Playing Favorites: assemblage

James Michael Starr
http://jamesmichaelstarr.com/

“Flightless” (2007)
24-1/2” x 12” x 12”
Globe, cast metal figure, ball

I picked "Flightless" because it meets several of the criteria I've established for a sculptural piece to feel successful to me, and that doesn't happen very often. First of all, it touches on some aspect of the human condition – which one, I'm not sure. As with my titles, I had something in mind at the time and have since forgotten. But that mystery is important to me – and it's made even more enjoyable when I'm just as much in the dark as everyone else.

In contrast to the gravity of a theme like "the human condition" is a sense of the comic or absurd. This figure with its gigantic head becomes almost like a cartoon. Other more overt contrasts are there, too. Richly patinaed color against dark bronze, stark geometry against the organic lines of the human figure, and big ball vs little ball.

Just recently I was in the gallery that sells my work here in Dallas and, when I came upon "Flightless" unexpectedly, I was surprised how much I liked it. I really don't care to have my own work in my home, but this is one that I might not mind seeing on a regular basis.

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azirca
http://speakwithoutmyvoice.blogspot.com/

With each art piece that I create I find that my favourites are forever changing. Whether it be a new technique that I have discovered or an improved way of doing something, I find that I am constantly learning and challenging myself to create something that once finished I can look at and feel proud that I really pushed myself out of my comfort zone.

Currently the assemblages that are the most special to me would be....


"Escaplogy"

Sometimes I plan what I want to achieve before I even start the creation process. I might have a theme in mind, an idea that has been buzzing around in my head, or I may have an item, treasured trinket or photograph that is inspiring me to get to work. Once I have a rough idea of what I want the piece to be about I usually start to gather together the elements that I feel might work. Once I have all of these things in place, I start. However for this particular piece things didn't work like this at all. I had been having trouble getting the ideas from my head into action and I was getting frustrated at not being able to make some sort of sense of my thoughts, thus resulting in a creativity blockage. After a few feeble attempts at trying to get something started and having no luck, the solution to my creativity blockage was...

open drawer that contains supplies
close eyes
pull out the very first thing that your fingers touch
make something using it

The first object that my fingers touched was an old oval shaped tin pie dish, hence 'Escapology' was created.

'Escapology' is currently one of my favourite pieces for a couple of reasons, it was created without any planning, no theme in mind, and no direction as to where I wanted to go with it, a process that I normally don't do. It kind of just happened. However, once finished and I was looking over the piece it suddenly struck me that this assemblage that was born out of sheer frustration had so much personal meaning for me that it was quite scary. 'Escapology' had unbeknown to me resulted in the portrayal of a disability that I have called Fibromyalgia. A lot of my work centres around my health and personal issues but for me to create this with no conscious intention of doing so and for it to be so symbolic for me really was a strange experience. Just goes to show that art really does express what is within us, whether it be consciously or sub-consciously.



"Static in the System"

This is a favourite mainly because of the symbolism behind it. Again this piece relates to my health, but unlike 'Escapolgy' this assemblage was planned so I knew where I was going with this one. Another reason that 'Static in the System' is a favourite is because I discovered a new technique while I was creating this. I knew that I wanted to create a rusted effect over partial areas but I didn't have enough naturally rusty bits so I attempted to create surface rust using modeling compound and course dry sand, of course it's not as good as the real thing but the texture effect worked quite well and I was able to paint it in a rust colour to enhance the texture.



"Fusion"

This assemblage is another favourite of mine, it is quite different to what I usually create. The whole idea of what I had in mind changed during the assembling of it, however I think that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm happy with the the end result and although it's not the same as the idea that I had in mind before I began I think that this different direction halfway through the creation process was a good thing. After all it's a woman's prerogative to change her mind! For the reason that your mind should always be open to change and new ideas, 'Fusion' is memorable for me because of the process that created it as well as the finished piece.

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Jen Worden
http://jenworden.com



"Chrysalis"

This is a recent piece that was fraught with so many technical issues that I was thrilled when it was finally done. It seems the more an idea or the elements fight against me the more I begin to admire its tenacity.

I was trying out a technique from Jane Wynn’s new book "altered Curiousities" cutting into a glass object. I taped the blown glass heart per her instructions, scored my opening and Voila! a not quite perfect but still discernible heart-shaped opening. I was in love! Shoulda known better because clearly my Muse was enjoying the prospect of inflicting pain. While clamping the bug inside the heart, the clamp slipped off and the heart shattered all over my studio. Okaaaayyyyy.

I was able to repair said heart with the worst cracks being at the back and they wouldn’t really show anyway. Yay! Plus one for me. Then one day, while readying the heart to be glued into the box, it jumped … just jumped … out of my hands and crashed to the floor. This time the repair wouldn’t be so easy. Deciding to make lemonade (think: get lemons? make lemonade!) I figured I could use the remaining shards as part of the piece. Hence my title "Chrysalis".

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Jen Crossley
http://amarkintime.blogspot.com/


The Michael DeMeng piece I did at his class. I love the 3D effect of the camera with the man in behind it. It was my first go at playing with paints. I love the metal wings painted -- that is my favorite bit. They came up so awesome from the bright gold they started with.



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Karen Cole
http://karencole.blogspot.com/


I have included an assemblage. It is the first I created, in Italy, when I attended a Michael Demeng workshop. The place, the instruction, the Italian "junking", but mostly the people I was lucky enough to meet and share ideas with made it an amazing experience.



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Leighanna Light
http://lklight.blogspot.com/
http://lklight.etsy.com

This was a piece that I made in a class that I took from Keith LoBue. It is made almost entirely from junk that we found on the street, I'm still amazed that I could have assembled anything from all of that junk. It was also my first taste of using cold connections instead of glue, which was quite the challenge for me.

The Pulse: Playing Favorites

Imagine a museum filled with the work of all your favorite artists working in all your favorite artistic mediums. Now imagine that every piece of artwork has been hand chosen by each artist as their absolute favorites. Then imagine that printed by each piece of art is an explanation written by the artist detailing their selection. Welcome to Playing Favorites!

Responding to my invitation and an open call on my blog, more than 45 artists (and counting) have generously donated their art and their words to this installment of The Pulse. Collectively, they have submitted over 120 pieces of art. Over the next few weeks, I will be posting selections from each artist that are their favorite creations. Along with the images are their own stories that explain the significance of their choice or choices. Both the selections of artwork and the accompanying stories will help you get to know each artist on a more personal and revealing level.

Playing Favorites...coming to The Altered Page on Monday March 24th. See you there!

Nature Journal

Artist and blogger Sarah Whitmire and I have begun a collaborative Nature Journal. We have just started this project and have sent off our journals to each other for the first time. This will no doubt be a lengthy process and chances are I wont be posting complete images until the journals are done. I thought it might be interesting however to post some peeks at the pages I make as they are created. Visit Sarah's blog Caspiana to see some of her wonderful artwork.

Tag...you're it!

Okay. I am finally giving in. I have been tagged by four people in the last month. Thanks to Sarah, &rew, Marie, and Maralena for this honor. The rules from each person were slightly different but boil down to sharing 6 or 7 random, odd, strange, weird, or non-important things, habits, quirks, and/or facts about myself. So in keeping with the theme of my blog, I have decided to post 6 random art-related facts. In no particular order...

1. When I was in grade school, I won a contest designing a poster for a statewide project called "Read to Succeed." I guess my interest in art started young.

2. When I go to a museum to see an exhibit, I never ever take the tour they offer...whether it is via audio or an actual guide. I need to go at my own pace -- which is always faster than the guide.

3. I own somewhere in the neighborhood of six different cameras but I almost always only use one -- my Nikon D-40.

4. As a child my favorite crayola crayon in the big 64-crayon box was always Burnt Sienna. I sometimes thought that this was a boring choice but now I think I was just way ahead of the curve on the earthtone, rust, and nature trends.

5. In the past I was frustrated when I made "a mistake" when working on a piece of art but I have come to realize that there are no errors in the process. Some of my best work has actually come from "correcting" these supposed mistakes.

6. I always seem to have an extracurricular art obsession. At one time it was searching Ebay. Then it was collecting zines. For a while it was Etsy. Now it most certainly is art blogs. Hope this obsession never ends!

Part of being tagged is to name other bloggers that I want to tag. Instead of choosing a specific list of people, I propose that anybody who would like to share an art-related quirk either do so on their blog or leave it in a comment. Tag...you're it!


On another note, I would like to send out thanks to Dinner with Picasso for including my blog in the Blog Roll Game!

Revolution XV

ingredients: altered paper, acrylic paint, leaf, thread, rub on letters, pigment ink, found nail. click images to enlarge.

Revolution XIV

ingredients: altered paper, acrylic paint, dry transfer, vintage book cloth thread, leaf, pigment & dye ink, computer type, colored pencil. click images to enlarge.

Revolution XIII

ingredients: altered paper, ephemera, acrylic paint, rub on letters, pigment & dye ink, uniball gel ink. click images to enlarge.

Multiple Choice

Call them multiples, collections, groupings, obsessions, or repetitions. More than one of any individual object catches my eye.

Revolution XII

ingredients: altered paper, vintage book page, computer type, acrylic paint, dry transfer, dye ink, uniball gel ink. click image to enlarge.

Revolution XI

ingredients: altered paper, acrylic paint, dry transfer, rubber stamping, pigment & dye ink, walnut ink, uniball gel metallics. click images to enlarge.

Spotlight: Eric Saak

"Chaos - where brillant dreams are born. - ancient Chinese proverb. Yet in all it’s randomness there is an order to everything. Creating these images is my exploration of that idea." Such are the words of Eric Saak, an Oklahoma-based artist in the area of digital collage. Ten years before the recent publication of Somerset Digital Studio, Eric was already experimenting with this art medium.

I came across his work on the web and was struck by the energy in all his pieces. As I look at his collages, I see so many elements that speak to me...layers, texture, scratchy lines, text, hidden images, and more. His work has that natural, distressed, grungy feeling that I love. And the composition of his pieces seems intuitively just right to me.

According to Eric, "I am a perfectionist and to have things out of order is uncomfortable for me. I started using the computer as a canvas in 1998 because it was an unexplored medium for creating fine art at the time. I began working on a collection of digital paintings and collages to challenge myself to think outside of my own boundaries."

"I strive to create images that don’t look digital because I don’t like the idea that something created on the computer isn’t made by hand. The creative process is the same except that more traditional tools such as brushes and oils have been replaced by a mouse and a keyboard."

"Each piece I create has some significance to an event or moment in my life. While living in New York I began collecting the images for the series “Space Refined” which relate to experiences and places I visited. It also refers to my perspective of the city and the space it was built on, from one perspective you see it as a whole but as you look closer you can see the many layers that make up the city, much like the many layers in my paintings."

If you are interested in learning more about Eric, seeing additional images, or purchasing his work, he welcomes your email at ozias@aol.com

Alive...with color

Last week I received a RAK - Random Act of Kindness - From Tina Shoaga. A little while back she had posted about mail art and I left a comment. Being the generous and creative person she is, she went ahead and sent me a blast of color in the mail.




And as can be seen from these photos..the insides and the outsides were equally amazing. She including some beautiful tags and a bookmark. Tina also had sewn the envelope shut. Nice touch. Visit her blog Tinas space to see more of her work. Thanks Tina!





Last week I posted about Julie from The Land of Lost Luggage and her week-long tutorial about creating journal pages. If you haven't stopped by, do so now. She presents so many tips. You will probably learn something new or be reminded of a technique you haven't used in a while. I followed along and this is what I created. Not so sure that I love the final page but I was happy trying a new approach and some new techniques. Here are some page details - please click to enlarge:

Revolution X

ingredients: altered paper, acrylic paint, dry transfers, electrical tape, wax pastels, waxed linen thread, rubber stamping, pigment & dye ink, pen & pencil. click images to enlarge.

Evolution of Revolution IX

Thanks to everyone for your amazing feedback about my Revolution project. I have received a number of comments and emails from visitors to my blog asking some very specific questions about Revolution, including requests that I share the process that goes into creating the individual pieces. I have started to list the ingredients and I thought it might be interesting to take you on a step-by-step look into the making of one of my relatively simple pieces which I call Time is Running out. So, in pictures and in words, here is the evolution of revolution:





Each piece begins on notched cardstock that is a little larger than 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches. In this piece, the cardstock was covered with a light colored paper and, as can be seen in this picture, partially painted with the first layer of acrylic paint.







In this second picture, a second color of acrylic paint was added without completely covering the first layer. In some pieces I will add additional layers of different color acrylics as well.






Here I have added some random scribbling in complimentary colors using my favorite brand of wax pastels -- Caran D'Ache. I have used both water soluble neocolor II and metallic neocolor I. On those pieces that I add further layers of acrylic paint, I will also add addtional wax pastel, and often altered bits of paper, between each layer.







On the right side you can now see the addition of a dry transfer. This adds additional depth to the piece.








This is the part I like best and the one that usually adds the most texture to my pieces. Using several colors of acrylic paint, I place scattered lines across the page using the edge of a bookboard. For narrower lines I use the edge of a fake credit card...you know the ones we all receive in the mail as part of credit offers. On this piece, the lines are relatively ordered and run both horizontally and vertically. Click to enlarge this image to better see the texture.






More acrylic paint was added here in two steps. First, I used bubble wrap lightly coated with paint to add distressed-looking circles. Then I splattered away using white acrylic paint thinned with a little water. I now felt that the background was done.








Once the background is complete, I will add the main images. Usually that consists of altered paper, an altered photo, or a transparency. However, for variation and simplicity, I used a rubber stamp and rub on letters in this piece. I stamped the image of the faucet using dye ink and then outlined the stamped image using a uni-ball pen to darken. Then I added the letters.






This is the completed piece. Although hard to tell from the photo, I edged the entire piece with black dye ink as a way to frame the art. I almost always feel that my artwork looks better when edged with ink, paint, paper, or another medium.





I hope the evolution of revolution was interesting and useful. I am always inspired when an artist shows me their process step by step. Hopefully you were inspired too. In fact, if any of you create something using this combination of techniques, please feel free to leave a link to your work in the comment section or email an image and I will post it.