbaum catalog I just got. As much as I try to make all things I do come from my own heart, I find over and over that my brain is part sponge, picking up details, colors, ideas, and influences from everything around me.
I mimic that process in my artwork. I pick up colors, papers, textures, and let them compose the piece.
Therefore, my brain is a collage, right?
Yea, that's me.
I was working on a canvas this past week. I had already prepped the canvas with gesso, since I am recycling one of 100 used canvases I purchased recently. I had laid down coats of cobalt and green and let them all mingle and drip. I had already done 3 laser transfers, and I was ready to give this whole thing some life.
And then I got my David Hochbaum catalog in the mail. All these luscious pages of aqua blue, dripping with oceanic collages, ships, and mystery. I poured over the pages a few times, trying to get a better glimpse into the techniques and the meaning.
The next day, I went to work on the canvas that was awaiting me. I took a hard look at the piece, and it looked like water. My boyfriend also agreed, this was ocean!
My latest series of works is involving shape shifting, animals and humans morphing together. Continuing on in this fashion, for this canvas, with it's obvious oceanic tendencies, I did a mermaid. When it was all done, I couldn't help but drastically notice the influence that the catalog had over my work that day. It was sitting over on the table, and when I "came to" (the phrase I use to describe how I feel as I finish up a piece and rise out of it) all I could think of was the Hochbaum catalog I just got. As much as I try to make all things I do come from my own heart, I find over and over that my brain is part sponge, picking up details, colors, ideas, and influences from everything around me.
I mimic that process in my artwork. I pick up colors, papers, textures, and let them compose the piece.
Therefore, my brain is a collage, right?
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