Fun with Dick and Jane and Livestock

"Fun with Dick and Jane and Livestock"

triptych 8" x 24"

Acrylic and Collage on Boxed Panels

$200

Just a little collage triptych for an upcoming juried exhibit in Taylor.  The theme for the exhibit is "Fun with Livestock"????  Grade school imagery seemed the best way to keep it clean. :)

Illustration Friday - Golden

Unfolding

20 x 20

Acrylic on Gallery Wrapped Canvas

It just worked out that a painting I was finishing up this week also happened to work moderately well for this weeks Illustration Friday prompt "Golden".  This painting started out as an assignment for my painting students.  The object of the assignment was to create a collage out of found images and then to use that collage as the starting reference for a painting.  The result is that the final image has the feel of a collage but has no mixed media in the final work.   We spent a lot of time talking about how images that seem to have no relationship to each other can be combined to create new meaning.

Illustration Friday - Retro

Boxed Collage

Part of a larger assemblage.

full image of completed work to come

Illustration Friday - Voyage

Stories I Tell Myself About Reality

8 x 8

Acrylic and collage on box panel

After a long absence, I am returning to my blog and weekly Illustration Friday submissions.  The last year and a half has been (and continues to be) a long and arduous voyage, full of loss, fear, disappointment, guilt, and unexpected moments of hope and courage.  We experience life as an ongoing narrative that we tell ourselves to explain how events fit into our personal story.  I like the metaphorical strength of collage as a narrative device and hope to produce an ongoing series of collage works based on the theme "Stories I Tell Myself."  

I feel like Odysseus..... 

Illustration Friday - Return

Balance 4

acrylic and mixed media collage on canvas

48 x 36 inches

A return to Illustration Friday after a somewhat lengthy absence.  A return to and overdue completion of another piece in my "Balance" series.  In a little over a week I will return to my beloved Texas for my Master of Arts in Art Education final exhibit and presentation at Stephen F Austin State University.  It is a return for me because in the course of this semester I have managed to sell my house and farm in East Texas and move to the charming village of Baldwinsville in Upstate New York.  Big changes all around!

Illustration Friday - Silent

Conceptual Self Portrait

acrylic and collage on board

5 x 7 (unframed)

This week's Illustration Friday topic is a bit more introspective and philosophical so I decided that this conceptual self portrait, completed about a week ago, worked perfectly.  The quote that came with this weeks topic is by Emily Carr: "I think that one's art is a growth inside one.  I do not think one can explain growth.  It is silent and subtle.  One does not keep digging up a plant to see how it grows."  

I also completed a more traditional self portrait image recently.  This one is colored pencil on a primed panel behind mirrored glass.  I made a comment recently in a class that I hate pink.  I realized after I said it that I really don't hate pink, it is just a difficult color to use effectively, and I hate seeing it used badly or without purpose or thought..  So... I decide to make a few pieces where pink is a dominant/important element.  I like the kitsch of the pink painted frames. Click on the images if you would like to see them larger.

Migraine

colored pencil on panel with mirrored glass

19.5 x 12.5 (framed)

Illustration Friday - Scattered

Scattered Influences

mixed media collage on panel

12 in x 12 in

I have been thinking a lot lately about what influences art and artists.  I have also been thinking quite a bit about what makes an image iconic, how iconography affects the way we interpret images, and the impact of unexpected juxtapositions.  I don't think I will say more than that today.  Collages can be so metaphorically rich that I will let you all sort this one out for yourselves.

In case that is not enough, here are a few more.  All are 8 x 8 inches on panel

Welcome to Somewhere off Center

A new direction in life calls for a new blog, so this is where you will find current information and postings about my artistic endeavors and discoveries.  I will post fine art pieces as well as illustrations to this site. In my mind, there is only a slight distinction between the two art forms.  Illustration often crosses over into fine art, and fine art very frequently contains a strong visual narrative.  I consider myself a visual storyteller, so the marriage of art and illustration makes perfect sense to me.

Below you will find the first three canvases of a new body of work I call "The Balance Series".  These are large mixed media pieces dealing with man's utilization and manipulation of the earths resources.  Visual/compositional inspiration comes from Egyptian hieroglyphics as well as the work of Joseph Cornell. I hope that this theme will keep me busy for some time and will result in a group of works that will be exhibited on a broader basis than I have pursued in the past.  Please let me know what you think.  I love to receive comments and constructive criticism.

 48 in. x 48 in.

Mixed Media on Canvas

 48 in. x 48 in.

Mixed Media on Canvas

48 in. x 60 in.

Mixed Media on Canvas