To see something of the Art of Rubbish event on video, scroll to 22:10 in Aurora's News Weekly... the segment includes interview moments featuring me,
artists Brenda Stumpf and Lily Erb, Art in Public Places coordinator Mary Koernig, and a cameo from Ken Elliott. I think I said more interesting things in the course of my five minute interview but here's what remained after editing!It was a really fun day and great to have it captured on video and promoted by the city. Hopefully there will be a repeat performance next year with more artists involved and an even larger community turnout.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxjhviYun3I&feature=share&list=PL752A37D6CDC4A7B5&index=12
Ken Elliott
Recapping... "To EXPAND" at the Madden Museum
Stretching out in the studio, September 2012.I spent a good portion of my studio time this year experimenting with how I could make bigger work after I was asked to participate in an exhibition at the Madden Museum. Six artists met with director Hillary Reed, toured and considered the venue, then decided that we all needed to respond in some way to the very expansive space with our artwork for this exhibition... and preparations for "To Expand" were set in motion.Because I use so many magazines to supply color ingredients, my collages have always reflected that source material and tended to be more intimate in scale. For this exhibition, I wanted to work with some larger papers. Included in the new collages are pieces ripped from shopping bags, from large papers I painted, and from make-ready press sheets set aside by a friend at a printing company. For the first time I also painted color on my supports and worked into that with my paper compositions.It was a stretch, literally! I'm so glad I pushed myself because I have new confidence in my ability to produce original work in sizes appropriate for corporate or public spaces. I've already realized that I can do small pieces and enlarge them through digital technology and now I know what it takes to do original work at a large scale. It's been a big year :)
Above: A portion of my work at the Madden Museum, November 2012.So the exhibition included the largest collages I've created to date, some 80" in height! It was a bit of a whirlwind when our show date moved forward, but it all came together and the work of all six of us was amazingly cohesive with lovely unexpected relationships in color and composition. It was great working with painters Ken Elliott and Karen Scharer; encaustic artist Victoria Eubanks; fabric artist Carol Ann Waugh; and sculptor Mary Williams. The "To Expand" group will also show together at the Teal Gallery in Breckenridge, Colorado in January.
Above: This view shows less than half the museum space... my work in center, rear.
Above: The artists' reception, October 2012. Thanks to all who came out!
Big possibilities
in Collage Art, Studio
"Brilliant" and "Verdant giclees. © 2011, Janice McDonald.
I'm beginning to experiment with enlarging selected collages for reproduction as giclee prints. Here is a photo of the first two giclees that have sold, now residing in a Houston living room. I was delighted to see how well they translated from the original collages, "Brilliant" and "Verdant," and how strong the composition remains at this larger scale.
The possibilities are exciting, people who have seen them have been quite receptive, and I hope that it may allow my work to be enjoyed more widely. The collage imagery can be printed onto heavyweight watercolor paper at numerous sizes -- or onto canvas. The above giclees are 30 x 30" with deckled edges and an image area of 26 x 26," mounted in a slightly larger frame.
Tremendous thanks to uber-generous artist Ken Elliott for the encouragement to give this a try -- and to the client for purchasing the giclees and sending along the photos!