Collage and choreography collaboration

Choreographer Patricia Renzetti visited my exhibition at Spark Gallery this spring and was attracted to a small, experimental collage work on paper. She immediately could visualize it as the background for a dance she was working on. I was enchanted with the idea of seeing the work so LARGE."Budding," contemporary collage on paper, 8 x 8." © 2011, Janice McDonald."Budding" is simple -- only 8 x 8 inches, composed of just four pieces of paper, ripped from a magazine, and glued onto a white page. To better work with the horizontal proportions of the stage, the collage was scanned and the black paper element was cloned and manipulated to extend the "ground" to about twice as long as the original. The resulting digital file will be used to project the image onto the backdrop.Our collaboration will be premiered this weekend when Delusions of Grandeur Productions presents "Eternal Dialogue" at the Dairy Center for the Arts in Boulder, Colorado (August 19th and 20th at 7:30pm) and also the following weekend at Su Teatro Denver Civic Theatre in Denver (August 27th at 7:30pm).The piece is entitled "Reflections" with music by Arvo Part for cello and piano. I hope to eventually have a photograph of the dancers moving in front of the collage to post here.My daughter is a very accomplished dancer and I have a fondness for all things dance... however this is the first time MY work will be presented on the stage. I'm very excited to see how it will come together at a live performance!

Sparked Blog » Composed by Janice McDonald

Happy to discover this article about my most recent exhibition on a very interesting, creative blog, Sparked. (Not to be confused with Denver's Spark Gallery!)

"Collage, a favorite art form of mine, invites creative play forming an assemblage from everyday objects. Maybe growing up in a family of collagists watching my mother and sister craft their own papered compositions heightened my sensitivity..."

See the full article here: www.sparked.biz

Kevin Spacey on the importance of the arts

Worth watching... the entire Nancy Hanks Lecture at The Kennedy Center (April 4th, 2011) which prompted this interview about the role of the arts is here.

Halloween: boo-tifully creative monster masks

Let me preface this post by saying that we live in a neighborhood that takes Halloween VERY seriously... On a typical Halloween we will have 300-400 costumed kids stopping by between 5:30 and 7:30pm, the official end of trick-or-treating. (After which, the adults on our block usually have a party!)

Thought it would be fun to show you the extra-large monster masks that Jim and I made way back in 2003...

I notice that the book we used as a papier/cloth-mache construction reference, Simple Screamer by Dan Reeder, is now out of print. It's a good instruction manual for such a project, if you can find a copy. (Note that I designed my mask to accommodate potential eating/drinking while Jim opted for architecturally ornamental teeth! To each his own.)

Construction of the masks took several evenings, plus quite a bit of drying time, not to mention more time for details like making and baking clay teeth, then painting the masks. It was a great, fun, messy project! Hard to believe we were doing all this in our teeny-tiny kitchen (a truly amazing auxiliary creative space)! I think I'd better go up to the attic and pull them out for an encore appearance this year...

Here are some of the stages... double click to see more details. And here's to a wildly creative Halloween!