Something to Share, and a Give-away

I have a few pieces of good news and some other things to share with you.  First of all, I don't think I mentioned that one of my entries was accepted into the National Collage Society's

There were over 500 entries, so I was pretty excited that mine was chosen.  This year's exhibit is truly one of the best collections of collages I've seen in a very long time, even if I do say so myself, so please check it out.  A couple of examples to whet your appetite:

 Jan Filarski, The Dots Ran Away

Mike Church, Overtime

Dick Allowatt, Orbit

 As if that wasn't enough good fortune, I was recently notified that my work will be featured in ArtBuzz, the 2014 Collection - a hard cover book of work by the winners of their annual juried fine art search, in which I was awarded 2nd place for mixed media.

 Needless to say, I was thrilled (and surprised)!  You can pre-order a copy of it at the artist's discount price here.

Also, I'm very happy to announce that I have three pieces in a curated traveling show which will be opening in Louisville, Kentucky on December 7th.  If you're in the area, I hope you'll be able to come by for the opening reception.

Time has been shooting by at a very high rate of speed, and here it is, November already! It seems an appropriate time, with the holidays approaching, for the give-away I've been meaning to have for ages now, but never got around to. And since it's been so long, I've decided to double the fun and pick two winners this time.  Winners will receive:

 A generous selection of pages from my huge collection of antique and vintage books, including old textbook pages, dictionary pages (both English and Japanese), and maps (not the one pictured below).

The winners will also get several pieces of decorative papers, and to top it all off, each will receive one of the following books:

Wabi Sabi: The Art of Everyday Life, by Diane Durston

-or-

Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative

All you have to do to be entered in the drawing is to leave a comment on this post.  You don't have to be a follower, but if you are, your name will be put in twice.  On Thanksgiving day, one of my dogs will choose the winners, and I'll post the names by the next day.  I thought Thanksgiving was an appropriate time for this, because I am truly so grateful to all my readers and followers for being the awesome people, advice-givers, cheerleaders and inspirations you are.  Good luck!

Moving Along with WIP

I'm amazed that it's already summer solstice! Summer officially starts today, and time keeps moving along- what's that they say about time flying when we're having fun? Somehow, time always seems to move faster than I do, but I'm still moving along with my art at my human pace, trying to take advantage of the free time (ha!) I have now to get things done.

I thought I'd share my progress with one of the pieces I showed you in this post.  It's called "Story of My Life", which I took from the title of the lovely vintage book cover I'm using as a substrate. It's hard to resist a ready-made idea like that, right? The book is actually about the life of William Taylor, an evangelist missionary who was Bishop of Africa during the 1800's.

These are 2 of the many configurations I've tried as I continuously rearrange, ad, and subtract various elements, in search of the best composition I can come up with.  I should have taken more photos, and intended to, but I get carried away when I'm working and forget, or just can't stop long enough. They help me to remember where I placed everything, which can be really helpful.  Oh well.  I hope to be able to post the finished version of it soon.


Also, I should announce that I have a piece in the National Collage Society's Annual Postcard Collage Exhibition.

The exhibit will be on display at Kent State University until July 20; subsequently, you can view it online at the National Collage Society website.

Happy Solstice, everyone!  Have a wonderful summer!

National Collage Society's 27th Annual Exhibit

I was recently thrilled to learn that both my entries were accepted into the National Collage Society's 2011 27th Annual Juried Exhibit.  This year's exhibition is their first to be shown strictly online, which is cool, because it means that more people will have access to it.

There is an impressively wide variety of techniques, styles, media, and content represented here.  I'm excited and honored to have my work included, and hope you'll take the opportunity to see the exhibit; I don't think there's any way you'll be disappointed.


I'll leave you with a new collage I just finished- one of the small ones I think of as studies or experiments.  To be honest, I had no idea where this one was going, and I'm not sure if it's arrived there yet. 

 Untitled

ingredients: vintage book pages, image transfers, watercolor pencil, acrylic ink, Chinese hell notes, acrylic gel

I haven't come up with a title for this one- any ideas?

But Still... (too late)

But Still (1891)
ingredients: map fragment, vintage ledger pages, vintage book pages, papyrus, metallic joss paper, decorative paper, ink, watercolor, found objects, brass wire


Well, long story short, I was working on some 4 x 6 collages with the intent to enter one of them in the National Collage Society's Postcard Show.  However, I misread the prospectus, and thinking that the arrival deadline was a postmark deadline, I missed it!  (Aaaarrrrgh....)  Let this be a warning to you, people- read the prospectus carefully!

So anyway, here's the first one I made; let me know what you think.  (Sorry, the photo is kind of wonky- the angel's body is metallic, but you can't tell here.)

p.s.  I'm still waiting for that full time secretary to show up; any takers yet?

More Paper Obsessions

I won't go on about the wonderousness of paper; you all are probably tired of hearing about it.  But I do want to share some more paperish things you may enjoy.  What's that you say- 'wonderousness' and 'paperish' aren't words?  You and that spellchecker, eh?

I recently entered the National Collage Society's annual juried exhibit, and while my work was not chosen, there are a great variety of fantastic collages in the show.  You should definitely check out the National Collage Society's  2010 26th Annual Juried Exhibit .

 one of the pieces I entered: Dimensional Shift

 

I think you'll be inspired.  They also sell catalogs of past exhibits, which are great; I have a couple of these, and look at them all the time. The newest one is an e-catalog.

The 2007 catalog is probably my favorite, but I don't think you could go wrong with any of them. They're also selling a calendar, which may be my Christmas gift to myself this year.

(Does anyone else ever get frustrated with how blogger won't let you put things where you want to, or is it just me? grrrr...)

When I feel the need to to feast my eyes on some really innovative paper art, I go to Upon a Fold.

Untitled work by Yoshinobu Myamoto

This site showcases amazing art made from paper- of every size and description you can imagine, from full-size cardboard bicycles to 3-D Christmas-tree cards.  Often there are interviews with the artists, who are at least as fascinating as their work.

Book sculpture by Ryuta Iida

Cornfield by Ryuji Nakamura

These are just a few samples of what you'll find there; it's well worth checking out, for inspiration, or just for that, "HOW do they do that?" feeling.

Notpaper is also a site you won't want to miss.  Each post is an interview with a featured collage artist.  First of all, I had apparently grossly underestimated the number of collage artists in the world; secondly, I had no idea there were so many astoundingly good collage artists.  A quick preview:

   Marty Gordon

Eva Eun-Sil Han

Portrait of a Three Legged Rabbit by  Anne Marshall

And finally, what goes with paper like peanut butter goes with jelly?  Glue, of course!  To hold it all together (pun intended), I thought you might be interested to learn that there's a site dedicated to informing us of the proper glue to use for any circumstance.  It's called This to That (Glue Advice), and it's so simple even my dog could use it!  You just enter the two materials you want to glue together, click the button, and voila!   The name of the best glue for bonding those materials (and a link to where you can buy it) will magically appear before you.  (Don't worry, though; I don't let my dog use glue.  She'd just glue the other two to the floor so she could have all the food.)