SOUTHWEST TRIP

I love the Southwest United States and any excuse for a visit is fine.

The image nearby shows the bright blue skies of Albuquerque, NM. It’s rare to see clouds and there is not much rain. Image: the Internet.

My trip to Albuquerque, NM was for art and business and to attend the Board of Directors meeting of the Society of Layerists in Multi-Media (SLMM).

I arrived on Sunday. On Monday, we had a marathon business session to discuss an upcoming conference in Taos, NM in 2012 with speakers, a panel presentation, workshops and a reception for an exhibition at the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, NM. It will be the 30^th anniversary of the founding of SLMM.

The Millicent Rogers Museum includes historic Native American Arts, Hispanic Arts, the Maria and Julian Martinez Pottery Collection, Contemporary Arts, and Jewelry from Northern NM.

Read about the premise of SLMM and a recent book about SLMM titled Visual Journeys: Art of the 21^st Century, co-edited by Mary Carroll Nelson and Nina Mihm.

The image nearby shows Native American jewelry from the Millicent Rogers Museum collection. Image: the Internet.

I planned a day-trip to visit Santa Fe galleries.

FAVORITE GALLERIES IN SANTA FE

I wanted to stop by Zane Bennett Gallery and Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, both on South Guadalupe in the Rail Yard gallery district adjacent to Site SantaFe.

Site Santa Fe was closed for installation, The next exhibition is titled Agitated Histories (October 22, 2011 – January 15, 2012).

I wanted to visit the Karen Ruhlen Gallery, Handsel Gallery, and GF Contemporary on Canyon Road.

CAN YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND?

It’s a good thing I’m pretty flexible, because the plans changed.

Instead of visiting galleries, I joined my art colleagues and visited Santa Fe artist’s studios. I couldn’t say no to that kind of opportunity.

First stop was a visit to Paula Roland’s studio. She is currently showing encaustic on paper at William Segal Gallery, 540 South Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe through October 25th. It’s an impressive gallery and her work is gorgeous.

Paula Roland in her studio

I took the image nearby of Paula Roland in her studio. She is demonstrating her encaustic printmaking process.

Paula has instructional DVDs for beginner to advanced artists on the basics of encaustic and printing with wax.

We left Paula’s studio and went to lunch at El Charro, a popular restaurant in town.

At lunch I sat next to Sandra Duran Wilson, a member of SLMM, and the author of 2 books:  Image Transfer Workshop: Mixed Media Techniques for Successful Transfers (with Darlene Olivia McElroy), and Surface Treatment Workshop: Explore 45 Mixed Media Techniques (with Darlene Olivia McElroy).

Sandra Duran Wilson calls herself an abstract collage artist.  She says her mixed media paintings include printmaking, transfers and acrylic, and some have Plexiglas panels embedded into wood panels to add depth.

Read Sandra Duran Wilson’s Artist Statement. She says she paints concepts. You can also purchase her books at her site.

Art by Sandra Duran Wilson

The image nearby is titled Evolutionary Dance. It’s 30×30 inches, acrylic and mixed media. Image: the Internet. See her works online.

COLLAGE GOODIES ON THE OLD PECOS TRAIL

After we left Sandra Duran Wilson’s studio, we drove to Laura Stanziola’s place on the Old Pecos Trail. Laura collects and sells an incredible assortment of vintage papers, books, old postcards, doll heads, game boards and ephemera right out of her home. She is called the Queen of Ephemera. Read more about Laura at Darlene Olivia McElroy’s blog. Darlene is co-author with Sandra Duran Wilson of the books mentioned above.

I did buy stuff from Laura Stanziola. It was irresistible and it will all find a way into my collages (or other people’s collages).

The image nearby is my photo of wispy clouds seen outside Laura’s home. I was standing on the hillside and I think I almost stepped into a snake hole. It’s a good thing I remembered to look where I’m walking when I’m in New Mexico.

We ate dinner in Santa Fe, and drove back to Albuquerque.

The following day, Wednesday, I visited a fabulous exhibition titled Hispanic Traditional Arts of New Mexico at The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History (September 18, 2011-January 8, 2012).

The exhibition included masterworks in religious image making in wood, sculpture, tinwork, filigree, colcha embroidery, weaving, and straw applique, all from the permanent collection of the Albuquerque Museum dating from the Colonial era to the present by Hispanic artists in New Mexico,

In addition to historic objects, the exhibition includes contemporary works by many artists who work in the same traditional art genre.

Art by Monica Sosaya-Halford

The image nearby is by Monica Sosaya-Halford, Reredo, 1982, acrylic and gesso on pine, Gift of Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. Image: the Internet.

I will be back  in New Mexico next year for the SLMM conference in Taos and a return visit to Santa Fe. I can hardly wait.

CLOUDS AND COLLAGE

Last week I drove by car for a late-morning appointment in NYC.

The highway route from Westchester took me along the Hudson River by way of the Henry Hudson Parkway.

The view was spectacular. The sky was bright blue and filled with round, puffy clouds – the kind children draw.

The clouds seen in the image above are called cumulous clouds.

As I drove along the highway, the clouds marched in a stately parade across the sky, white against brilliant blue. There was a ribbon of green grass along the highway with a blacktop pathway for cyclists and runners, and the grey blue green waves of the Hudson River were lapping along the water’s edge, reflecting sunlight from above.

The clouds reminded me of the clouds I saw in a collage painting by Romare Bearden (1911-1988), on view recently at the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery in NYC (the show Romare Bearden: COLLAGE, A Centennial Celebration, closed May 21, 2011).

The online exhibition is worth a look. I’ve included a link to the Gallery press release that says “The works in this exhibition reflect the artist’s belief that art is made from other art. This idea is literally present in the act of collage-making –- taking images, colors and forms out of one context, altering them, and juxtaposing them with other pre-existing images, colors and forms to create something new. Read more…

Romare Bearden

The work by Bearden I remember so well was titled “The Train Whistles”  seen above (image the Internet).

It’s a large work compared to most works by Bearden, 31×40 inches, and a masterful mix of painterly passages, papers and striped and patterned fabric.

I saw the show twice before it closed.

I kept returning to see the Train Whistles and look again at how Bearden used his papers, and how he created his clouds.

I check the Internet and learned that a cloud is a visible mass of water droplets suspended in the sky above the surface of a body of land or water, and the droplets are so small and light they can float on the air.

The shape of a cloud depends on the moisture content in the air. The clouds are white because they reflect the light of the sun.

Bearden used different papers to create his clouds, combining multiple, subtly different shades of white with some torn edges against cut edges, layered with just the right spaces along the edges in between the papers to suggest depth and mass.

Romare Bearden

The image above is another Bearden collage in the recent Michael Rosenfeld Gallery exhibition. This one, titled “Watching the Good Trains Go By” (1969) is mixed media collage on board and is 9 x 12 inches.  (image the Internet)

Like many of Bearden’s works, it contrasts strong, bright colors against black and white magazine and newspaper images in shades of grey. The colors are green and blue in paper and paint, and red and white patterned polka dot and red and cream in gingham checked fabric.

There’s a single cloud in the deep blue sky against a bright emerald green ground.

It was such a treat to see the works at the Michael Rosenberg Gallery exhibition. See more images online.

I hope you also got to see the show at the gallery.

A BEARDEN CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION

If you want to see more works by Bearden and are in NYC, please contact the Romare Bearden Foundation to find out about the ArtCrawl Harlem: The Strivers Garden Gallery (300 West 135^th Street at St. Nicholas Ave.) that will present “Bearden at 100” (August 4^th – October 9^th, 2011).

See “Spiral: Perspectives on an African-American Collective (July 14^th – October 23^rd, 2011) presented by The Studio Museum in Harlem (144 West 125^th Street).

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (515 Malcolm X Boulevard) presents Romare Bearden: The Soul of Blackness/A Centennial Tribute (July 15 – January 7, 2012).

 Read more about all the exhibitions…

As I got closer to my highway exit at 26^th Street, the traffic slowed to a crawl. I had to drive crosstown to 6th Avenue.

I was listening to the Pachebal Canon on classical radio and wasn’t troubled by the delays and traffic. It seemed I had all the time in the world.

And the advantage of the traffic (advantage of traffic?) was that I was driving and stopping. It allowed me to take some photos from the car when I had to stop for a traffic light.

The image above is from my car. I am looking north on 6^th Avenue. I was at 26^th Street.  The uptown view almost doesn’t look like a city street in NYC – but it is and you get to see the clouds against the city buildings.

Today I will drive into the City again – even though I prefer to take a train to Grand Central Terminal in order to avoid traffic.

I hope it’s another beautiful day with another amazing view along the way.

Questions for You: Are you a fan of collage and Romare Bearden? Did the information I shared about his work inspire you? Please add your comments below. Thanks for reading this post.

Art: LEARNING TO SEE

I had a conversation recently with an artist friend who has a studio across the hall from me at Media Loft in New Rochelle, NY. She told me she was disappointed in the art journals that her students kept this summer in the study-abroad program she led in Rome, Italy.

She said what they produced was like a scrapbook.  She asked me if I had any suggestions.

We had a long conversation about how they could step it up a notch.

My comment:  Becoming an artist is all about learning to see, and understanding how you see.

If you want to be an artist you must learn to look.

It’s like exercise. The more you do it, the better you are able to do it.

WHAT DID YOU SEE? WHAT DID YOU LEARN?

Everyone has the potential to be an artist and everyone has the capacity to be creative. It starts with learning to see.

Look at art. Go to museums and galleries. Learn how to look at the art you make.

What do you see?

My Advice: COLLECT IMAGES

Understand what you like and understand why you like it.

At my collage workshops I tell my students to create a “swipe” file. It’s an excellent way to collect images for ideas for projects.

Start with delightful images that attract you. Collect images that puzzle and challenge you. Try to understand how the artist made the image work  Find newspapers and magazines with images you like.

I am inspired by art periodicals, art catalogs, fashion, food and home magazines. Many people love nature magazines.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE? 

When you find images you like, cut the image out (or photocopy the image) and paste it down on a clean page in a notebook that will become an art journal.

Add more images to the page if you want. Add your comments on what attracted you to the image (and add why).

You can work with pencil, pen, or marker and embellish the image with watercolor, decorative paper and fabric. Build your ideas with color. Emphasize the new and important ideas with underlines, bright colors and bold letters (in collage).

COLLAGE: THEME AND VARIATION

Add comments on how you can change the image. Make drawings and plans.

When I collect images, I make drawings to help me understand the structure of the image.

Sometimes I make 10 or 15 photocopies of the image and then paint and collage into the photocopies. Sometimes I cut the photocopy into several pieces and reorganize the pieces into a different composition and add and embellish to change the image again.

Explore ideas for images via MIND MAPPING or LIST MAKING.

How to use MIND MAPPING to develop an image:

Place the image in the center of the page. It’s the central idea (or the main topic) in your Mind Map.

Analyze the image. Branch out from the main image with lines directed to words, doodles, diagrams, drawings and colors as you develop and represent new ideas.

There are many resources to learn about Mind Mapping. Read more…

How to use LIST MAKING to collect and illustrate ideas:

Place the image at the top or side of the page and expand with more images, words, numbers, doodles, and drawings. Your list can grow into more than a single page.

See the current exhibition LISTS: To dos, Illustrated Inventories, Collected Thoughts, and Other Artist’s Enumerations from the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art (June 3-October 2, 2011) at the Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Avenue at 36 Street, NY, NY. The exhibition includes more than 70 different works.

Read more…

I have the exhibition catalog. It’s excellent. You can order the book online.

MAKING ART IS ALL ABOUT LEARNING HOW TO SEE

Recently I led 2 mini workshops at the Newark Museum that were all about how to see (but I didn’t tell the participants the workshop was about how to see).

The plan was: Make a collage in the style of Jean Dubuffet.

The project had to be short so the collage could be completed in a short time.

Jean Dubuffet

Notice the image above. It’s titled “Sylvain.” The work is tiny (10×6 inches) and made with insect wings.

I made color copies of this work by Dubuffet and gave each student a copy so they could look at the image as they made their collage.

I told them the image was a face (a profile). I asked if they could see that Dubuffet’s media included insect wings. I asked: Can you see the eye and mouth?

I gave everyone an outline drawing of a face in profile. Some cut out the drawing and pasted the profile down on the substrate paper. Some made their own profile drawing.

Everyone got colored papers for the collage background. The Museum supplied magazines, and some students cut images from the magazines into shapes like tiny insect wings.

I asked the students to notice the patterns and the narrow range of light and dark tones and colors Dubuffet used (see the image above).

I asked: What size will you cut the pieces for your collage? How many papers will you use? How few? How will you place and glue the papers?  Will you make the papers flat or leave edges projecting? I asked them to think about the space around the profile. Dubuffet placed the profile very close to the left edge of the paper.

I did a demonstration on how to apply white PVA glue with a brush, and how to use a plastic squeegee and wallpaper seam roller to get pieces collaged down.

That’s a lot to cover in a one-hour workshop. But they did a great job. Each person chose how to proceed and what magazine images, papers and colors to include.

STUDENTS ALWAYS DO IT THEIR OWN WAY

mini workshop collage

One student commented: it was a good workshop and added: What we did was learn how to see.

BACK TO The Swipe File idea – it’s not copying. It’s collecting images for inspiration and dialogue for future ideas – a bouncing off point for making more art.

Unless you create a mechanical reproduction, what you create is not a copy. You can’t copy when you draw, paint or make it by hand. You are interpreting what you see.

Read more about Dubuffet and the mini workshop I led at the Newark Museum in Newark, NJ.

QUESTIONS FOR YOU:  What do you like to see? What inspires you? What colors do you like? How do you collect ideas?

Collage Extraordinaire

Would you believe me if I tell you my life is about glue?

I like to take things apart and put the pieces back together. I love paper. I want the pieces to stick.

I make collage.

I like to juxtapose elements, mix and match media, and embellish with layers of paper, paint and ink.

My thinking process is also like collage.

I like to play with ideas and explore theme and variation and I like multiple choices.

I teach collage workshops and classes (collage is so contemporary and so user friendly).

I plan a theme for each workshop to jump-start the process.

Surprise! In many cases, people arrive with their own plan of what they are going to do (or not do).

It’s important to me that each person feels they do it their way. I never want to control input or outcome. I won’t touch their work with my own hand. We do dialog. I show images in the books I bring along to augment their ideas.

I typically do not know in advance who is registered for a workshop. I have to find out who they are when they arrive – so I ask people to tell me about themselves, if they’ve worked with collage or another media, what they like, and what they want to learn.

I want to share an interesting story.

Last summer I led a 6-hour workshop at the Newark Museum (Newark, NJ) titled Narrative Collage attended by adults, including identical twin sisters about age 50.

It was almost a disaster. One twin was keenly interested in the workshop and the theme narrative collage. One twin was keenly disinterested and verbally antagonistic to her twin about being there.  It was bizarre.

It was hard to persuade the resisting twin to participate.

But I am persistent and have my ways.

I showed her a book highlighting the life and work of the artist Ray Johnson (American 1927-1995). I had a hunch she would like to know about his work.

I am a great fan of Johnson’s work.

COLLAGE ARTIST EXTRAORDINAIRE

Johnson is known as a collage artist extraordinaire and has been called New York’s most famous unknown artist.

Ray Johnson was the original “bridge” between so many of the people and sensibilities of the international art scene and its fringes.  He was heralded as an innovator by the heroes-to-be of Pop and Fluxus (Mark Bloch (© 1995). Read MORE…

Black Mountain College Dossiers #4 (Ray Johnson) is the title of the book I brought to the Newark Museum workshop. It includes collage images and an essay “With Ray: The Art of Friendship” by William S. Wilson (It’s an old book, and for some reason it’s very expensive online).

From 1946-48 Ray Johnson studied alongside Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly at the experimental Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Faculty members included Joseph Albers, Robert Motherwell, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Buckminster Fuller, Willem and Elaine DeKooning, and others.

NEO-DADA  FLUXUS AND POP ART

After Black Mountain, Johnson moved to Manhattan (NY) and showed annually with the American Abstract Artists. He is connected to the history of Neo-Dada, Fluxus, and early Pop Art.

In his own way, he invented performance art and Happenings (he called them “nothings.”) He is credited with founding the MAIL ART movement – he called it the New York Correspondence School, and it still exists today.

Johnson’s mail art directed people to “send to” or “add to and return” or “do not send to.”

Ray Johnson

The above image is titled Four Eyed Bunny Postcard – November 26, 1977. See more images of MAIL ART sent from Ray Johnson to Mick Boyle.

The New York Correspondence School participants circulated and re-circulated lists, group portraits, reports, announcements, insider commentary and snippets of media that was an open-ended collage of gossip about members and the NY Art World.

Johnson said: I had this stockpile of materials, so I put them into envelopes and mailed them off to everybody everywhere. I’m very fond of the idea of the message in the bottle…and the chance of it being found or never being…That’s pure romance.

(quoted in Black Mountain College Dossiers)

TURN IT AROUND

Ray Johnson

Ray Johnson would take a word that turned up in conversation and reverse it to see if it yielded another word…

When he made an error in typing, he often took off from the error, not from the word he had intended to type.

The collage seen above is titled Taoist/Toast! (1957) 5×4 inches, is in the collection of William S. Wilson (reproduced in Black Mountain College Dossiers #4).

Johnson made an anagram from the word “Taoist,” turned it into the word “toast,” and with the letter “i” left over, turned the “I” upside down as an exclamation mark and wrote “Toast!”

SERENDIPITY: A CHAPTER TITLED TWINS

Chapter VIII in the Black Mountain Collage Dossiers book is titled “Twins.”

William S. Wilson wrote: The meaning…of Ray’s images often is complemented by…a twoness, a doubling, as in mirroring, tracing, carbon copies, repeating or other duplication…

It’s possible the twin found this chapter in the book. It brought her back into the group. I think – maybe – she is now a great fan of Ray Johnson’s work.

She began to work in earnest and made a collage inspired by one of the images in the book.

In research on Ray Johnson, I learned about a documentary video about his life titled HOW TO DRAW A BUNNY (2002) directed by John W. Walter.

Johnson loved to recycle old works into multi-layered new works. He loved collaboration. His MAIL art included bunny head portraits, puns and rhymes.

The image above is a portrait of Ray Johnson, his logo bunny and the title of the documentary How To Draw A Bunny (image: the Internet).

You may know Ray Johnson committed suicide in 1995. He jumped off a bridge, paddled backstroke and disappeared in the waters near his home in Long Island, NY.

The documentary HOW TO DRAW A BUNNY includes interviews with Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Chuck Close, Roy Lichtenstein, Judith Malina, James Rosenquist and others.  Read MORE…

Thank you for visiting…let me know if you’ve seen the documentary HOW TO DRAW A BUNNY.

PS:  Please add your comments on the art of Ray Johnson and the NY Correspondence School…and I hope you’ll join me on Facebook and LinkedIn –

 Nancy

Make Contemporary Collage

I am a great fan of Calvin Tomkins who writes brilliantly about contemporary art and artists.

His book LIVES of the ARTISTS includes in-depth profiles of Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Matthew Barney, Cindy Sherman, Richard Serra and others.

The book is exciting to read, filled with personal information and critical insight, and would be appealing to everyone who is interested in art and artists.

Tomkins writes: contemporary art is all about choices.

I’m a collage artist. Collage is the most contemporary art medium, accessible to everyone. Collage is all about choices.

I got a phone call from Stephen McKenzie, the manager of Adult Education in the Visual Arts at the Newark Museum (Newark, NJ). He asked me to lead a mini collage workshop this past Saturday for museum members.

I chose to say yes.

I wanted the opportunity to promote two upcoming workshops, and, as always, to promote creativity through collage.

In May I did a very successful workshop titled Possibilities with Paper at the Museum. I am scheduled to teach Possibilities with Paper 2 and 3 in August and in October.  There are so many possibilities. Collage is the perfect contemporary media.

The Newark Museum Mini Collage Workshop

I gave a lot of thought to what the Newark Museum mini workshop would include, and wanted to offer a project that would encourage looking and promote understanding visually.

Here are some of the possible mini workshop themes I considered:

Possibilities with Paper

Project: Create variations in papers for collage

Embellish surfaces

Create texture with paint and tools

Combine elements and explore design

Repurpose papers for collage

I will teach Possibilities with Paper 2 at the Newark Museum on August 7, 2011,  and will teach possibilities with Paper 3 at the Newark Museum on October 30, 2011. See more information about the 2 workshops.

Colorful Collage

Project: discover a personal color palette

Explore rich saturated colors in watercolor and pastel

Play with variations in hue, value and chroma

Select magazine images in related colors

Explore complementary colors

I will teach a Colorful Collage workshop on July 17 at the Pelham Art Center.

The Art of Romare Bearden

Project: explore collage as layered imagery

Explore variation in scale

Design with geometric and curved shapes

Play with pattern, surface and line

Last year I taught 2 workshops at the Newark Museum inspired by Romare Bearden. One was titled Caribbean Landscape. Another was titled Conjur Woman: Portrait in Collage.  Each full-day workshop is 6 hours – long enough to complete a collage.

A Question of Time

The two mini workshops would each last 90 minutes so the project had to be simple and not take too long to complete. I wanted everyone to be able to start quickly and have enough time to finish.

My top choice was Romare Bearden because this is a special year (the centennial of his birth) and many museums and galleries are honoring him with retrospective exhibitions (including the recent show at the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery on West 57 Street in New York City). The exhibition closed May 21, 2011.

See works by Romare Bearden online at the Michael Rosenfeld gallery website.

I wanted people to see and understand how Bearden constructed his collage images. But I was also concerned that it would require more time than was available.

Serendipity and the art of Jean Dubuffet

The day before the scheduled workshop, I discovered an image by Jean Dubuffet (French, 1901-1985) with a fabulous, provocative quote – it was guaranteed to stimulate and inspire. Here’s the quote:

Dubuffet:

“What I expect from any work of art is that it surprises me, that it violates my customary valuations of things and offers me other, unexpected ones. 



Art doesn’t go to sleep in the bed made for it. It would sooner run away than say its own name: what it likes is to be incognito. Its best moments are when it forgets what its own name is.

Personally, I believe very much in values of savagery. I mean: instinct, passion, mood, violence, madness.”

Jean Dubuffet

The image above is titled Sylvain. It’s 10×6 inches. It’s a collage made with insect wings.

This is how I organized the Museum mini workshop project:

Provide 12×12 inch construction paper in a deep hue

Provide a free-form profile drawing on 9×12 yellow paper

Provide magazine images of faces, eyes and mouths

Supply scissors, markers, glue, seam rollers and squeegee

Supply magazines for additional collage papers

Everyone got a color copy of the Dubuffet image and the quote.

I read the quote aloud.

I discussed how the image was constructed with insect wings – and also pointed out that there was an eye and teeth that could be on top or below the other papers.

Everyone was instructed to cut out the profile drawing and either trace or glue the drawing onto the larger sheet (and they got to choose where to place it). I did a demonstration on how to apply the glue. I suggested that they notice how Dubuffet limited the range of colors and try to select papers in a similar tonal range.

The rest was up to them. They chose how to proceed and what images, patterns and colors to include.

See samples of their work below. Notice how each one is unique.

workshop collage

workshop collage

workshop collage

workshop collage

I was attracted to Dubuffet’s quote and art and connected both back to a comment by Calvin Tomkins in LIVES OF THE ARTISTS. He described Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst – contemporary art stars – as the reigning heirs of deliberately outrageous art that feeds off the corrupting influences of capitalist glut and entertainment.

Dubuffet called his work Art Brut. He created with common media. His art was not high brow and he created deliberately outrageous art.

See Damien Hirst’s butterfly winged art (done in 2003), and read the review.

Thanks for reading. Please add your comments below.

The Art of Noel DeGaetano

EXHIBITION: CONTRASTING ELEMENTS

Media Loft Gallery, 50 Webster Avenue, New Rochelle, NY

May 22-July 16, 2011

Opening Reception: Sunday, May 22, 2011, 2-6

Closing Reception: Saturday, July 16, 2011, 2-6

Information and Directions to Media Loft Gallery

ARTIST STATEMENT

In his artist statement at his website (NoelDeGaetano.com), the artist says his work is about demonstrating the visual power and presence of energy.

The Art of Noel DeGaetano CONTRASTING ELEMENTS at Media Loft Gallery includes mixed media works, including oil on copper, copper on aluminum, paint and paper on aluminum, and relief sculpture in hammered aluminum, aluminum and copper, and fractured mirror.

You see reflective light everywhere.

DeGaetano, Back/Female

The image above is one of a pair in the exhibition. Titled Back/Female, it is 48 x 36 inches and is hammered aluminum.

DeGaetano says he has welded metal sculpture for many years and likes copper with steel or steel with stone or glass.

He paints directly with oil on copper and aluminum, or uses the metal to form his sculpture. He says copper and aluminum draw and reflect in a warm way, and, in combination with oil paint, the results are electric.

Here is more information about copper (at geology.com):

Copper was one of the first metals ever extracted and used by humans. It resists corrosion from the air, moisture and seawater and was used in ancient times for coins. In modern times copper is used by the electrical industry as wire for power generation and transmission, and modern day electronics.

DeGaetano, Wind Maker

When I first saw the artist’s works in his studio, I asked him if his work was about the sea. I sensed a connection to water.

You see the energy in his sweeping brush strokes across the metal and paper.

The mixed media works in two and three dimensions make me think of a view across the water and of seafaring vessels.

He says: certainly water often comes up in the work, as does nature.  He told me that water was an important image for him.

The artist mentioned that while he studied at the School of Visual Arts on East 23 Street in NYC, he met the artist Fred Mitchell (one of the original Counties Slip artists along with Robert Indiana, Agnes Martin, Ellsworth Kelly and James Rosenquist). Fred Mitchell had a studio on the top floor of the Seaman’s Church Institute, a home for seaman while in port, located on the Battery in Manhattan, opposite Staten Island and Elis Island.

DeGaetano, Maya

The Institute had a world famous maritime museum, with model ships, some 25’ long, built by sailors. The view from Fred’s studio was the arrival and departure of all the ships in New York harbor.

The artists in the group (DeGaetano, Fred Mitchell and others) painted and drew this view, and on Saturdays rode the Staten Island ferry back and forth and made watercolors of the New York skyline, the ferries and the docks.

The image above, titled Maya, is 26×32 inches, mixed media on hand made paper mounted on aluminum.  The artist says his mixed media works are about his need to express more than just what he saw – he needed to feel the essence of what he saw. He began to use anything that would create the texture and depth and transparency.

DeGaetano, Hand

DeGaetano says his work attempts to capture the tension that exists between physical structure and the kinetic energy that is present in all of nature.

The image above is titled Hand; it is mirror – fractured glass – and 8” tall.

LIGHT IS ENERGY

The sculptures in the exhibition reflect light within their structure and also reflect the light that shines on them. Light is energy.

DeGaetano, Head

The artist says the juxtaposition of reflective media brings the viewer’s eye around and around.

He says he uses hard materials to depict something that is inherently soft (or non-physical) and that forces us to think outside our normal frame of reference. He wants us to ask how glass and other metals can be understood as soft, and how skin or water can be experienced as hard.

He says: by using conceptually opposing substances, each work helps us think about how much of life can be described as another form of energy.

The image above is a sculpture titled HEAD. It is copper, and 17 inches tall.

DeGaetano states: I was always attracted to metals – in particular – copper. I have used it consistently since the 1970s.

DeGaetano, Nearer the Sea

The image above, titled Near the Sea is mixed media on hand made paper mounted on copper. It is 14×26 inches.  The artist said he started using paper years ago because he could get a soft and ambiguous surface and canvas did not have as many possibilities. He added: the oil paint is warm and the metal is cool for mounting.

Noel DeGaetano mentioned another inspiring resource – the Finnish Creation book called the Kalevala.

The Kalevala is a mythological poem compiled by the 19^th century Finnish doctor, poet and folklorist Elias Lonnrot. It is considered the Finnish national epic and has influenced many artists, including Tolkien, Silbelius and Longfellow – And Noel DeGaetano:

The following Kalevala poem (translation by John Martin Crawford) is about the Sea, Seafaring and a Copper-Banded Vessel sailing to the higher-landed regions to the lower verge of heaven. If you like, read more about the Kalevala.

Thus the ancient Wainamoinen,

In his copper-banded vessel,

Left his tribe in Kalevala,

Sailing o’er the rolling billows,

Sailing through the azure vapors,

Sailing through the dusk of evening,

Sailing to the fiery sunset,

To the higher-landed regions,

To the lower verge of heaven.

(Canto 50, line 493)

Thank you for visiting and reading this interview. Your comments are welcome.

ART OF THE DIARY

I was fascinated when I read that the French artist, Pierre Bonnard (1867 – 1947) kept a diary that commented on the weather and recorded the shoes he wore each day. How interesting is that?

I never kept a diary because I didn’t want to keep a record that somebody could read. However, I am intrigued with the idea of writing about shoes. The shoes we wear tell so much about the lives we live. Even Carrie Bradshaw would agree.

Is a blog like a diary?

the diary of Sophia Peabody Hawthorne (1809-1871)

The Morgan Library  (225 Madison Avenue at 36^th Street, NY, NY)

has mounted a fabulous exhibition titled The Diary: Three Centuries of Private Lives.

The image above is the Diary of Sophia Peabody Hawthorne (1809-1871). Image: the Internet.

I’ve seen the Diary exhibition at the Morgan Library 3 times. I am amazed by the fame of the authors included.  I am amazed by the penmanship and beauty of the entries. The script is so tiny and perfect.

There are over seventy diaries on view. The show closes May 22, 2011.

The diaries include the most personal information. People wrote private journals to keep a record of their daily lives and creative projects, and to explore and sort out personal problems.

The exhibition includes the illustrated journal of the American painter Stuart Davis (1894-1964), the journal/sketchbook of painter Sir Joshua Reynolds (British, 1723-1792), the writings of Charlotte Bronte (British, 1816-1855), Tennessee Williams (American 1911-1983) and John Steinbeck (American 1902-1968), and the travel diary of Albert Einstein (born Germany, 1879 – 1955).

The exhibition poses the question: What is a diary?  Must it be a private document? In the age of web journals, blogs and social media, how and why do we document our daily lives today?

Are we returning to writing diaries but in a different form?

Read more about all of the diaries at the Morgan Library exhibition.

See the online exhibition and follow the curator’s blog.

Can an object express an idea like a diary?

Claudia DeMonte, Female Fetish Shoe

The image above is by Claudia DeMonte and is titled Female Fetish: Shoe (2006). It is pewter and brass on wood (4x9x3 inches). The artist is investigating icons of female culture. The decorative elements are small pewter representations of a woman’s world: gloves, purses, cups, saucers, and umbrellas (image: the Internet).

STIMULATE CREATIVITY

The Morgan Library exhibition folder says keeping a diary is a stimulus to creativity.

Why not keep an artist’s journal? They are illustrated diaries and can be on any theme you choose. You can keep a record of your daily thoughts, and your plans and progress with a project. You can keep a travel journal or a dream journal. Your journal can even be a collection of to-do lists.

If you add art to your writing, you’ve created an art journal. I recommend you embellish your journal with collage, painting and drawing.

WHAT INSPIRES YOU?

What did you see or read that challenges you?

Keep a journal and it will help you understand your creative process and help you remember all the steps you took that helped navigate the hard parts.

Describe the project, make notes of how you brainstorm and capture ideas as they flow.

Your note taking will help you focus. If you like to add charts and checklists, it will help you quantify and measure where you are going.

DO YOU KEEP LISTS?

The next exhibition at the Morgan Library is titled “Lists: To-dos, Illustrated Inventories, Collected Thoughts and Other Artists’ Enumerations from the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art (June 3 – October 2, 2011).

It sounds like a good follow-up to the Diaries exhibition.

Willie Cole, Pretty in Pink

MAKE A METAPHOR

I want to return to shoes as a metaphor for history and culture. It seems there are many artists who do shoes. Here’s another bit of information:The British artist David Hockney wrote that he started his photocollage works with his feet. His is shoes were always the beginning point of the visual journey. Hockney is an excellent writer. He is able to describe his ideas and process in great detail. I recommend his book THAT’S THE WAY I SEE IT (by Thames & Hudson).

Willie Cole (American, born 1955) showed a collection of shoes in an exhibition titled Sole to Soul at the Alexander and Bonin Gallery, 132 Tenth Avenue, NY, NY  (Jan-Feb 2006).

The image above is titled Pretty in Pink.

The shoes are formed into circles to express the concept of lotus blossoms, which die and flower again. The blossoms range in diameter from 4 to 7 feet.

The gallery wrote: Willie Cole’s art is about acts of transformation and transcendence. In the late 80′s the artist made a conscious choice to work with used objects to take advantage of the energy transference achieved through a process of telekinesis and chi transfers. He has used consumer and industrial detritus such hairdryers, irons, bicycle parts and shoes to make objects which reveal their nature as talismans and sometimes as a critique of capitalist and consumer culture.

Willie Cole currently has works included in the exhibition “Reconfiguring an African Icon: Odes to the Mask by Modern and Contemporary Artists from Three Continents” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (5^th Avenue at 82 Street, NY, NY). The exhibition continues through August 21, 2011.

Willie Cole, Shine

The work above by Willie Cole is in the Met show and is titled Shine (2007). It is constructed with shoes, steel wire, monofilament line, washers and screws, 15.75 x 14 x 15 inches, collection The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY (image: the Internet).

Do you see the eyes and mouth in Cole’s work titled Shine (above)?

Thank you for reading this blog. I hope you enjoyed all the news about the artists and the exhibitions. Please add your comments below. Do you – or did you – keep a diary? Do you think the blog replaced the diary?

PROCRASTINATION

I found a great post and had to share it.

It’s titled Three Big Reasons Why We Procrastinate (And What to Do about Them).

Here’s why I had to share it. I think I procrastinate and I suspect it’s a problem for a lot of other people.

DOES READING E-MAIL = PROCRASTINATION?

Do you have to open your email? Do you ask what will I miss if I don’t open it?

I opened a post this morning that arrived via email from Lateral Action, written by Mark McGuinness. I think all his posts are well written with useful information.

Notice the image above – superheroes that are LEGO® blocks. My first thought was, there’s no female. Where’s my superheroine? But I won’t go down that road. Photo credit: Julian Fong.

The blog begins:

IF IT WEREN’T FOR PROCRASTINATION, WE’D ALL BE SUPERHEROES.

The author continues: When you think of the creativity, talent and energy in every human being, and what we achieve on the occasions when we’re working at full stretch, it’s almost scary to consider what we could do if we didn’t keep shying away from doing our great work. There’s a link to an interview with Michael Bumngay Stanier who says:

STOP THE BUSYWORK and START THE WORK THAT MATTERS.

In terms of writing my blog, and getting it posted on schedule, it’s not about getting ideas for content. It’s about collecting too many ideas, wallowing in too many choices, and getting stuck on how to edit out the extras and non-essentials.

I’m a collage artist. I say collage is all about possibilities. I also know that too many possibilities can lead to procrastination.

For example: I want to post a questionnaire about how we choose a creative experience. I want to ask and collect information on what type of art making and what type of collage workshop appeals to you.

I still have to write the questionnaire blog and will post it soon because I really want to collect that information.

I want to write about a 4-day symposium I just attended in Boston titled International Opportunities for Artists: The Interconnected World, sponsored by the Trans Cultural Exchange.

I attended the symposium to learn about new (and missed) opportunities for artists who want to participate in residencies. Most of the presentations were focused on opportunities for young artists, and for artists who work in media currently favored by the Academy. I didn’t see much about collage media. I will write about it. Soon.

I’m not procrastinating. I’m writing about procrastinating.

The 3 REASONS YOU PROCRASTINATE according to Mark McGuinness:

1 – YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO because there are so many choices. How do you narrow down the possibilities? How do you avoid expanding your choices? Where do you begin? Mark McGuinness says: let your curiosity be your guide. Follow your instincts and let it ignite your enthusiasm and that will get you started and focus your direction. Focus is the key ingredient.

2 – YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO DO IT. According to Mark McGuinness, the best way to start is to follow your curiosity – learn about what interests and inspires you, and explore and pattern yourself after people who can be your mentors. He adds: find people who have done things similar to what you dream of achieving so you can see how they did it and how your can emulate their success.

3 – RESISTANCE.  The author says overcome it and acknowledge you set up your own obstacles. Ask yourself why you aren’t getting to the goals you set. See his blog 7 Ways to Smash Procrastination. He adds one more:

ENTHUSIASM MELTS RESISTANCE.

I like the idea that enthusiasm melts resistance. I was inspired to write at once.

What are you enthusiastic about?

I procrastinate because I am enthusiastic about too many ideas. I want all the goodies.

I wanted to find an image with eye-alluring, mouth-watering sweets, and found an image of 3 frosted cupcakes online (photo: the Internet).

The goodies were real. Crave Cupcakes, a bakery in Houston, TX was selling the sweets and asked people to pick their favorite cupcakes from 3 new flavors: Dulce de Leche, Italian Cream and German Chocolate. The German Chocolate lost the competition. Some people just didn’t like coconut. Here are the best comments from the contest: YUM, icing rules, could eat the icing like candy all day long.

EVERYONE LOVES SWEETS.

I hope you think ART OF COLLAGE is filled with goodies too, and think the post about PROCRASTINATION was useful information.

I would like to hear how it helped you. Please add your comments below.

The superheroine (above) is an action figure (image: the Internet).

Thanks for your time and your comments.

10 UNIQUE RESPONSES to a NEW VISION

 

I was going to title this post FLOWER POWER.

At a Bloomfield College workshop I led last month, I taught basic tips on collage to young adults. The workshop included a demonstration on how to place papers, and how to apply glue.

The plan was for students to create a landscape collage of a beautiful place inspired by the art of Romare Bearden. It didn’t happen.

10 COLLEGE STUDENTS MAKE 10 COLLAGE FLOWERS

They were inspired – instead –  by a flat, cut-out of a chrysanthemum flower that was on a table in the art room (the image above is more complicated than the paper flower).

What I see and learn at each workshop I teach – every time I teach – is that each person is creative in her/his own unique way no matter what I say or how I present a project. I like that.

Last November I wrote LET ME DO IT MY WAY about how the people who attend my workshops push away from my ideas and explore their own ideas. I wonder if it’s something I say or the way I present the materials.

I wrote: I never know in advance if students want to be directed or if they want to be their own director. It was a popular blog and includes wonderful images of student work.

THE RECENT WORKSHOP

At the Bloomfield College workshop last month, each student got my handout titled 10 Collage Tip. I asked them to follow the text and watch as I demonstrated working with papers and glue. The demo is basic and simple. Once learned, the technique takes an artist in any direction he or she wants. I like when I am able to facilitate a basic and simple approach to individual creative expression.

I said it’s important to match the type of glue (adhesive) and the tools you use to apply the glue to the type of media (paper) you work with. If the paper is thin, use a light (thin) glue or adhesive. If the paper is heavy, use a heavier more viscous glue or adhesive. I work with white PVA glue for medium weight papers. I work with carpenter’s glue for heavy papers and photos. I work with gel medium for Washi weight thin papers.

I brought brightly colored tissue paper in large sheets to the workshop, and talked about how to layer the papers to multiply colors.

I did a quick sampler for the demonstration. I cut scallops in blue paper and glued it down over yellow-green paper. I cut scallops in yelow-green paper and glued it over yellow-greeen paper. How simple is that? I think the students were impressed with the bright colored papers and overlapping colors. See the image below.

 

Because tissue papers are very thin and delicate, I wanted the students to use acrylic gel medium as glue. Everyone got a small plastic cup for gel medium, and a plastic palette knife to apply the gel medium.

I wanted to teach them how to work with a palette knife and not a brush for the glue application, because the brushes they had in the class were the wrong brushes – they were too large, and too bristly. Remember: match the medium and the tools to the paper!

Here’s more information about gel medium. There are many brands to buy, including Golden and Liquitex. Gel medium comes in different viscosities (thicknesses). We were using a creamy, medium-thin gel. Typically, painters use it to modify and expand acrylic paints.

Gel medium also works great in collage, decoupage and transfers.

I showed the students how to cut tissue paper into shapes, scallops and rectangles with a scissor. I showed them how to place papers on the substrate (the bottom paper), and suggested they use a pencil to mark where the paper is placed (so you know where it goes when you lift it up to add glue). I showed them how to glue in two steps –  lay down a small amount of gel medium on the substrate with a plastic palette knife where the tissue paper will go,  place the tissue paper down, and apply a top-coat of gel medium and remove excess gently.

Gel medium goes on white and creamy and dries clear. Most people in the class used a bristle brush to apply it, and some of them tore the tissue paper  (it tears if it’s over-handled).

Read about gel medium: It is used to alter the consistency of paint. Gloss medium adds sheen. Matte medium reduces gloss (shine). It is used to adhere mixed media elements to the surface of a painting, to increase film integrity, to add transparent layers of color, to extend paint (reduce the cost), to prime a canvas, repair and protect a painting (as a final coat).

THE ART HISTORY OF COLLAGE

I always try to discuss important collage artists at every workshop.

Many of the students at the workshop have Caribbean Island backgrounds, so it seemed like a good idea to introduce them to the artist Romare Bearden (1911-1988). I thought the students would be inspired by Bearden’s watercolor and collage landscape paintings.

His colors are bright and happy. He was inspired by the lush landscapes of his second home in St. Martin, and began to work extensively in watercolor. He became a fabulous watercolor artist, and also incorporated collage into the paintings.

I brought along the monograph titled Romare Bearden The Caribbean Dimension, by Sally Price & Richard Price, filled with gorgeous watercolors, drawings and collage paintings done by Bearden on site in St. Martin. I showed everyone images like the one below, titled Eden Midnight (1988), watercolor and collage, 30×40 inches. Photo credit: the Romare Bearden Foundation.

Romare Bearden, Eden Midnight

Read more about Romare Bearden: He is one of the most famous collage artists in the United States and has works in major museums throughout the country.

Bearden’s images are about the people and places he knew. His imagery is a visual metaphor of his life.

Roberta Smith wrote about Bearden – VISIONS OF LIFE, BUILT FROM BITS and PIECES (April 3, 2011, the New York Times). The Michael Rosenfeld Gallery is celebrating the centennial of Bearden’s birth (he was born in 1911) and the exhibition runs through May 21, 2011. Read the review. She wrote: the works…were made from 1964 to 1983. Some are not much larger than sheets of typing paper; others are more than four feet on a side. Their suavely discordant compositions involve both black-and-white and color photographs and occasional bits of printed fabric; almost all depict some scene of black life, past or present or imagined.

TIME FOR GORGEOUS PAPERS

My talk and demonstration were quick. They heard all they needed to know about process and about Bearden. I wonder if they thought Bearden’s art was old.

They got their scissors, a plastic squeegee, plastic palette knife, glue brush, a cup of gel medium, and selected as many sheets of tissue paper as they could. Good thing I brought way too many sheets (I thought).

I was surprised that everyone began to work and it was a large paper flower.

Orange Flower

The image above shows an orange flower in progress. Notice that the artist is wearing a shirt with orange and yellow stripes. Often the artist matches the art.

Because the prototype flower was made with heavy paper, and the student’s flowers were cut from thin paper, many students had difficulty cutting round edges.

Blue Flowers

The image above shows 3 students. Two are working on blue flowers. One is observing the work in progress.  Notice  that they are working with glue brushes. They are doing it their way. I didn’t say a word.

I showed them how to cut individual petals and work with smaller pieces of tissue paper if they had problems cutting flowers.

I showed them that overlapping tissue papers create multiple tones and hues. Many students had fun playing with overlapping shapes.

Purple and Orange Flowers

The image above shows one student who is working on two collages. She was very good with cutting stripes and flower shapes and with  her placement (design), overlapping and colors. I am sure she is very proud of her work.

COLLAGE IS STICKY BUSINESS

Glue goes through thin paper and it’s important to remove excess (this can be done with the palette knife or the plastic squeegee). When working with heavier collage media, I teach students how to apply and blot off excess glue so pieces lie flat and no glue oozes out.

Two students glued the large tissue paper flower off-center so it overhung the edge of the substrate paper and needed to have some support. I showed them how to add heavier paper behind the tissue paper to support it. I think they liked the extended edge of their collage.

One student acknowledged she listened to my talk about Romare Bearden and his collage media. She put newspaper on the substrate and then added tissue paper collage on top so that newspaper text and images showed through.  We both liked the newspaper text showing through the layered tissue papers.

MORE THOUGHTS on FLOWERS

The contemporary Japanese artist Takashi Murakami (born: 1963) intrigues me.  His works are reproduced in all the international art periodicals and shown in museums around the world. I saw his flowers on the cover of the 2009 Art Basel Miami Beach catalog. Gagosian Gallery represents Takashi Murakami.

I think the students at Bloomfield Collage have also seen his flowers and his art.

Murakami’s Chrysanthemum flowers have faces.

The image below is titled FLOWER SUPERFLAT (it’s a lithograph print on paper, edition of 300, 27×27 inches).

For Murakami, the flowers are a fusion between popular Western culture and Japanese Manga and Anime.

Takashi Murakami, Flower Superflat

Read more about the artist at TakashiMurakami.com. His paintings are cartoony. His sculptures are huge and quasi-minimalist. He received his BFA, MFA and PhD from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.

I also recommend Sarah Thornton’s book SEVEN DAYS in the ART WORLD.

In Chapter 6 – The Studio Visit – she writes about Takashi Murakami:

Murakami has taken a Japanese national icon (the chrysanthemum), and endowed it with a gaping orifice in a culture where a wide-open mouth is considered rude. The image comes across as challenging. It’s edgy. It’s not sweet.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

I welcome your comments (please add them below).

Do you make collage? Do you work with tissue papers or Japanese washi paper?

Do you use gel medium or do you use PVA glue? Or do you use another adhesive?

Do you like the work by the artist Takashi Murakami? Please see his website.

Do you like the work by the artist Romare Bearden? Please see the review.

Thank you for your comments.

INTERVIEW: GWYNETH LEECH

HYPERGRAPHIA: Gwyneth Leech The Cup Drawings

Last week I saw artist Gwyneth Leech and her paper cups installed in an exhibition titled Hypergraphia: The Cup Drawings. They (the artist and the cups) were ensconced in a street-level Fashion Center Window Space at 215 West 38^th Street in NYC.

HYPERGRAPHIA is presented by Cheryl McGinnis Projects (Feb 28-April 1, 2011).

Outside Hypergraphia

The image above is outside Hypergraphia and was taken by Cheryl McGinnis.

See the installation before it closes, and see Gwyneth on site drawing in the window Monday-Friday, 11:30 am – 1:00 pm.

RAISING THE CUPS: The Hypergraphia Exhibition Takes Off is a tale of 2 days of looping, tying and stringing cups together with clear fishing line, of stepping on and off ladders, checking for placement, and returning to readjust cups and lines.  Gwyneth says she was looking for an explosive quality.

She gets lots of comments and wrote: Just before it was time for the security gate to come down at 5:30 PM the 2nd day of the installation, I took a last look at the window from the sidewalk, nearly staggering with exhaustion. A man carrying messenger envelopes stopped. “I saw you working on the window all day,” he said. “The way the cups hang at all those different angles is so cool. This window is great. It’s like art, or something.”

She says she dreamed of tangled lines that night.

See FAUX REAL FASHION (March 10, 2011), Gwyneth’s blog with new images and more comments from passers-by.

Window View at Hypergraphia

What makes this show so special is Gwyneth is drawing on site for 5 weeks (sitting in the window) and adds new work each day.

Look at the image above. See cups hanging from fishing line, cups stacked on the floor, and (did you notice?) Gwyneth is sitting in a chair and drawing onto a cup, hardly visible behind all the cups in the air.

INSIDE THE INSTALLATION LOOKING OUT

I knocked on the window, waved hello, and went inside to talk.

Other people were already there, including Cheryl McGinnis, the Director of the Cheryl McGinnis Art Gallery (with an art collector), two ladies from the Czech Republic, a drama student waiting to do an interview, and some others who were leaving as I was coming in.

Gwyneth, her back to the little room and door ajar, was drawing on a new cup, talking with people inside the room behind her, and responding with a wave to people on the street outside if they waved hello or tapped on the window.

Gwyneth Leech at work

I took the picture above. Notice the red-haired boy looking in. Don’t notice the parked truck – I didn’t intent to do an advert for the Company.

I wanted to ask a few questions about the project and the installation.

OUTSIDE and INSIDE THE INSTALLATION

My first question was – Is this performance art?

Gwyneth replied no, it’s not a performance.

She mentioned she had performed years before, but not as an actor with lines at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in 2000. She explained she drew on stage during a performance.

Read the Jack Anderson review (The NY Times, March 17, 2000: SUFFERING AND REBIRTH Dramatized by Flamenco). He wrote: “Dramatic vignettes were juxtaposed with danced outbursts…and Throughout the production, Gwyneth Leech drew portraits of the cast in India ink on sheets of paper attached to the walls.”

WHAT SHE WANTS: BRING THE ART STUDIO TO THE PEOPLE

Gwyneth says: I want to bring an art studio experience to people who participate in my projects. In March 2010, she created STUDIO ON A BED at POOL ART FAIR, held in a hotel in NYC.

At POOL, each artist gets a hotel room, and most exhibitors have the furniture removed. Gwyneth decided to keep the furniture in the room and have the public sit on the bed and draw pictures on the theme of family. She hung the drawings in the bathroom, including the shower stall.

See 150 drawings on 26 pages (most done by children). My favorites drawings are on Page 16: #62, #149, #113 and #136.

In June 2010, Gwyneth created FAMILY TREE at the FIGMENT FESTIVAL on Governor’s Island (NY).

She created an art picnic around the foot of a big oak tree. People drew family pictures and she pinned the pictures around the tree trunk to create a new FAMILY TREE.

Gwyneth Leech, Cup of the Day # 77

The image above is Cup of the Day #77, India ink on upcycled paper coffee cup. It was drawn while Gwyneth was sitting in the window at Hypergraphia on March 11, 2011. See more images at LIFE IN THE WINDOW 2: Hiding in Plain Sight.

Helen M. responded to an early post at my blog Art of Collage titled How Are the Best Blogs Like a Great Collage? Answer: The best blogs are good looking, engaging, multi-media, explore new ideas, and like the best art, invite you to share the experience.

That’s Gwyneth’s Full Brew.

I included an image of a Cup of the Day and wrote: I like the look and content of Gwyneth’s blog because she documents the intersection of art-making and art-seeing. She writes about daily life in New York City, including where to get great coffee (or tea), writes about her family history, and shows us drawings she makes daily on cardboard coffee cups.  How cool is that?

Helen’s only comment was:  Where can I purchase a cup?

For more information and to purchase a cup, contact the Cheryl McGinnis Gallery, located at 555 Eight Avenue, Suite 710, NY, NY (212 594 4066). During off-site public art installations, the gallery hours will vary. Call to confirm hours.

I welcome your comments and thank you for reading the blog.