I'm looking forward to showing my collages and demonstrating some of my working techniques at "The Art of Rubbish," a celebration of found-object/item artwork, on Saturday, September 21st, from 10 am - 3 pm at the Aurora Central Library at 14949 E. Alameda Drive, Aurora, Colorado.
Other "Rubbish" artists are Brenda Stumpf and Lily Erb.Meet the artists and work on your own art projects... more details in this Westword blog article: "Create art out of found objects at Recycling Reversal: The Art of Rubbish on Saturday."Stop by and see us... maybe make something out of "almost nothing!"
sculpture
Enthusiastic about "Reclamation"
As you might imagine, I have a penchant for artwork that incorporates recycled and repurposed materials.
After having it on my "must see" list for most of the summer, I finally got to the "Reclamation" exhibition at Metro State College of Denver's Center for Visual Art. If you are local, it's on view through August 13th (2011) and worth a visit. If you're farther afield, and are interested in artwork created from reclaimed materials, you may want to explore the work of some these artists online. They are: Sabin Aell, Brian Cavanaugh, Terry Maker, Jon Rietfors, Yumi Janairo Roth, and Ann Weber.
It's a very engaging and impressive exhibition -- fascinating to see what materials each artist employs and to what effect. While the art is wonderful enough from a distance, to truly appreciate its derivation and the creative re-use of materials requires close inspection. (And those kind of photos were unfortunately not allowed.)
Among my favorite pieces were the sculptures by Ann Weber which were fashioned from strips of used cardboard, stapled together, to form organic shapes that often took advantage of the printed graphics and die cut slots/openings of the original boxes. A video about her work is helpful in understanding the her thinking, process, and scale. The large pieces in these photos are 8-12 feet tall.
I was thrilled by the textural wonderment in many of the pieces in the show. Layering of materials becomes very compelling when small bits and pieces are able to take on entirely new forms in combination and through repetition. While I consider these works to be primarily sculpture and assemblage, the thinking behind them certainly was inspiring and has strong parallels to the realm of collage.
Color array: public art dichroic glass sculpture
in Creativity, Design, Inspiration
I was very pleasantly surprised by the appearance of Osman Akan's "Albedo" artwork when I last stopped by the Denver Botanic Gardens. It enlivens the two-story atrium area of a new parking structure, even on an overcast evening.Created of dichroic glass, the color palette of the sculpture changes with the light and as the viewer walks through the space. It has a nice arching form and is an engaging and wonderful addition to the building. Landscaping was not complete when I took these photos, so I imagine it will look even better next time I visit.The dichroic glass panels remind me of an array of color chips (like my old Pantone® color specifier!), except that they keep modulating with the elements and your position.
1.26: "So completely different at night..."
When artist/friend Catherine Dixon and I went to see "1.26," a piece of public art by Janet Echelman on display for the Biennial of the Americas last week, our impressions were captured by an audio crew... you can hear both of us expounding on the soundtrack of this video. I'm quoted at the beginning and the end, plus somewhere in the middle. (Unless we are "virtual" friends, you'll probably recognize my voice.) The crew really captured what people all along the sidewalk, under the artwork, were experiencing and saying.
1.26 Teaser Trailer - Janet Echelman from Zerosun Pictures on Vimeo.Janet Echelman was commissioned to create a sculpture that would suspend over 14th Street in Civic Center Park. http://www.echelman.com/denver.html