Commissions

I've completed two commissions in the last several weeks - how fun! The first was a surprise birthday gift. The husband asked me to make a collage for his wife showing a sweeping scene in the Grand Canyon with several photos overlaying it from their two hiking/camping trips in the canyon. For the background, I used my method of building the scene out of strips of altered imagery. I did not alter the snapshot photos and used them as distinct rectangles. She was very happy with the gift and I'm pleased with how it turned out.

The second commission was to do a raven. I'd made a series of ravens in 2009 where I'd torn the prints of ravens and added art papers to build the scene. It was fun to go back to that method and realize my skills had changed and I had new ideas of how to work with the imagery. This raven will be paired with two other collages of mine; one has a lot of old ledger paper in it and the other has torn topo maps of Yellowstone overlaying a rocky scene in the park. The raven's feet are surrounded by topo map fragments and I overlaid the Latin name of the raven onto old ledger paper to tie this piece to the other two.

Speaking Engagement

Rob and I were asked to speak to Women's Issues Network (WIN) on Monday about our art. It was an interesting process for me to try to summarize how I got to where I am in my art and how and why I make the things I make! I showed images of some of my earlier art as well as how the pieces changed after visiting Montana. Here's the outline I followed when I spoke:


One of the issues we as women face is—outside of our relationships with other people as wife, mother, daughter, co-worker—what makes US happy? What recharges our batteries? What makes us want to laugh with joy? Six years ago, I discovered that creating art was what did that for me. It puts me in a space without concern for time or to do lists or the latest headlines on the news. The more hours I can be in my art studio, the happier I am. So let me tell you about my passion.

My artwork in the beginning was more traditional collage, making compositions out of old photos, art papers, maps, Viewmaster reels, book pages, layering them with acrylic medium and sealing the final composition with another coat of acrylic medium. I was trying to evoke a sense of nostalgia or journey with these pieces.

Then in 2009, I went to visit a friend who had recently moved to Montana and she took me to Yellowstone National Park and through some of the many mountain ranges in Western Montana. I flipped out! I came home with hundreds of photographs and a desire to make art about this amazing place.

I wanted the art to be more than the photograph, so I started altering the photos digitally to have a more painterly feel, a scratched surface or enhanced light or color. Then I’d take prints of the altered photos and tear or cut segments from those variations to piece together a new scene.

As a result, the artwork becomes more of a recollection or glimpse of a place. Possibly looking like a painting or photo from a distance, then as you look closer you see the cuts or tears, and then even closer you might find bits of text or ledger paper or actual grass or pine needles as part of the surface. Most recently I’ve been shredding the prints by hand or with a paper shredder and building the composition out of lots and lots of strips of paper.

Rob and I have been to Montana three times since my initial visit. I love working with the photos we’ve taken, remembering the sounds, smells and feelings of being in nature. Through my art, I’m hoping to bring those feelings of peace, stillness, and joy to the viewer. When someone responds so strongly to my art that they want to purchase it and take it into their home, it’s an inexplicable feeling for me. I’ve been writing the word JOY on the surface before I start applying the imagery hoping that is what people will feel when they look at the work. We all need to find the JOY in our lives, and making art does that for me.

More Explorations

I wanted to try the spirals with a recognizable background so I used one of my favorite photos I took in Montana. Every time we'd drive the road to Karen's cabin, we'd pass this lone tree on the hillside with the clouds coming up behind the hill as if by magic. I decided to try using spirals in the scene to create kind of a magical feel – soap bubbles going up? ... but wouldn't that be going from large bubbles in the foreground to small in the sky?... something coming down from the clouds? ... something ethereal interacting with the tree? I hope it conveys a sense of mystery and magic. I'm calling it "Clouds Touching the Ground".

Getting Ready

I've been making some smaller collages for my booth at our local Art in the Park on Sept 12th. These are 6"x6" and 8"x6". The two deeper 6"x6"x2.5" pieces have imagery on the front, edges AND the back! I'm not going to put hangers on the back as they're kinda fun just sitting on a table so you can pick them up, turn them around and over.

Glorious Morning

This piece is 12x12x3 and uses a copy of one of the vintage postcards of Morning Glory Pool in Yellowstone alongside part of a photo I took of said pool and drawings I did on ledger paper. I've been using old ledger paper in collages for over a year, so I was thrilled to find some notecards in Bozeman of a native American's ink drawings on ledger paper from the early 1900s (drawn over the top of writing due to lack of paper!). That gave me the idea to do drawings on the paper I had – and have another subtle Montana connection in the piece.