Blue and white sketchbook collage explorations

I've always loved the color blue, in all its variations, and been attracted to nearly any patterned blue and white pattern/motif (as evidenced above in a quick stroll with camera through my home.) In culling materials for collage, I rarely find blue and white patterns that are large enough in scale to use in my work... but I rip them out anyway, just in case! 

I recently decided to play with the blue and white bits in my sketchbook. I painted rough swatches of black gesso across a spread and am beginning my small-scale explorations in blue and white there. The process is already giving me new ideas and directions for future, larger, pieces. I'm especially enjoying responding to the rough-edged black patches by adding collage elements and have already started another series on paper that experiments with large gessoed areas of black as a basis for further collages. 

 

Non-linear visual journalling

Sketchbooks, "legacy" projects, and visual journalling have somehow figured in many of my conversations over the last week or so. Funny how ideas connect, collide, and enhance each other in unpredictable ways!I participated in a really wonderful and inspiring workshop on visual journalling with Judith Cassel-Mamet, sponsored by Abecedarian Gallery, over the weekend. I loved Judith's premise that a visual journal needn't be linear. The idea of working a bit on many pages simultaneously, back and forth, in the spaces (intervals) between things, in small moments, really resonated with me. Not surprisingly, working in a layered and additive manner appeals to me as a collagist.It was great fun to work rapidly and freely with mixed media approaches to the pages. I have lots of wild new thoughts about journalling and artist book possibilities.I've decided to try integrating my art idea sketchbook (existing) into an idea/visual/fun/life journal. It's all intertwined anyway. However, my junk mail journal, which has been rather dormant of late, will remain its own entity... as it has a long, storied, and independent history!Hopefully I'll have pages from the sketch-journal (or whatever I eventually decide to call it!) to post here from time to time. The experimental piece shown is a cropped portion of a multi-layered mixed media piece that I worked on during the workshop, then simply taped into my book, to await further play (or not). We'll see... happily, anything goes.

Anthropomorphism 1

Ever have the feeling that some-body/thing is watching you?! I was driving behind this vehicle the other day (no clue what it does) and just had to snap a quick photo at a stoplight. What a "face!" 

I see images like this, looking back at me, pretty regularly, which is why my Foundling Series of collages began. Perhaps I need to start a collection of these photos for comic relief. I bet you all see them too... :)

anthropomorphism |ˌanθrəpəˈmôrˌfizəm| noun

the attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal, or object.

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