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!

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.

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

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.