Penumbra: collage shadowplay

I’m very pleased that my collage, “Penumbra,” was selected for Cut Me Up magazine, Issue 13: Nearby, Between. Each issue of the magazine features a curatorial call for the next issue by a guest curator, asking artists to consider specific concepts and approaches to collage.

“Penumbra,” collage on watercolor paper (including elements from Cut Me Up, Issue 12), photographed to include cast shadow of spring branches, 10.25 x 8.25,” ©2024, Janice McDonald.

For issue 13, curator Katie Blake (@whatapageturner) asked artists to explore the Japanese concept of Ma 間, described as a “pause in time, an interval or emptiness in space. The idea of Ma is to make emptiness into a substance itself.” Artists had to incorporate elements from the previous issue of Cut Me Up and were encouraged to explore the intentional use of space by employing new collage techniques.

When I read the criteria, the idea of Ma resonated with me as I remembered the way my uncle helped teach me to draw as a child — by studying and capturing the spaces between things, and then drawing those shapes. That way of thinking has been foundational to my collage practice as I almost always collect elements from the background of an image, rather than working with the subject itself.

Examples of the kinds of photos that I’ve been taking, both in- and outside, that inspired my approach to completing this collage.

Ever since the advent of the iPhone, when I no longer had to worry about film and processing costs, I’ve taken lots of photos of patterns and textures. I often pause to admire the way light and shadow animate objects. I’ve thought about ways to incorporate the images into future collages but hadn’t taken the leap to work with them.

While working on this collage, leaving white space for it to “breathe,” and trying to decide where to take the composition next, I took a break and found myself studying a shadow on the wall in the hallway just outside my studio. As I made my way back to my desk, it suddenly occurred to me that I could purposefully cast a shadow onto my collage as an additional, and ephemeral, element: a real “aha” moment.

I tried working with interior shadows but couldn’t find anything quite natural enough for my sensibilities.

One of many interior experiments with shadow-casting onto my collage in progress. Not what I was looking for!

So eventually I took the partially-finished collage outside and positioned it below foliage. I searched for shadows/shapes that related to, and enhanced, my composition. Many photos later, I discovered the one that resonated most: Ma 間

So, yes, this collage in its final form exists only as a digital photographic image. That fact doesn’t make it any less of a collage, it just adds another layer, and plays with the dimension of time.

I was honored to speak about this work at KolajFest 2024 with Andrea Burgay, the creator and publisher of Cut Me Up magazine and Katie Blake, the curator (not pictured).

Pro tip… Check out Katie Blake’s "What Kind of Collage Is That?,” to explore the many varied ways to consider and categorize collage works. It is a compendium of methodologies and I’m happy to have it as a new resource. Katie describes the book well, here, in an interview with The Weird Show.

Standing in the shadow of the moon

I was vacationing with my family in Oregon during the total solar eclipse this summer (08.21.17). We took advantage of an eclipse-related festival and attended educational / cultural events at my alma mater, Oregon State University, for a couple of days.

It was wonderfully nostalgic -- here's a photo of me in front of Fairbanks Hall, the art building, which seems almost entirely unchanged since I graduated. The atmosphere, with smells of paint and views out the old glass windows, is just as I remembered. The gallery inside was hosting a really well-conceived show, titled "Totality."

Me on the steps of Fairbanks Hall, the art and design building where I spent so many hours during college.

On the morning of the eclipse, we positioned ourselves in an open plaza area where we could see shadows cast by the trees and watch the sunlight project the eclipse through those openings and onto the ground, as if through a pinhole camera.

I was totally enchanted by the cast shadows that were the reverse of what we were looking at in the sky (with our special glasses on, of course).

Adjacent to the plaza was a sports court with a smooth blue surface. The images were even more distinct there, some of them looking like marbled paper. Even our shadows began to have some of those eclipse shapes in the negative spaces.

I was alternatively looking at the sun with my glasses and then taking them off to see what was happening on the ground. All the while the air was cooling as the sunlight diminished. (The white stripe bisecting the image with blue/green background is boundary line on the sports court.)

Below is a photo taken right before totality, when all the shadows of the trees went away as darkness fell mid-morning.

Just before the eclipse became total, shadows on the ground appeared that wiggled like snakes, kind of like the heat wave you see over the road when driving on a hot day. It was the glowing activity of the corona very briefly projecting itself onto us and the ground… an odd, almost dizzying sensation.

Suddenly it seemed like the moon snapped fully over the sun. I felt that I heard a sonic boom. Then it was dark above, with a glow 360 degrees around the edges of the horizon as if the sun had set not long ago... simply gorgeous. We were able to look up without the glasses during that time and try to absorb what we were seeing.

The image of the moon in front of the sun was so powerful. We were awe-struck. I feel like the image is imprinted on my brain -- I can be recall it in a very clear way. The eclipse tinted us and everything around us a metallic gray color. The shimmery glow around the moon was beautiful. Totality lasted less than two minutes and then the moon began to move off the sun. We put our glasses back on and watched the remainder of the eclipse until the sun shone fully again. I have a whole new recognition of the three dimensionality of the moon and sun in space now.

I'm wondering how experiencing the eclipse might affect my work in the future. I've always loved circles and have taught myself how to rip pretty good ones, if a little ragged, to use in my collages.

I was struck when I got home from the trip and looked anew at this collage, "Replay," made in 2012, which hangs over my desk. The correlations are rather interesting... it has a painted background with salvaged and painted papers applied on top. And yes, I ripped all those yellow-gold circle shapes and the half circle negative strips.

“Replay,” 2012, 36 x 24 x 2″, salvaged and painted paper on wood panel. ©Janice McDonald.

While the rest of the family has declared themselves to be total umbraphiles, I'm still processing this stunning experience... not sure if seeing another would diminish or enhance the power of the first experience. If you've never seen a total solar eclipse though, I believe it’s worth making the effort to get a location where you can experience totality... as my favorite commemorative t-shirt read, "Totality Worth It!"

The envelope(s), please

Handwriting contributed by my Dad... nice counterpoint to the commercial mail!

The wall of envelopes in context at Spark Gallery.

As part of the "Overlooked Archives" exhibition, I incorporated a wall of envelopes as a background for my artist statement (a short explanation of the work). I wanted something textural as a counterpoint to the collages, all under glass this time.

The envelopes also served as a visual reference for where some of the collage elements originated. I love the patterns in security envelopes and wanted viewers to stop and consider them. I even included an envelope addressed to me by my Dad, in his amazing backhanded script, as an unspoken nod to him. One realization I had while working with all this mail is that very little of it is personal, most of it is commercial — so I loved it when something with actual handwriting arrived! Thanks, Dad :)

Here is the actual text from my statement about the show...

Overlooked Artifacts

An exhibition of collages made from each day’s mail during a three month period.

We are subject to such an assault of visual input that it’s no wonder the printed materials in our lives, many of them unrequested, become a blur.

Delivered... I’ve attempted to transform the remnants of discarded and unanticipated  mailed imagery into elegant little jewels. This series of 75 collages is intended to capture the incremental passage of time and encourage a fresh look at the incoming paper stream.

Dissected… Exploring the inherent beauty of salvaged color and form that’s been liberated, literally ripped, from its original context has been both a joy and a challenge. Some days the postal pickings were slim, other days potential ingredients were abundant, and on a few sad days (and Sundays), there was nothing in the mailbox. No mail, no collage.

Reimagining form… On March 1st the only item in the mailbox addressed to me was a postcard from Bed Bath & Beyond—perhaps you’ll recognize it!

Enjoy,

Janice McDonald

Final touches: collage commission 4

Getting the roots to align well from one panel to another was challenging. They needed to intertwine and anchor the composition. Each root was put down separately so the process was additive. I ripped lots of curving pieces (many of which were rejected) before I got the look I wanted.I also added ripped rounds of rice paper and a metallic silver paper to punctuate the roots and symbolize the energy of nutrients and water droplets. The placement of each little element was carefully considered, piece after piece. The metallic paper adds just a bit of sparkle but is hard to photograph, appearing whiter than it looks in person.Once I thought that I was close-to-done, I still didn't have an adequate place to hang the four pieces together. So they were evaluated in this carefully stacked position multiple times as I tweaked details.Eventually, they were deemed finished and received multiple coats of protective varnish before being carefully wrapped for delivery.