Momentum

 I've been working on art using photos of my friend Ellen McDowell's for our joint art show Nov-Jan at the Galesburg Civic Art Center. My gallery in Door County, WI, just asked me to send them 3 recent pieces that I was making for that show! They've sold 5 pieces of mine from their gallery and wanted more... so I'll be busy making new art with Ellen's photos for November!

The sunflower piece below is one of the pieces they chose and then I worked on the weekend to make the 10" x 20" mixed media piece of 4 chairs in front of a B&B in Door County that face the calm Green Bay.

Each of the pieces have a lot of vintage postage stamps embedded in them (including probably the only all yellow stamp the postal service ever printed!). I also added shredded US $1000 bills in the grass around the 4 chairs.

The third piece is a 20H x 10W collage also from one of Ellen's photos. After layering up strips cut from the 3 filtered versions of the photo, I added handmade papers, 1850s ledger paper and shredded money.

Further experiments

I posted the finished barn piece on my Facebook page and got a lot of feedback there. Most liked the new effect, one wondered if it wasn't too bright white at the edge. I, too, had that feeling, so I did a wash of acrylic over the barn to tone it down a bit and give it an antique feel. I made another rural landscape collage on canvas and its colors seem to work better with the white edge.

Revisiting the Farm

I did a post on August 20th of artwork I made of the farm where my grandmother grew up. That scene was the farm in summer and this one is showing it in autumn. I'm planning to take photos of the farm in winter and spring, too, as the landscape changes so dramatically with the seasons on the midwestern farm.