paper art

well, ever since you started your 3D adventure i have been noticing a plethora of things that might in some way be connected to your 'quest'.
so when we received our weekly tv guide, i couldn't help being drawn to its cover.....

the paper art was created as an hommage to that week's special summer guest, the artist used pages from books and magazines that directly refer to the guest's achievements and interests

even Cisca has been infected with the 'paper art virus', this morning she showed me the work of Pepe Heykoop, starting with his paper vase covers this guy is really unbelievable, the way he works with waste products and turns them into carefully designed pieces of art......

the whole pop-up idea has been in my thoughts off and on too, so many ways to incorporate different kinds of folded paper in mixed media work, the possibilities are endless.... but it will have to wait until i can start using my studio.... almost there but not quite.

in the meantime i have discovered yet another 'branch' of 3D/mixed media/paper art: altered books! found this little gem online (while i was actually looking for a birthday present for someone else lol), immediately ordered it and am already soaking up every idea like a sponge.....
thing is, i have stored a very heavy 12-volume encyclopaedia, the one we used to have at home during the sixties

and was planning to throw it away, but now.... probably not! i can already see myself cutting out windows and niches in pages that have a special meaning for me. ahh, sweet dreams are made of this.....

A book recommendation

I found this book on my shelf, took it down, considered using it as a sketchbook, sketched on one page, started reading what I just covered with ink pen lines, and kept going because I found the author speaking directly to me. I had underlined several passages but obviously forgot them over the years. Much is relevant to me now as I find "fear" too often part of my left- and right-brain internal dialogue. Here it is for you to consider...

David Bayles. 2001. Art & Fear: Observations on the perils (& rewards) of art making.

The perfect book title for our illustrated cross-Atlantic conversations. Don't you think?

New work to share

helga, here is what I did today - although I created the artwork a few weeks ago, I glued the canvas to masonite painted with black gesso. I am trying a subtle 3-D with these small works on canvas, which is created by painting and working into a larger piece of canvas with acrylic inks and black ink. After it dried, I cut it up into pieces and made most of them into collages. Canvas is thick and maybe you could call these 3-D. or not. I glued them onto the Masonite and created a "mantle" for them to rest on - actually two of them one above the other in my studio as i think about keeping them as is, or framing them somehow. The canvases are only 5.5" x 4.5". Small, but I do love the colors and compositions of each. Similar to my paper encaustic "creations."

Below is what I did to really try 3-D. 

A container above. Tied with with wires woven into strips from two paintings in acrylic. Not working. I won't even try to "fix" it.

A wrap of some sort; again a weaving using copper wire on two ends and "lined" with a simple wrapping paper, then shaped into a funnel. I have no idea what to do with it and I have put it aside to think about. Any ideas? You, Helga, or anyone else lurking out there?

I am taking an urban sketching class after work Thursday next week for a couple of hours at the art store for the class; the next day 3 or 4 hours at the Minnesota State Fair sketching the people, buildings, sights, smells, and tastes of Minnesota at the end of summer 2015. I am actually looking forward to it; though it has nothing to do with the art work in my studio...but, it could influence it.

Sorry I  have been so quiet on my end. I've been trying to juggle many things, wanting to be in my studio working when I want to focus on art, not having a lot of time to network through our blog. I hope you have been working, too. I hope your studio is moving into the kind of space you've always wanted. I look forward to seeing what you are doing that is inspired by your new work space.

stepping out of the frame

thanks for reframing my still life, it made me aware of my 'addiction' to squares and how cropping and reframing my work has become a kind of thoughtless and repetitive action instead of a creative decision...... my work looks and feels a lot more carefully crafted when freed of its 'geometrically correct' constraints lol!
so i went and played around a bit with the other still life and reframed it like this

i had a great time reframing and reprocessing the original 4x3 iphone shot, so i definitely will spend more time considering cropping and framing options.
yay! no more thoughtless squares.....!

ps i love how your crop of my still life acknowledges the light hanging from the cord; did you know that it was inspired by the way Bacon uses lightbulbs in some of his paintings?

catching up

yes, i have been very quiet. so much to organise with the builders and the design of my studio.... and lots of personal stuff too. my fav uncle is dying and i am trying to spend a lot of good time with him and his wife before he goes.
also my PTSD has been triggered in a major way some time ago and it tends to slowly seep into my ADHD brain-wiring, pushing me under my own private bell jar where no one can get at me. (or reach out to me)
all the while i wanted to post on the blog, because there was/is so much i have to say, so many ideas emerging in response to your work and words, but i just couldn't get rid of that glass dome covering me 24/7.

anyway, things are getting better now so it's time to do some catching up.

first of all: hurray for your idea to go 3D. i really think it is what you're about, almost saw it coming. starting with the way you cut up some of your older work and used it to create new, mostly abstract images. i love the way you are re-cycling, picking out some of the essence of the older work, the shapes and colors that attract you, and letting them lead you on to a whole new path.
i think that when i once told you your work has a kind of constrained abundance, i somehow understood that it needed to break out of those frames you put them in. ha, now you are truly going to let your creations loose on the world....lol!

the whole 3D concept also resonates with some of my own creative endeavors in the past. i have always been fascinated by paper art, especially pop-ups. some years ago i started to try out different techniques with my photographs, wanted to create stuff like Helen Friel or Colette Fu, who is also a photographer. and recently, while looking for more pop up art, i discovered Kelli Anderson, whose incredible pop-up book will soon be published..... wow!
i still have all the technique-books and the equipment, so when i have bought my new printer i might give it another try....

but there are so many other ways to break out of the 2D prison, when i saw the three works in one of your previous posts i immediately saw so many possibilities....

i can imagine fishes in the sea as a big beach towel, or as a carpet on a wooden floor.....

and the eggplant garden would be beautiful as a wallpaper, or even better as a curtain..... can you see it too? 

then there is the abstract floral arrangement

i would love to see this printed on silk, then folded vertically down the middle and turned into a cover for a big pillow/cushion resting on a very expensive design couch.... each side having a similar but different look.

also i have been thinking a lot about your 'it's a wrap' project, trying to figure out how you can create lights out of the wrapped paper. and you won't believe it but i discovered a possible answer while i totally wasn't looking for it..... went to ikea to buy curtains for my new studio and walked into this 'contraption'.....

it was like an epiphany..... it is a fully customisable pendant lamp, with 6 separate paper 'layers' set in a bendable metal frame with a hole in it to put the cord through and you can crumple and shape each layer any way you like..... and it has a hard plastic transparent sheet to fix around the lightbulb so the paper doesn't get too hot......

i immediately bought one, wanted to send it to you by express mail, but thought better of it, because it is too fragile, and besides, they sell it in your own ikea.... 

and to top it all: just look at the price, it costs next to nothing! 

needless to say i was ecstatic, hope you will be too! 

to be continued.....