Celebrating "Nodes" new home

My biggest-yet collage has found a wonderful home. I wrote quite a bit here about Nodes as it was coming together, so though I'd finish the story. The piece sold at my recent Spark Gallery exhibition. Once the show came down and I was able to deliver the collage, the collectors hosted a hanging celebration complete with appetizers and champagne. Check out the fully-loaded coffee table above :)What a fun evening. New furnishings had been selected to go with the collage (!) and the room looks great. We discussed potential accent paint colors for the wall behind the piece and admired our handiwork. It was cool to see how some of the shapes in the collage relate to their collection of african sculpture. I don't always get to see where my work winds up, so this was a real treat. Not to mention the delectable food and bubbly! Nodes is their second collage. My "Arabesque" collage (at left) has hung in an entry niche for several years. I'm so honored that this family enjoys living with my work -- meanwhile, their purchase brings resources and creates space for my future collage explorations. I love how that happens.

PostSecret

"Sometimes
when we think we are keeping a secret
that secret is actually keeping us." 

– Frank Warren, founder and curator of PostSecret

I've had a postcard collection since childhood. Perhaps that's why the exhibition, PostSecret, held such allure -- however, these postcards were created and sent to share secrets. 

“Courage can be more important than artistic training or technique in creating meaningful and lasting art."

Frank Warren started the project in 2004 by handing out blank postcards to strangers and leaving them in public places. Each card invited people to anonymously share a secret: something that was true and had never been shared with anyone before. He has now received over half a million postcards, some of which have been included in exhibitions and best-selling books. A show of about 400 of the postcards is on view at the Foothills Art Center in Golden, Colorado through June 26, 2011.

"PostSecret creates this model of a safe, non-judgmental place to share your secrets where you don’t feel weird or different or strange or alone.”

Some of the cards were carefully designed, others simply words, but all shared a secret -- whether poignant, shocking, or hilarious. Most were quite touching, some easy to relate to, others reflecting difficult experiences -- all heartfelt. Each postcard becomes a piece of personal artistic expression and the overall installation is quite emotional to experience.

I was also able to attend Frank Warren's amazing lecture about the Post Secret project and his mission to raise awareness about suicide prevention. Besides sharing his story, he showed postcards that were not able to be published in the books and allowed the audience, many of whom were in tears, time to express their secrets. His project really highlights the ability of creative expression to be an incredibly positive outlet for healing.

The PostSecret blog, the largest advertisement-free blog in the world, continues to showcase incoming postcards, an ongoing communal art project, with over 445 million views. The next exhibition will be at MoMA in July. I recommend a visit to this project in one of its many forms -- via blog, book, or exhibition -- it's truly thought-provoking and eye-opening. And perhaps you'll want to submit a secret of your own.

Emerging from distraction

"Emerging," contemporary paper collage on wood panel, 10 x 10 x 1." © 2011, Janice McDonald.

I've been distracted by life lately: experiencing a bit of a letdown from all the show excitement, catching up with work/commitments I'd delayed, busy traveling to southern California and New Orleans... and not adding much to this blog! I think I've almost caught up with myself. The to-do list is still long, but not quite so daunting, this week.

Some exciting news: I was invited to become a member of Spark Gallery, the oldest cooperative gallery in Denver, a presence in the local art scene for 30+ years. Soon I will have a page to represent myself/my work on their website. I'm looking forward to getting to know this community of artists and being involved in the functioning of the gallery, as well as showing there regularly.

I was really pleased to have sold well and have enjoyed delivering collages to their new owners and homes... still a couple more deliveries to coordinate. (You know who you are!) Based on the show, I'm also exploring producing prints of the collages, thinking about the potential of collage imagery for set design, considering sourcing and working with bigger hunks of paper to create larger pieces -- among other big, exciting, and somewhat wild, ideas!

So, in the studio working away this week... nice to be back at it!

Eggstravaganza, wild egg decorating soiree

Last night was our annual night-before-Easter egg-decorating party. Six creative people and five dozen eggs later, here are the favorites! Any tool/technique and combining of colors was fair game. We used Paas® egg colors, rubber bands, string, cello tape, duct tape, china markers, Sharpie® markers, pencils, colored pencils, crayons, etc. Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate it!

Now that I've got most of the colors off my hands, I'm heading to the gallery to take down my show... Rather bittersweet as it has been such a great experience for me with positive comments, sales, good connections made, and an invitation to join the coop gallery.