Collectors Edition: Chapter 9

Welcome to the fourth edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. Nearly 150 artists have answered a list of questions which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented as a series of online and print projects. Links to the first four projects (Secret Sunday, The Book Guild, StudioScapes, Viewer's Choice) can be found on the sidebar of my blog.

Collectors Edition is the fifth installment in which your favorite artists share their favorite collection or obsession.
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Roben-Marie Smith

My latest obsession is fabric napkins! I scour the clearance section of stores like Pier One for beautiful napkins that I will cut and stitch into something totally different.

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Deryn Mentock

Pewter

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Leslie Rosenberg

I’m currently obsessed with organizing my stuff. I took over a small closet that had once been used as a mini computer office, and made my own studio there instead. So, I’ve been buying all kinds of bins and things to put everything into some kind of order – and close at hand. I viewed Teesha Moore’s online how-to videos on journal-making (on her blog) and got inspired to reorganize my markers and pens by color (and not by type), as seen in this photo. I put them in square glass candle/flower holders from the dollar store, and I love being able to reach for any color.

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Donna Joy

My current obsession is playing with texture.

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Pam McKnight

Since I have always enjoyed collecting things and a person only has so much room, I have started to use these things in my art - thus giving me the added benefit of having a reason to stop at every garage sale and thrift store I come upon. Garage sales and thrift stores are really my "art stores.: It is a much "greener" approach to making art. Instead of buying new, you are buying things that might otherwise end up in the landfill.

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Lisa Jurist

My nest collection.

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Ro Bruhn

Hand made jewelry.
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Kelly Kilmer

Decorative tape.

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Judith Stadler

My treasure chest of rust.

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Sarah Fishburn

Books.
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Next Collectors Edition Post - 3/6/11

The Sketchbook Project

Are you familiar with the The Sketchbook Project hosted by the Art House Co-op? Participants in this project were provided with a blank Moleskine sketchbook with its own unique bar code. They then selected one theme from a list provided and completed the sketchbook with that theme in mind. Completed sketchbooks were then returned and became part of a collection that will tour the United States. Over 28,000 artists from more than 90 countries received blank sketchbooks and approximately 10,000 books were completed and returned.

The opening of the travelling exhibit was this past weekend at the Brooklyn Art Library in Brooklyn, NY.

All visitors to the exhibit checked in and were given their own personal library cards, which granted them access to the sketchbooks, two at a time.

You could request books based on artist name, artist location, or sketchbook theme. The whole process was amazingly smooth and fast despite the large crowd and the large number of books...

...books...

...and more books!

I did not participate myself but was able to look up the sketchbooks from some artists who might be familiar to you.

A page out of the sketchbook of Chris Miser.

Joan Rowlands sketchbook from Australia.

From Kathryn Dyche Dechairo's sketchbook.

A spread from the sketchbook of Juana Almaguer.

From Pat McNally's sketchbook.

I know most of you will not get a chance to see this exhibit so I hope you enjoyed the view from your computer screen.

The Great Wall

In 2009 Julie Prichard, Lynne Hoppe, and I collaborated together on a project we called Graffiti Wall. You can read all about it and see images here. This project was so unique, fun, and inspiring that we decided to collaborate again on Graffiti Wall 2010. We each created our own hand painted papers and mailed these to each other along with assorted ephemera. Using Graffiti Wall as our theme, we were then free to create whatever we wanted, in any format, using the papers. We did not share what we were creating until the pieces were complete.

I am thrilled that this project is currently being featured in the March/April issue of Somerset Studio. And I am even more excited that Julie's part of the project is the cover image.

My project is called Lost and Found and was inspired by the layers and layers of graffiti that were such a large part of NYC in the early 1980s.

(click images to enlarge)

The palette of my piece reflects the darkness that seemed to permeate the city at that time. The triptych represents the three of us in collaboration. And the Lost and Found is reflective of the journey that the graffiti, the city, and I have taken.

Thanks to Julie and Lynne for being the perfect co-collaborators. And a thank you to Christen Olivarez, Director of Publishing at Stampington Company, for allowing us to share this project with so many others!

Collectors Edition: Chapter 8

Welcome to the fourth edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. Nearly 150 artists have answered a list of questions which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented as a series of online and print projects. Links to the first four projects (Secret Sunday, The Book Guild, StudioScapes, Viewer's Choice) can be found on the sidebar of my blog.

Collectors Edition is the fifth installment in which your favorite artists share their favorite collection or obsession.
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Egmont van Dyck

Over the decades I have collected many different things, from butterflies as a teenager, to books, maps and African masks. The last decade I have focused on old photographs from the 1920’s through the early sixties.

I would be particularly delighted when finding a series of snapshots, which allowed me to imagine what their lives might have been like on the day the picture was taken. As I started playing detective, deciphering not only the people pictured but also the elements within I began to notice the rich recourse material I was harvest, would make a great foundation for short stories.

Even a single photo can be rich with information to stir the mind. Sometimes I get real lucky and find a name or a date on the back. However very recently I found my first photograph, in which there was an entire inscription on the back, still to be translated. Now I just need to make time and turn my findings into a mixture of imagination and truths into  an assemblage of sentences by putting pen to paper.

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Robert Stockton

I collect various and sundry old tins. Pictured, here, are a sampling. I tend to collect tins that have colors and/or designs I enjoy, but also like those that have rusted or those where the metal has developed a nice patina over the years, whether it has been produced by man (from use), or nature!

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William J. Charlebois

I love grunge, steampunk and zetti art. This is a digital picture I created that combines all three.

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Jennifer Lorton

I'm obsessed with winged things, texture, and spirals.

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Kerin Gale

If I could round up all my antique tools I would have shot those. I love the sense of history and thinking about what was made with them and who worked with them. But I also love these Victorian condiment sets. Two isn't much of a collection but I will add more as I find them. I like the ones that aren't perfect and/or complete because I think I will find or make lids for them and perhaps find some lone bottle looking for a set. And there is a huge price difference between the pristine perfect ones and the incomplete or slightly damaged sets. Both of these were under $50 and the better sets are around $300.

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Regina Dwarkasing

All treasure of the sea, weathered wood, and roots of old trees.

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Olivia King

An on-going obsession is collecting found objects that appear to have little use to other people. Scouring the streets and sidewalks for interesting pieces of flotsam is a great way to take a walk and get inspired! I guess I lover other people's trash! My favorite find is someone else's list of things to do, or shopping items, or just thoughts. I think it would be great to create a book from found lists. I also collect small chairs.

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Vivian Bonder

Water solubles go onto my every surface these days.

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Carmen Torbus

Strings of white lights and paper lanterns. I have them in my studio and in my office. I'm completely obsessed. They provide so much inspiration and they make me giddy! Love them!

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AnitaNH

My current obsession is old books. As a trained librarian I have been collecting books for years, especially books about art and graphic design. Now I look for items out of copyright with steel engravings that can be used in collage. 19th century science, anthropology, and natural history are favorite topics, and also old encyclopedias and dictionaries.

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Next Collectors Edition Post - 2/27/11

Emma

Still working on using the many step-out pieces from Gaze, my spotlight project in Pam Carriker's book Art at the Speed of Life.

I have already posted Passages, the first artwork I made using these pieces. And now there is Emma. Apparently I decided to channel my softer side with this piece - LOL!

Available for purchase in The Altered Page on Etsy.

In Context

Way back in January 2009, I started a collaborative project with Bridgette Guerzon Mills and Jen Worden. We each created our own handmade structures, in any style we wanted, and began exchanging pieces so that we would all would work in all the structures multiple times. Jen created a set of loose metal pages. Bridgette made a plaster book. And I created a handmade book from vintage dictionary pages. Here is the cover of Contexture...

We have now all worked in each others projects two or three times. This is the first spread I created in my own book (click to enlarge)...

And I have just completed my second spread...

My book is now on its way to Bridgette so she can work her magic next.