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.

Gift

I made this piece for a friend's 60th birthday. It is from a photo she took in Colorado of a stunning cloud. It was fun to work on it knowing who would be living with the art. I have two more commissions I'm working on for friends, so the fun continues!

Preparing

A year from now I'll have my work on display in the Quad City International Airport Gallery, so I'll be making work this year with an eye towards filling my part of the gallery there. This is a 12"H x 24W" image of the Tetons. I made it more abstract than recent works by adding in pieces of art papers, leftover image strips from other landscapes and even some sections of Brazilian paper currency a friend gave me.

Art Trade

I admired a table runner my friend Penny had made and asked if I could commission one from her. We decided to do an art trade instead. She quilted a beautiful table runner with six matching napkins for me and I made her an abstract collage that looks a bit like a quilt. I used leftover pieces from previous collages and handmade art papers to build the composition.
Here's a link to Penny's quilting blog:
Studio Notes

Commission complete

My friend, Linda, asked me to make a collage for her to give her parents for Christmas. Her mother is from Finland, honeymooned in Parvoo, Finland, and went back to visit this year with her husband and Linda's family. Linda and I looked through photos from that trip and decided this scene of colorful buildings in the old section of Parvoo would be the best choice. Measuring 18"H x 24"W, we think it will look great in her parent's condo with their bold-color decor.

Gallery Trip

We drove over to Cedar Rapids last Friday and delivered 4 pieces of art to Campbell Steele Gallery in adjacent Marion, Iowa, including this new 10"x10" barn piece. We had dinner and then came back to the gallery for blues music. You can see in this photo (when you click to enlarge it) that the back half of the main floor of the gallery has tables and chairs, lighting and a stage for music performances. The place was full and fun!! Nice to hear music while surrounded by art on all the walls.  :-)

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.