The Blues

"The Blues" A Gallery 9 Group Show

March 3-28 (Opening reception March 5, 6:30-9:30 p.m.)

124 S. 9th St, Lincoln NE

I'm working on a triptych for this show and still have a lot of work to get done this week. I made the mistake of watching Philadelphia for the first time list night while working. Needless to say I didn't get as much work done as I had hoped.

The bottom of the collage will be 11 layers of paper, so I'm doing some major paper flattening/drying today while I am at work. Luckily I have this massive and heavy ceramic torso I made in a class in college that just sort of sits around being useless, so it finally has a purpose today as i'm using its massive weight to press all this paper.

Tedious Cutting

Working on a lot of collages at the moment, with a lot more that I need to start on. Currently on my desk are some ghosts, a kingfisher, and a llama. Here are some photos:

Cut out the outline for this forlorn ghost. It took some patience, but I think it turned out nicely.

There are three ghosts in the piece, and they will all need to be outlined.

Getting the tracing paper and rubber cement off of the back of paper that thin and breakable is a little nerve-wracking.

Oh, and also there's this bird. He's not involved with the ghosts.

Making a Dragon

Some people have asked me how I put my collages together, so I thought I would post a little collage creation photo series. I know I'm always really interested in how other artists work - I like seeing pictures of studios and work in progress. So, hopefully this is somewhat interesting.

STEPS 1 & 2: I always start from a sketch. In the case of this dragon, I had already made the piece once before, so I had a picture to start from. Usually I scan my pencil sketches, size them to whatever size the collage will be, and use that printout. I then trace each shape that will need to be in the collage.

Step 3: I pick out all the paper I will be using in the collage. These here are dragonish papers.

Step 4: I use a thin, mostly wet coat of rubber cement and glue each piece of paper to the traced image.

Here you can see all the papers cemented down onto the tracing paper. There are some strips of paper there as well, which I will be using on one of the layers.

Step 5: I let the cemented paper sit overnight so it doesn't slip around while I am cutting it out. On the back of each piece of paper you can see the shape I traced. I use this as the guide for cutting out the shapes.

Step 6: After the shapes are all cut out, I peel off the tracing paper (since I only used one layer of wet cement, it is only a temporary bond) and remove the excess cement with a rubber cement removing block thing.

Step 7: Assembly. All the shapes are clean and ready to be glued. I assemble the pieces one at a time so I can trim straggly edges and stuff like that. When the basic character/creature is together, it gets pressed under a huge stack of heavy books and old printmaking blocks overnight so that it's firmly together and everything is flat.

Step 8: While the dragon is being flattened, I usually start working on painting the background. This sets overnight as well so I'm sure the paint is dry before I start gluing collages to it.

Step 9: Once the dragon has been suitably pressed, I add the details. Here I'm cutting out spots to go on his back. Usually I'll press the collage again overnight if I add details like this.

Step 10: The little guy is all done. Time to glue him to his background.

Step 11: The piece gets pressed overnight again when I glue the paper to the painted board. Here you can see my pressing system. Lots of ridiculously heavy college books going to good use. Someday I intend to buy a book press or something like that.

And there's a completed dragon. Just needs to be sprayed with an acrylic UV/waterproofing finishing spray, matted and framed. Usually my desk is pretty messy by this point. Especially since I usually have 4-5 pieces in production at one time.

Intergalactic Mice at Gallery 9

Collages Completed: 31

Audiobooks Finished: 2

Hours of movies/TV watched in studio while working: apx. 80

The show is up! I am really happy with how it all came together and am also really happy that despite finishing less pieces than I had planned, it ended up being enough. Please stop by the opening reception on Friday (June 5) from 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. at the Gallery (124 S. 9th Street, Lincoln).

The rest of the week will be spent playing video games, dying my hair bright red, reading book 3 of the Dresden files, spending time with my boyfriend, and basically doing things that are fun and relaxing.

Went to see The Decemberists in Kansas City last week. Awesome.

The art takes over the living room....

Matting...

Look! Progress!

Paintings.

The gallery corgi Murry and guest play as the art is arranged at the gallery.

Murry is pooped after a long day of being adorable. I could go for a nap myself.

Getting Ready For The Show (Post 7)

Collages Completed: 23

Collages Near Completion: 7

Collages Ready to Start: 3

Movies Watched So Far During Studio Time:

Raiders of the Lost Ark (2)

Spirited Away

Twilight

The Incredible Hulk

Iron Man

Bridget Jones' Diary

King Kong

Superman Returns

The Dark Knight

Land of the Dead (2)

Pride & Prejudice mini-series

Princess Mononoke

The Punisher

Venture Bros. Season 3

House Season 1

Spaceballs

Desperado

Lord of the Rings (all three extended editions + Appendices)

The Bourne Identity

Pride & Prejudice

Gross Pointe Blank

Howl's Moving Castle

Eddie Izzard: Unrepeatable & Dress to Kill

Doom

Sin City

Home stretch! It will be a busy weekend, but the end is in sight. Looks like the total will be 34 - lets hope it will be enough. Obviously I'm not the kind of person who gets everything done with lots of time to spare. Luckily, I think I work better with the pressure of a looming deadline. :)

Tomorrow I go to Kansas City to see The Decemberists again and then it's back to art production, matting, and framing through the weekend. Show hangs on Monday.

Frames take over part of the living room.....

In production...

Another series of work shots:

Getting Ready For The Show (Post 6)

Collages Completed: 16

Collages Near Completion: 10

Collages Ready to Start: 7

Movies Watched So Far During Studio Time:

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Spirited Away

Twilight

The Incredible Hulk

Iron Man

Bridget Jones' Diary

King Kong

Superman Returns

The Dark Knight

Land of the Dead

Pride & Prejudice mini-series

Princess Mononoke

The Punisher

Venture Bros. Season 3

House Season 1

Spaceballs

Desperado

Lord of the Rings (all three extended editions + Appendices)

The Bourne Identity

Pride & Prejudice

Gross Pointe Blank

Howl's Moving Castle

Boy that movie list has gotten long. ....

Still working - it's going to be a long 3-day weekend. I have to take about 24 hours of no-art next week when I drive to Kansas City to see the Decemberists. I'm starting to look forward to doing some major slacking in June. :)

More photos of work in progress:

My studio looks much cleaner when only lit by twinkle lights...

(you can see my Hello Kitty Easter/Halloween basket collection hanging above the window)

Getting Ready For The Show (Post 5)

Collages Completed: 8

Collages Near Completion: 12

Collages Ready to Start: 13

Movies Watched So Far During Studio Time:

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Spirited Away

Twilight

The Incredible Hulk

Iron Man

Bridget Jones' Diary

King Kong

Superman Returns

The Dark Knight

Land of the Dead

Pride & Prejudice mini-series

Princess Mononoke

The Punisher

Venture Bros. Season 3

House Season 1

Spaceballs

Desperado

Lord of the Rings (all three extended editions + Appendices)

I have a lot of pieces that are really close to being done, so next time I post that completed number should have jumped ahead. I took a day off of work yesterday and spent the whole day working on art, which was a good idea.

Stamping postcards

Working...

Pieces in progress

I took some pictures of the progress I made on a piece involving a large hamster

Large hamster (in progress) with people

Robot girl

More art waiting to be worked on

Getting Ready For The Show (Post 4)

Collages Completed: 8

Collages Near Completion: 8

Collages Ready to Start: 18

Movies Watched So Far During Studio Time:

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Spirited Away

Twilight

The Incredible Hulk

Iron Man

Bridget Jones' Diary

King Kong

Superman Returns

The Dark Knight

Land of the Dead

Pride & Prejudice mini-series

Princess Mononoke

The Punisher

Venture Bros. Season 3

House Season 1

I've moved to audiobooks and podcasts for a little while, and have completed "When You Are Engulfed In Flames" (David Sedaris) and am now catching up on the Penny Arcade podcasts.

Show Preview 1

More studio shots:

Look Both Ways and Getting ready for the show (post 3)

Look Both Ways: Artists & Writers Collaborate

Saturday, May 2 - 7:30 p.m.

The Loft at the Mill - 8th & P Streets, Lincoln

Admission is free

I'm going to be part of this event where writers were asked to choose a piece of art and respond to it with an original piece of writing. There will be a reading of the new work and then the artists and writers will be available for questions afterward.

Show stuff....

Collages Completed: 3

Collages Near Completion: 12

Collages Ready to Start: 20

Movies Watched So Far During Studio Time:

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Spirited Away

Twilight

The Incredible Hulk

Iron Man

Bridget Jones' Diary

King Kong

Superman Returns

The Dark Knight

Land of the Dead

Pride & Prejudice mini-series

I am deep into art production now - with lots of pieces in pieces. I had been counting some old pieces as completed, but then since this is a new-work show, removed them from the total. Those ones can stay at home for this round. I'm thinking my total will be 38. Here are some studio shots:

Teeny-tiny Obi-Wan (with pen for scale)

Teeny-tiny TARDIS, Batman, and Obi-Wan (with tweezers for scale)

My desk (April 25) - You can see the tiny geek icons in position as I work on my self-portrait.

Tattooed Girl hangs out with Intergalactic Mouse while I prepare a background for her.