tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28103781579941821212024-02-19T08:53:15.382-05:00ART OF BRICOLAGEbri.co.lage [bree-kuh-lahzh}
- A construction made with objects that are re-purposed, re-identified and transformed into part of the whole work of art - or, collage with muscle.Nancy Natalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03325421420384484035noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2810378157994182121.post-61490794786245946482015-05-19T23:42:00.001-04:002015-05-19T23:42:58.079-04:00A 2015 Bricolage WorkshopThis year I will again be teaching a day-long workshop on <i>Bricolage: Making Fine Art with Unconventional Materials </i>in conjunction with the Ninth Annual Encaustic Conference, founded and directed by Joanne Mattera.<i> </i>My workshop on Wednesday, June 10th, is part of the post-conference schedule at <a href="http://castlehill.org/">Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill</a> in Truro, Mass.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH32YAtR2T17_EYua_l-rvCzzRJfDsUVWWbsWZ9DvzeUcP76VJdPpXdSQiAeMcLPzrwGddkkZzdPB2JHDAMMw2sr8sp0bwGTBL7YCLvf4PUTIx9RU18Hy-A5rx5YvCXIO2yuKrZJpVxPA/s1600/mystery+bags.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH32YAtR2T17_EYua_l-rvCzzRJfDsUVWWbsWZ9DvzeUcP76VJdPpXdSQiAeMcLPzrwGddkkZzdPB2JHDAMMw2sr8sp0bwGTBL7YCLvf4PUTIx9RU18Hy-A5rx5YvCXIO2yuKrZJpVxPA/s400/mystery+bags.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Last year's Mystery Bags containing items for students to use in the workshop</td></tr>
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The object of this class is to encourage students to transform materials into a component of an artwork. The objects do not retain their original identity or function but become part of the whole. This is unlike assemblage where objects are brought together and retain their identities. Finished bricolage artworks have a sense of discovery about them as viewers may glimpse and identify original forms when they look more closely at the work.<br />
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Here are some images of student works from last year's class. (Please excuse my casual photography and note that images will expand if you click on them.)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1MXTHO3WdLkp9jCRIXmfokSgIl1yOlu_R7sb13sJWmLJChYhv8crvxMXaM52Sl76QdVmojqroRPpik9OHyVpcbGudAeBc9asbl7jnuXTpkBCjJWn09e2wz2TYCKVMKP2rx0GyO-XFjOg/s1600/Bricolage+student+2014+Pamela+Winegard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1MXTHO3WdLkp9jCRIXmfokSgIl1yOlu_R7sb13sJWmLJChYhv8crvxMXaM52Sl76QdVmojqroRPpik9OHyVpcbGudAeBc9asbl7jnuXTpkBCjJWn09e2wz2TYCKVMKP2rx0GyO-XFjOg/s400/Bricolage+student+2014+Pamela+Winegard.jpg" width="305" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A work by Pamela Winegard using pencil marks on paper, black elastics, sticks, <br />hair scrunchies, part of a wooden placemat, copper wire, and encaustic paint</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDvSq2pBNYdPRMloRGO1XlgEU7I8KMc4tx37hxCgn6zPNeIe7yFG3N2qRqrcgCrpj22fmpsBbKtfqVEbjb6AmEuP7n2AHINrYlkjsJ2ZQ0JZiv6EyI69K99D3MJOyPiiTxGHAX68oZYN4/s1600/Bricolage+student+2014+Abear+al+Mogren.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDvSq2pBNYdPRMloRGO1XlgEU7I8KMc4tx37hxCgn6zPNeIe7yFG3N2qRqrcgCrpj22fmpsBbKtfqVEbjb6AmEuP7n2AHINrYlkjsJ2ZQ0JZiv6EyI69K99D3MJOyPiiTxGHAX68oZYN4/s400/Bricolage+student+2014+Abear+al+Mogren.jpg" width="385" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A work by Abear al Mogren using book pages, shredded paper, copper wire, tissue paper<br />from a sewing pattern, ping pong balls, copper wire, thread, pigment sticks, encaustic paint<br />and probably more that I can't identify from the virtual image<br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSe_K45yl2M8ew5sFa5ZhqNd_r5uZ7ecWnZWF0PZjb_u7uv-cwa5IGVmQ0CmzDRxPJma1-N97YeGnMABCK_Y3EkWCrZ91gEvFIFl_1GpdrZ0sRbDpMQ8tesawaP3E0dWHmiWxXlQH58Ns/s1600/Bricolage+student+2014+Edith+Rae+Brown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSe_K45yl2M8ew5sFa5ZhqNd_r5uZ7ecWnZWF0PZjb_u7uv-cwa5IGVmQ0CmzDRxPJma1-N97YeGnMABCK_Y3EkWCrZ91gEvFIFl_1GpdrZ0sRbDpMQ8tesawaP3E0dWHmiWxXlQH58Ns/s400/Bricolage+student+2014+Edith+Rae+Brown.jpg" width="318" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A work by Edith Rae Brown using hair scrunchies, black elastics, sticks from<br />a wooden placemat, thumbtacks or other round objects, wire, pigment sticks, encaustic paint</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNDgkVC5Hm6o38JZRXnhm3qBC-ho7aq0WjuSYiRHwACDI0iaPUPlj4CF4eswAJVPWzubklSjCVWlCckFI0cWtdMS5LrrBHu41KqrCK0WINs1BjA8xWzLCB7mXiSA1k_YEm-GdUoRFbst0/s1600/Bricolage+student+2014+Monica+Kaczyk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNDgkVC5Hm6o38JZRXnhm3qBC-ho7aq0WjuSYiRHwACDI0iaPUPlj4CF4eswAJVPWzubklSjCVWlCckFI0cWtdMS5LrrBHu41KqrCK0WINs1BjA8xWzLCB7mXiSA1k_YEm-GdUoRFbst0/s400/Bricolage+student+2014+Monica+Kaczyk.jpg" width="363" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A work by Monica Kaczyk using ping pong balls, tissue from sewing pattern,<br />looks like string or wire and more paper, encaustic paint</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_a9Rfxi39IRKkAERBAoOgKahPAehhrnjjglXWD_UydfWtKQdZiF5Sz5vX3zDNiO5uxUynKyxwtPfzcAv-Xmu5xRGyj3eztphBZKCRle2LALdy01n6VDn9C8YHDWALlxoTQBCKJOKAndI/s1600/Bricolage+student+unknown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_a9Rfxi39IRKkAERBAoOgKahPAehhrnjjglXWD_UydfWtKQdZiF5Sz5vX3zDNiO5uxUynKyxwtPfzcAv-Xmu5xRGyj3eztphBZKCRle2LALdy01n6VDn9C8YHDWALlxoTQBCKJOKAndI/s400/Bricolage+student+unknown.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is one of my favorite pieces and I can't find the name of the artist. She used<br />brown paper, sticks from a placemat, wire, black elastics, plastic soldiers and animals,<br />felt, metal clips, encaustic paint, and probably more. (If anyone knows the name of<br />this artist, please let me know!)</td></tr>
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The reason that these pieces work so well is that the miscellaneous objects and materials that students used in their pieces were not allowed to retain their original identities but became part of the greater whole. This required the artists to have a concept for their work that would subordinate the materials and allow them to be used for new purposes, such as adding texture, dimension, or line.<br />
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There are still a couple of places left in the workshop on June 10th. See the <a href="http://www.castlehill.org/post-conference.html">full descriptions</a> of workshops here and you can register by calling Castle Hill at 508-349-7511.<br />
<br />Nancy Natalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03325421420384484035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2810378157994182121.post-91009613670357892852015-05-04T10:29:00.000-04:002017-07-10T17:32:28.631-04:00Charles McGill at Pavel Zoubok GalleryWhen I saw Charles McGill's show, <i>Territories.</i> online, I knew I had to see it in person, but I couldn't get to New York until the last day of the exhibition. When I finally confronted the work at <a href="http://pavelzoubok.com/">Pavel Zoubok's gallery</a>, I found it even more fascinating than I had expected. A surprise bonus was the opportunity to meet and chat with Charles McGill, himself. He is a warm and engaging person who spoke freely about his work, his intentions for it, and his emotional, intellectual, and aesthetic attachment to his chosen material of golf bags.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTYRFNo9NVAC0XLYC7XqEcxHGzZ0YjN1OFe2U0zE4rgWPfKqebaXFIkdAG1R2RTTUtqRdBuRmCC2yIMxGp4GQMg92st__V_Oy7OlHDQ3FLyiZmGUIlr47LJFbMeFkAwYiDYi9inBKKcEE/s1600/Charles+McGill+side.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTYRFNo9NVAC0XLYC7XqEcxHGzZ0YjN1OFe2U0zE4rgWPfKqebaXFIkdAG1R2RTTUtqRdBuRmCC2yIMxGp4GQMg92st__V_Oy7OlHDQ3FLyiZmGUIlr47LJFbMeFkAwYiDYi9inBKKcEE/s1600/Charles+McGill+side.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Charles McGill with <i>Blue Moon Tondo</i></td></tr>
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Bricolage</span></b><br />
What drew me so much to McGill's work was his use of repurposed or reconfigured golf bags. Destruction of the original objects and transformation of them into works of art makes these works bricolage, according to my definition. I really appreciated the materiality of the work from a formal, technical perspective. I was looking at them more as geometric abstractions with the intriguing additions of zippers, buckles, straps, handles and the dimensionality of layered materials.<br />
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(Note: click photos to expand.)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqxhlUxxGSqd6FzA-uUywWplLDIZ3yeg7k55h_yrDsVWp3zDI5fNXbcsEDRwDGmvMqc1CG13x7i92l3HhMhRmPsjoUT5urFN_EapbW5XsNV0YgOQt0kxiUmNe8BwvMqk9si0wRy6zQW8I/s1600/Black+Tondo+from+website.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqxhlUxxGSqd6FzA-uUywWplLDIZ3yeg7k55h_yrDsVWp3zDI5fNXbcsEDRwDGmvMqc1CG13x7i92l3HhMhRmPsjoUT5urFN_EapbW5XsNV0YgOQt0kxiUmNe8BwvMqk9si0wRy6zQW8I/s1600/Black+Tondo+from+website.jpg" width="390" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Black Tondo</i><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">, 2015, reconfigured golf bags, 36 inches in diameter, </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">(image from Charles McGill's website)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg43ubMSx9MN2VUKQFZrshUqwHyYg1HdHk73wS-RPfiavOMwef5xgStl65eDSMQ0DgUh7uVbyzGmaF9C27b0hooaFAdtBZd_F5LrJstRUmKT8AkkjIS8I6KC0tsbWMjGbNNSEqy9e5_z5k/s1600/Black+Tondo+closeup.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg43ubMSx9MN2VUKQFZrshUqwHyYg1HdHk73wS-RPfiavOMwef5xgStl65eDSMQ0DgUh7uVbyzGmaF9C27b0hooaFAdtBZd_F5LrJstRUmKT8AkkjIS8I6KC0tsbWMjGbNNSEqy9e5_z5k/s1600/Black+Tondo+closeup.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Black Tondo</i> closeup, my photo from <i>Territories </i>exhibition</td></tr>
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Political implications</span></b><br />
McGill, however, comes to this work as a golfer and as an African-American. These works grew out of his political and identity-focused approach to art making that began in the late 1990s with "the Legendary Political Trailblazer Arthur Negro II, aka Art Negro, aka Black Art." McGill wanted to emphasize the racial and economic gulf between the privileged leisure of the game of golf and the oppressed situation of the majority of African-American people. McGill personally bridged that gap as a golfer himself and integrated the de facto whites-only game. After experimenting with various forms and approaches to the subject, he began deconstructing golf bags and using them as his art material. This allowed him to enrich his work with many connotations and implications such as leisure, race, masculinity, wealth, sports, and class.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxyDXXrur5jRi-vMXCrQQvaYcCNf3JWuhsS_uhBAzDzsOMuDZSzepJq9Jy3hahnrh0jAYxyaIYOEzV__NARH1ZDiJM7nPwbFoHY__w5i7-YMhSGACTr2Ntxwwj-nC5jrYedNud1xuOwYc/s1600/White+tondo+from+website.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxyDXXrur5jRi-vMXCrQQvaYcCNf3JWuhsS_uhBAzDzsOMuDZSzepJq9Jy3hahnrh0jAYxyaIYOEzV__NARH1ZDiJM7nPwbFoHY__w5i7-YMhSGACTr2Ntxwwj-nC5jrYedNud1xuOwYc/s1600/White+tondo+from+website.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>White Tondo</i>, 2014, reconfigured golf bags, 36 inches in diameter<br />
(image from Charles McGill's website)</td></tr>
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Development of the work</span></b><br />
As time and work have gone on and McGill has continued using golf bags, his intention for the work has undergone some modification. As I understand the progression, the work has become more about formally composing works containing an interesting variety of shapes and dimension, focusing on color and also referring to art historical subjects. The personal identity components are still there but play a lesser part in many works.<br />
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As McGill says on his website: <i>"The recent work is a testament to the belief that the material can dictate the direction of the work and how it evolves. Tondos and Totems aren’t objects I would have ever thought I would make with this golf bag as a starting point. But that is exactly what has occurred in the studio." </i>(quote from McGill's website)<br />
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<i>Black Tondo </i>and <i>White Tondo </i>were the first two of McGill's works to be based on a circle, rather than a square or rectangle, but his varying treatment of the center of this shape as well as the draping of zippers, flaps and other parts becomes very elegant and really moves the work beyond the original source. Also note that with these two pieces McGill means "black" and "white" to refer to race as well as to color of the materials.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Self Portrait in a Tondo</span></b><br />
McGill told me about this work representing himself in relation to his father, who died at age 51 when McGill was 30. As he grew older, McGill was understandably fearful of reaching the age at which his father had died. Marking the milestone of his 51st birthday with this large work, must have meant an easement for him of having passed that emotionally-disturbing age.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidkek8s_jT6UD1vWhYAQhiJY8ZWqfhkmOulrPYYUc-IjQrrPJzPxDmLZ_dzdp1otvMRlrINdm-w0Puo8cy-jFaKCQSdZFyEAbun3MS1vjxV-ljvhN7nIv0mwxLrCm__kivED1eRmNviJE/s1600/Target_51_2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidkek8s_jT6UD1vWhYAQhiJY8ZWqfhkmOulrPYYUc-IjQrrPJzPxDmLZ_dzdp1otvMRlrINdm-w0Puo8cy-jFaKCQSdZFyEAbun3MS1vjxV-ljvhN7nIv0mwxLrCm__kivED1eRmNviJE/s1600/Target_51_2015.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Target 51</i>, 2015, reconfigured golf bags, 48 inches in diameter<br />
(image from Charles McGill's website)</td></tr>
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Aside from its personal meaning to McGill, I particularly liked this tondo for the red markers at the edge forming slightly skewed compass points that may represent McGill's passage through life.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Other Forms, Other Meanings</span></b><br />
In addition to tondos, there were many other forms in this extensive exhibition of works, including free-standing sculptures and some pieces representing hooded, menacing figures. These, of course, allude to the KKK and its persecution of African Americans. They portray another, more frightening aspect of McGill's commentary on race and evidence a progression in tone and approach from the satirical figure of Arthur Negro.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHNV_LA5e6NOe4D08nDYWWwFkDqXrYya13VP4z7Fjz5NzWH7lxc1428037QfoC3l97rGtL9PNSy0De6bxTKhWR2JCLp-t8Lojid814a4lyGyInKjTmW8JC3f-lffch8df9wVeP5sScW34/s1600/Hood+with+green.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHNV_LA5e6NOe4D08nDYWWwFkDqXrYya13VP4z7Fjz5NzWH7lxc1428037QfoC3l97rGtL9PNSy0De6bxTKhWR2JCLp-t8Lojid814a4lyGyInKjTmW8JC3f-lffch8df9wVeP5sScW34/s400/Hood+with+green.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I, 2014, reconfigured golf bags, 48 inches high</td></tr>
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Material Effort</span></b><br />
McGill<a href="http://charlesmcgillart.com/recent-work/"> speaks</a> about his physical struggle to deconstruct golf bags and the fact that works in progress are sometimes marked with blood from cuts he sustains while tearing and cutting the bags apart.<br />
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"New pieces literally wrestled into shape. Stubborn objects. There is so much resistance. Each step is a physical challenge. These bags were made well and not manufactured to come apart, especially not to be pulled apart, twisted and manipulated into shapes that are counter-intuitive to their nature."<br />
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And all that physical struggle becomes part of the work as well so that the "knowing" of the material by the artist is not only discovery but also creation of the material.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">A Ghostly Dimension</span></b></div>
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Exploring the material for as long as McGill has and becoming able to push it in new and unexpected directions has resulted in a rich variety of works that transcend their origin. However, it seems to me that bricolage works exist in more than one space; the original forms of the objects from which they are made remain as a kind of ghostly presence in the new art pieces. We look at the new work but still get glimpses of the source material. We seem to experience it in more than three dimensions as we see the present and receive intimations of the past.</div>
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<a href="http://charlesmcgillart.com/">Charles McGill's website</a></div>
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<a href="http://pavelzoubok.com/node/a">Pavel Zoubok gallery website link to "Territories"</a><br />
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Nancy Natalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03325421420384484035noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2810378157994182121.post-21108857102784594632014-09-15T23:38:00.000-04:002014-09-15T23:38:08.409-04:00Margaret Roleke at Odetta Gallery in Brooklyn<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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"Gobsmacked!" is the title of the exhibition currently showing until October 5th at the beautiful new <a href="http://www.odettagallery.com/">Odetta Gallery</a>, 229 Cook Street, Brooklyn. This show features large, rich charcoal drawings depicting visions of psychological topographies by <a href="http://www.charlotteschulz.com/">Charlotte Schulz</a> and bricolage works by <a href="http://www.margaretroleke.com/">Margaret Roleke</a>. Both artists create work that addresses the political and cultural state of the world without being didactic or conveying a directly gobsmacked attitude at the horrors and inequities of life on planet earth.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqnBx5lyQSdIZwDWWGWoiNnjmotHuLQi7iqzhVBUdjmO6LIQf8lnf2rLmp0YzTPCa15f63hPYKEpVeELHiK2mqiyw7BuaOtrXt8hUgQWoMuph5yh1XjEhcT0NHqILQDi_s3NHy-K_H5f4/s1600/Fairytale_Western.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqnBx5lyQSdIZwDWWGWoiNnjmotHuLQi7iqzhVBUdjmO6LIQf8lnf2rLmp0YzTPCa15f63hPYKEpVeELHiK2mqiyw7BuaOtrXt8hUgQWoMuph5yh1XjEhcT0NHqILQDi_s3NHy-K_H5f4/s1600/Fairytale_Western.jpg" height="378" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Margaret Roleke, <i>Fairytale Western</i>, 2013, 38" x 38" x 5"</td></tr>
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Margaret Roleke's work certainly fits the definition of "bricolage," and she achieves a considerable amount of dimension in some of her wall works by using plastic objects such as palm trees, buildings and animals that protrude off the panel. Most of Roleke's works in "Gobsmacked!" are painted a single unifying color that brings together such disparate plastic toys as horses, wagon wheels, soldiers, spacemen, cowboys, guns, rocket ships, houses, canoes and canons - to name just a few. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqny2eMrG_OUit8OnsMjOS8oo-O_Ose7pX5PqekA44quF_GQOJy2Y0etTXkLlwOoNy_UOIhx_uYoYg1zc_ZLI-cVJlkeF4kHbmCyWQl3pPALrMLyaZpmkdSh_cv52tr9dy6uXsoAqhU7I/s1600/Fairytale_Western_on_wall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqny2eMrG_OUit8OnsMjOS8oo-O_Ose7pX5PqekA44quF_GQOJy2Y0etTXkLlwOoNy_UOIhx_uYoYg1zc_ZLI-cVJlkeF4kHbmCyWQl3pPALrMLyaZpmkdSh_cv52tr9dy6uXsoAqhU7I/s1600/Fairytale_Western_on_wall.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Fairytale Western</i>, side view</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibl27or3sM4Ks6d7IOTu7cIC8eRoX0LGZ2ulwAeewrYwVJjJiZmmMF2cb-yCDjVLzjcrxkNJ7HaI2B-v7dx1t8qHhUsIIlpKxgozBi7utPN6dINuwnGLkxRk3eAkYVq6La6egPG9AbwR0/s1600/Fairytale+Western+very+detailed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibl27or3sM4Ks6d7IOTu7cIC8eRoX0LGZ2ulwAeewrYwVJjJiZmmMF2cb-yCDjVLzjcrxkNJ7HaI2B-v7dx1t8qHhUsIIlpKxgozBi7utPN6dINuwnGLkxRk3eAkYVq6La6egPG9AbwR0/s1600/Fairytale+Western+very+detailed.jpg" height="476" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fairytale Western, extreme closeup</td></tr>
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Roleke wants to emphasize the difference between "girl toys" and "boy toys" by challenging the genderized assumptions we give to the toys themselves as well as by applying the "girl color" of pink to cowboys, Indians, horses and Western what-alls that are assumed to be playthings for boys.<br />
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I thought that Margaret Roleke made effective use of the materials she chose and coating the plastic toys with paint in one color subdued their plasticity with a reductive palette. In a way, however, there is something about the garish colors common to so many in toys that makes the toys uniquely other worldly and sets them apart from other plastic objects. These gaudy colors are thought to be attractive to children and to their parents. There is also the distinctive processed petroleum odor emanating from so much plastic in a confined area. You will get a whiff of this if you go near a toy department at Target or some other store and you will know the Girl Aisle by that garish plastic pink that falls somewhere between magenta and hell.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #741b47;">Toys on a Disney Image</span></b><br />
Another panel work, "Tink's Army," uses plastic soldiers mounted on fabric that portrays a Disney character - Tinker Bell in this case - looking almost like a world map at first glance. I liked the way the arrangement of military toys distorted and almost hid the figure underneath.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAC7z1hTmJ8npI7WsEjGtOj_MqbQwNQr-IMICoDsQDZVkUH6ApWWIRw5x0-vLSguCm3VWYgS_LhLk49wK9kscg0OshJnreLQt5UGJcDb5qF2oFku4QXHrigkiY1ncWTqEDleNyQ301Nro/s1600/Tink's%2BArmy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAC7z1hTmJ8npI7WsEjGtOj_MqbQwNQr-IMICoDsQDZVkUH6ApWWIRw5x0-vLSguCm3VWYgS_LhLk49wK9kscg0OshJnreLQt5UGJcDb5qF2oFku4QXHrigkiY1ncWTqEDleNyQ301Nro/s1600/Tink's%2BArmy.jpg" height="400" width="360" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Margaret Roleke, "Tink's Army," 2013, 30" x 30" x 3", plastic toys on fabric<br /></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLpnT7ML2VMOYBIEcd6HI_2aU3edJbM1ZIz23hQCswWMEbcOs2zghlb4ujc2tDJ38q30YucM8L8AhKURHlIgpVt6COLH8nT3HZDjM0_VTPmOLyeSvE-Cviizk8s4V8lCqwnr7TVZ2dwow/s1600/Tink's%2BArmy%2BDetail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLpnT7ML2VMOYBIEcd6HI_2aU3edJbM1ZIz23hQCswWMEbcOs2zghlb4ujc2tDJ38q30YucM8L8AhKURHlIgpVt6COLH8nT3HZDjM0_VTPmOLyeSvE-Cviizk8s4V8lCqwnr7TVZ2dwow/s1600/Tink's%2BArmy%2BDetail.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
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Of course the idea of sweet, voiceless little Tinker Bell having an army is an idea that jars the mind. Roleke wants to point out that the the vision of this little fairy wearing an ultra-short dress and acting coquettish (or what Disney describes as<a href="http://fairies.disney.com/tinker-bell"> "Sassy, Fashionable and Creative,"</a>) is a sexualized vision thought to be an acceptable character for children. Are we willing to accept the flirtatious Tinker Bell and not the war-mongering one? Does war belong to boys and fashion to girls?<br />
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<b><span style="color: #741b47;">Black Barbie, Black Guns</span></b><br />
The color black (an all time favorite of mine) carries its own tone or connotation - not of gender, but of meaning and associations - mourning, fashion, absence, threat, foreboding. In the center of Odetta Gallery is a spiderish hanging work by Roleke painted a dense matte black. Only when you view it closely can you distinguish its various components: guns, soldiers and Barbies - many of the Barbies separated from their heads.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs-nDcbGg6eXos-UdUkmxaMDfQM_-MM77ZxgNk23ELoBNdczW50hwsqrRyHaoevfP3nA3WmbgAcvk278G79-VJzg7tBaIvw9-qYXZfzVo5Xn2cyBTP1hL71u2BYJvzvnujiirCQaSpiiA/s1600/Roleke+hanging.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs-nDcbGg6eXos-UdUkmxaMDfQM_-MM77ZxgNk23ELoBNdczW50hwsqrRyHaoevfP3nA3WmbgAcvk278G79-VJzg7tBaIvw9-qYXZfzVo5Xn2cyBTP1hL71u2BYJvzvnujiirCQaSpiiA/s1600/Roleke+hanging.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Margaret Roleke, "Hanging," 2014, painted toys, 76" x 76" x 30"</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBuYULCZ2kPf3JKqkrvmIa_u3Y-N1HqeQYfGm5eLkTOq1OK9CxxGpRoccwuYrhdWSpmyC8XsgjWNS2rJ6sKrL47R5UlgYRLbkvQAR-hp-Aad4yerqzANySY2h0XcrZTR5lRYC4ei0ERP8/s1600/Detail+Hanging.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBuYULCZ2kPf3JKqkrvmIa_u3Y-N1HqeQYfGm5eLkTOq1OK9CxxGpRoccwuYrhdWSpmyC8XsgjWNS2rJ6sKrL47R5UlgYRLbkvQAR-hp-Aad4yerqzANySY2h0XcrZTR5lRYC4ei0ERP8/s1600/Detail+Hanging.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGzj4YMfhh_zZTbUw57n4q0ExNQ1PQHjQCeGZf-YlSqGGrxpxRmpbCbJVMdvzQwbyX8xtYoFj7PWAYs55diiSbR3-xE5Z_t34KfbLRB3AmzYqbbCYjB5f616s-1ApAMExQZisxtlC2e94/s1600/IMG_5288.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGzj4YMfhh_zZTbUw57n4q0ExNQ1PQHjQCeGZf-YlSqGGrxpxRmpbCbJVMdvzQwbyX8xtYoFj7PWAYs55diiSbR3-xE5Z_t34KfbLRB3AmzYqbbCYjB5f616s-1ApAMExQZisxtlC2e94/s1600/IMG_5288.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
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Here Roleke co-mingles girl toys and boy toys, uniting them in a fashionable but mournful coat of dense black. This strange combination of headless Barbies (with plenty of unattached hairy heads), guns, and soldiers all suspended in the gallery's center makes me think about what we give children to play with and how this forms their vision of male-female relationships and human interaction. Kind of a ghastly thought that we are perpetuating the sex and guns culture now destroying the world in various ways. All we need to add to this mix is some cold, hard cash to really portray adult reality.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #741b47;">Chinese firecrackers</span></b><br />
What looked to me at a distance like strings of Chinese firecrackers turned out to be colorful plastic shotgun shell casings. Who knew that bullets came packaged so attractively? Roleke has wired empty casings together in long, bead-like strings, and they are hung on the wall at Odetta in a mass reminiscent of Mardi Gras beads or Anatsui's metallic hangings.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmY6pAC67nP-gb5_sXsBaYzCAEhZbFBoHNh51oyUxksO3pg03XcfrZ6WRS6iPRosy3eK2RF8lqHDN5jj8fe43NVVq1GMmwwPUShdT2fQYY2OZDLTkLvFDMZWrJFTAw6byUS0Hc_SSvxDY/s1600/Shells+%232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmY6pAC67nP-gb5_sXsBaYzCAEhZbFBoHNh51oyUxksO3pg03XcfrZ6WRS6iPRosy3eK2RF8lqHDN5jj8fe43NVVq1GMmwwPUShdT2fQYY2OZDLTkLvFDMZWrJFTAw6byUS0Hc_SSvxDY/s1600/Shells+%232.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Margaret Roleke,<i> Shells #2</i>, 2014, wall sculpture, site specific,<br /> spent shells and wire, 89" x 58" x 17"</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU2LNIQxPp66i22rx5KwE5w19K5ejU_SOheZi-gzaMvNUKMfgk1uYfHt9wTqxsIV8pFm8zXo5B7nBIleQtNZGLAfFZRsV9zS6qL8FnYPAU043jBhK8-Ftvz3YJZJ01AsCswP93Qq-mF8g/s1600/Shells+%232+detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU2LNIQxPp66i22rx5KwE5w19K5ejU_SOheZi-gzaMvNUKMfgk1uYfHt9wTqxsIV8pFm8zXo5B7nBIleQtNZGLAfFZRsV9zS6qL8FnYPAU043jBhK8-Ftvz3YJZJ01AsCswP93Qq-mF8g/s1600/Shells+%232+detail.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Close-up of plastic shell casings</td></tr>
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That these bullet castoffs carry printed names such as "Top Gun" attests to the cultural messaging inherent in our gun-happy culture. You, too, can be Tom Cruise in an elite group of expert marksmen if you use the right brand of ammunition when you are plugging away at a target, a live animal or who knows what or whom. This is branding at its finest.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #741b47;"><a href="http://www.odettagallery.com/">Odetta Gallery</a></span></b><br />
Finding such a beautiful, Chelsea-ish storefront gallery in the midst of grungy Bushwick is a lovely surprise. Created and operated by artist Ellen Hackl Fagan, Odetta is a new gallery that plans to show contemporary works "focusing on Color Theory, Minimalism, Glyphs, Buddha Mind, Fluxus, History, Humor, Psychedelia, Ephemera, Science, Math and Music." Be sure to visit!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbEB8iGD_c2ydLgU5h6UAe81JsgPPQdZm7GFI8l3UZEIdG2pmacFjC6XwrvCCJkK1jOjgmsxgXlsc1wtVDMXEIvmNmlj8xe2C9idItMrugxNui4Kq5zagX5z2lk03sdEhUOCZZfwfsjWQ/s1600/Odetta+gallery.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbEB8iGD_c2ydLgU5h6UAe81JsgPPQdZm7GFI8l3UZEIdG2pmacFjC6XwrvCCJkK1jOjgmsxgXlsc1wtVDMXEIvmNmlj8xe2C9idItMrugxNui4Kq5zagX5z2lk03sdEhUOCZZfwfsjWQ/s1600/Odetta+gallery.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The front of Odetta Gallery listing a show earlier this year</td></tr>
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<br />Nancy Natalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03325421420384484035noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2810378157994182121.post-85660359736518152342014-05-26T15:02:00.000-04:002014-05-26T15:02:42.768-04:00BRICOLAGE: Art With Dimensional Materials - Phyllida BarlowI am making this short series of posts about artists who will be included in my talk at the Eighth Annual Encaustic <a href="http://encausticconference.blogspot.com/">Conference </a>(June 6 - 8 in Provincetown, Mass.) because I want to pique some interest in the work and to show short videos that animate the work in a way that still pictures can't.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtnBT96EL_2cxYeOkPOxwSUCuyjTOrJbMt_C5nMhPRJA3r28pkAapNM_byN6hbfNREdL-s2v5yWKaLlzameNrrGdeOuhUL_t7QCABlMCqA7FpZna16qR4EsYLeBVPWza_Vu9GACi8I7wc/s1600/Phyllida-Barlow-dock-2014-017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtnBT96EL_2cxYeOkPOxwSUCuyjTOrJbMt_C5nMhPRJA3r28pkAapNM_byN6hbfNREdL-s2v5yWKaLlzameNrrGdeOuhUL_t7QCABlMCqA7FpZna16qR4EsYLeBVPWza_Vu9GACi8I7wc/s1600/Phyllida-Barlow-dock-2014-017.jpg" height="384" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Phyllida Barlow, one view of "Dock" installation at Tate Britain, 2014</td></tr>
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Phyllida Barlow is a sculptor whose work I became aware of after watching a <a href="http://artdaily.com/?date=05/23/2014#video">video </a>in an <a href="http://artdaily.com/">ArtDaily Newsletter</a> (this one is a long video). I had never heard of her, but that was my loss. She has been teaching and making sculpture for a long while and is very well known in Britain. I admire her particularly because she has just reached age 70 and began showing her own work publicly just a few years ago. She's now in the Hauser & Worth stable and so showing worldwide in some of the world's most <a href="http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/news/hauser-and-wirth-new-space-chelsea/">enormous </a>galleries. Any artist, particularly a woman, who has been working that long and has just been "discovered" is well worth a close look.<br />
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What interested me about her was not only her work but what she had to say about it and about sculpture in general. She spoke about time as an element in sculpture and about choreographing the audience's views of sculpture because of the way the work is placed. She also mentioned the pomposity and grandiosity of older sculptural works, especially in Britain. (I am envisioning the general-on-the-horse kind of thing that viewers have to strain their necks to see from a viewpoint far below.)<br />
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The relationship of space and the work is very important to her and she spoke of her works as making "an aggressive invasion of space." She has a lot to say about materiality, surface, destruction, surprise and invention. What an interesting person she is and what a wonderful teacher she must have been for so many artists who went on to become<a href="http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/learning_experience/"> art stars </a>on their own.<br />
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Here is a short <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/tate-britain-commission-phyllida-barlow">video </a>I found of her speaking about the Tate Britain installation, <i>Dock</i>, pictured above.<br />
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And here is another video about an installation called <i>Hoard</i>, where she speaks about her inspiration coming from an interview with a man whose home was upturned in Hurricane Katrina. She is careful to say that although she may begin with an idea such as this, she lets the materials themselves lead her to something new in the actual work so that she is making discoveries along with the audience.<br />
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<br />Nancy Natalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03325421420384484035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2810378157994182121.post-53857481205439627062014-05-25T00:19:00.000-04:002014-05-25T00:19:26.401-04:00BRICOLAGE: Art With Dimensional Materials - Nick CaveNick Cave is another one of the artists I will be including in my talk at the Eighth Annual Encaustic Conference in Provincetown. The conference, founded and directed by Joanne Mattera, runs Friday, June 6, through Sunday, June 8th this year. Here is the <a href="http://encausticconference.blogspot.com/">link </a>that gives all the details.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8FkD5K6UdQ4obOsuMZCP2pM-seu-ionPjeN9yvxnfzk6z1Kg9EbywGxNhdyqVljqpAdxBEPAs8Gdictq5zsCkfxsEQeQ3LCLJ-bz5dKeLrLdOrz3X94Z68aOYlhP0ly6Shrsfi_M3g7E/s1600/Cave+button+soundsuit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8FkD5K6UdQ4obOsuMZCP2pM-seu-ionPjeN9yvxnfzk6z1Kg9EbywGxNhdyqVljqpAdxBEPAs8Gdictq5zsCkfxsEQeQ3LCLJ-bz5dKeLrLdOrz3X94Z68aOYlhP0ly6Shrsfi_M3g7E/s1600/Cave+button+soundsuit.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A button-covered soundsuit with an abacus faceguard by Nick Cave</td></tr>
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My talk on the Friday is entitled, <i>Bricolage: Art With Dimensional Materials</i>, and I will be presenting the work of more than 15 artists. I have chosen a range of work, most of it wall mounted, to illustrate that bricolage can bring art to a place somewhere between two and three dimensions. However, I have also added a couple of sculptors to the mix of artists because the technique of bricolage can be used with freestanding, fully-dimensional works.<br />
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For me, the important thing about bricolage as a technique or process is that found objects and materials lose their original identities and are transformed into new creations. Bricolage often involves destruction and revisioning, unlike assemblage, in which found objects retain their original identities.<br />
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Nick Cave is a unique artist who exists between worlds: he's a sculptor, a clothing designer and a dancer. A <a href="http://www.artspace.com/nick_cave">website </a>describes him as "part Alexander McQueen and part Andy Warhol." Nick Cave's first soundsuit was created from twigs he gathered in a park. Initially he thought of it as a stationery sculpture, but when he put it on his body and moved with it, the twigs hit against each other and created sounds that reflected his motions. The suit also gave him a new identity without racial, gender or national origin characteristics<br />
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Click <a href="http://nyti.ms/1cOAmD2">here </a>for<u> </u>a short video from the New York Times where Nick Cave demonstrates the sounds that two soundsuits make - the first one a loud and clanky collection of spinning tops and noisemakers, the second a soft, swishy, swirl of long fibers.<br />
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Cave's soundsuits transcend other boundaries in that they may be worn for public performances and also exhibited in museums and galleries as artworks. Nick Cave's New York gallery is Jack Shainman (also home to the great Anatsui) where soundsuits list for $45,000 and up. The suits are designed by Cave using a vast collection of objects and materials gathered at thriftshops, tag sales and wholesalers.<br />
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Last year the Denver Art Museum presented <i>Sojourn</i>, an extensive exhibition of works by Nick Cave. Here are two videos provided by the museum. The first one is a tour of the exhibition narrated by Nick Cave. The second shows the labor-intensive installation process.<br />
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Denver Art Museum tour of <i>Sojourn - 5:34</i><br />
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Installation - 2:52<br />
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<br />Nancy Natalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03325421420384484035noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2810378157994182121.post-31850527335649298012014-05-22T01:02:00.000-04:002014-05-22T01:02:42.567-04:00Bricolage: Art With Dimensional Materials - Joan Snyder<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joan Snyder - My Life - 1996, oil, straw, velvet, silk and plastic<br />
grapes on linen, 48" x 54"</td></tr>
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For this year's Annual Encaustic Conference, the eighth consecutive year for this wonderful conference, held in Provincetown, Massachusetts at the Provincetown Inn, the dates are Friday, June 6, through Sunday, June 8th. Here's the blog <a href="http://encausticconference.blogspot.com/">link </a>that gives all the details. I will be giving a talk on Friday, June 6th, entitled, <i>Bricolage: Art With Dimensional Materials</i>. I am presenting the work of more than 15 artists who transform objects and materials into bricolage works - both wall mounted and free standing.<br />
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Several of the artists I am including in my talk have videos and other online presences, so I intend to feature some of them in this blog.<br />
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I am very pleased that Joan Snyder, wonderful painter, will be among those I am featuring. Here's a 10-minute video by James Kalm of Joan Snyder's 2010 show at Betty Cunningham Gallery. From this video you can really get a sense of the dimension she adds to her paintings with materials such as textiles, paper mache, flower parts, mud, straw, feathers, herbs, and many more.<br />
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Note that Joan Snyder will also be teaching a week-long master workshop at <a href="http://castlehill.org/">Castle Hill Center for the Arts</a> in Truro, September 8 - 12, entitled <i>The Anatomy of Your Painting</i>. And finally, here is Joan Snyder's <a href="http://joansnyder.net/paintings.php">website </a>where you can see more of her work.<br />
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Nancy Natalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03325421420384484035noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2810378157994182121.post-26991594171568983082013-12-07T11:05:00.000-05:002013-12-07T11:05:41.344-05:00Using Metaphor in Art (Especially in Bricolage)<div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6vcIbrZe5S6OvhCmuPf60ejjooxN72h8Ba1kyiJslIu1rj6sm5NJl_pCNl0919GVbp46pzPyViG-EiATx2ai86b3FHiwUDP582Wd5fuyC3ABrbTf0zpGnhUDYDgaxdnNlBsFRhz1UZKU/s1600/Simms+Globe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6vcIbrZe5S6OvhCmuPf60ejjooxN72h8Ba1kyiJslIu1rj6sm5NJl_pCNl0919GVbp46pzPyViG-EiATx2ai86b3FHiwUDP582Wd5fuyC3ABrbTf0zpGnhUDYDgaxdnNlBsFRhz1UZKU/s400/Simms+Globe.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">Arthur Simms, "Globe, The Veld" (2004). <br />
Metal, Wire, Plastic, Artist's Nails, Wood, Objects, 17" by 14"by 14". <br />
Text by Peter Orner. Courtesy of the artist.</td></tr>
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This morning I was reading the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/07/arts/design/come-together-surviving-sandy-samples-300-artists.html?nl=nyregion&emc=edit_ur_20131207">review </a>of "Come Together: Surviving Sandy" by Roberta Smith in the New York Times. This is a big exhibition of work by 300 artists who survived and were affected by Hurricane Sandy (The show is currently on through December 15 in Brooklyn. See the link for details.) Roberta Smith mentioned an outstanding work in the show, a 1995 piece, “To Explain, Expand and Exhort, to See, Foresee and Prophesy, to the Few Who Could or Would Listen” by Arthur Simms. She said that it should have been in a museum collection by now. </div>
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I went looking on Google to see Arthur Simms' work as I was unfamiliar with it, and I discovered that Arthur Simms is a sculptor who uses the technique of bricolage to transform found objects into art by combining them in particular ways. (You can see some of his spectacular sculpture on his <a href="http://arthursimms.com/htmlhome">website</a>.)</div>
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Previously I have written about the difference between bricolage and assemblage: while assemblage emphasizes the identity of the individual objects, the objects in bricolage lose their individual identity and are subsumed into the whole of the work. The objects or pieces become parts of a new whole that is the artwork. But what is the meaning of such transformation? Why do artists use found or repurposed objects in their work?</div>
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My search for Arthur Sims also turned up an <a href="http://www.brooklynrail.org/2009/07/art/arthur-simms-with-phong-bui">interview </a>with Simms by Phong Bui of "The Brooklyn Rail. ") What I found was the usual very insightful interview by Phong Bui, but it really spoke to me about the metaphors inherent in art, some of which artists focus on and others that are simply too ordinary to even be recognized per se. I hope you will read the whole interview, but here are some highlights about metaphors in Simms' work.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibvkBZWjiu7CWz02qONEkCSBFWWRF4oW8CNw5Rv_uSaer8Qv2I7KW3BE4dxg6OphiarKlljQmQRk4m8903i4T6pWFwTLcB8iNlehAAArcufyyLff8cgtnGqK8qX54Xtg6X_Uvg0a0qncw/s1600/simms+caged+bottle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibvkBZWjiu7CWz02qONEkCSBFWWRF4oW8CNw5Rv_uSaer8Qv2I7KW3BE4dxg6OphiarKlljQmQRk4m8903i4T6pWFwTLcB8iNlehAAArcufyyLff8cgtnGqK8qX54Xtg6X_Uvg0a0qncw/s400/simms+caged+bottle.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">Arthur Simms, "Caged Bottle" (2006). <br />Rope, Wood, Glue, Bicycles, Metal, Bottles, Wire, <br />50 by 62" by 36". Courtesy of the artist.</span></td></tr>
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<b>Rail: </b>It’s your identification with the materials, therefore allowing the alchemical process to take place. This is a strong belief that Martin Puryear has always insisted on, even at the expense of what comes and goes in the art world.<br />
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<b>Simms:</b> Yeah, I love his work man. His retrospective at the MoMA in 2007 was an important experience for me. In fact my piece, “Hemp Or If I Were A Bird,” (1991) is an homage to both Martin Puryear and Constantine Brancusi, whose work he admires for the same reason we are talking about. Like them, it’s the transformation that excites me most. People have asked me, “Why do you choose certain objects?” and I have said, “well, maybe because it’s shiny, rusted, has a certain color or patina,” and so on, or maybe it references my background and a million other things. Whatever the reasons may be, once they’re chosen and find their ways into the work, they take on into another life. So, as you had just said, it’s about alchemy</div>
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<b>Rail:</b> "...the way you tie things together is essentially a form of wrapping, which is interesting in that it is similar to the way in which, let’s say, polite language wraps social interaction, architecture wraps space, or how people in Asia, particularly in Japan, take extreme care in wrapping objects, whether it’s groceries or gifts. Or how the dead bodies, depending on their socio-political-religious ranking, are wrapped as part of the process of mummification, which was considered a passage to the after-life, as in Ancient Egypt, for example. Do you see your work as a wrapping ritual that transcends the mundane, in this case, found and used objects, to some form of transcendence?"<br />
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<b>Simms: </b>Yes, I do. It’s like a skin that has energy. To me, the rope is like lines as in drawing, an activity that I do more than sculptures. I’m drawing with the rope obsessively until it becomes a sort of skin over all these various things that are on the inside, which you can barely see. Later on I started using wire as a different kind of skin..</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaR6hHXXTTMiCt-w743I_Od24nRm46hFZtpM6DCSMev-l2GoB9aXuB0r1YfxrfAS4wdxP3b5DWsSmkniPhmww_d9VcicnHQlHwJs4x3uU3UFDc311qKU3204YyWGDEwNd0li52qCk9_Vw/s1600/Simms+Buddha.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaR6hHXXTTMiCt-w743I_Od24nRm46hFZtpM6DCSMev-l2GoB9aXuB0r1YfxrfAS4wdxP3b5DWsSmkniPhmww_d9VcicnHQlHwJs4x3uU3UFDc311qKU3204YyWGDEwNd0li52qCk9_Vw/s400/Simms+Buddha.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Arthur Simms, "Buddha" (2008). 81" by 50" by 52" <br />
Wire, Bottles, Bamboo, Wood, Metal, Ice skates, Wheels. <br />
Courtesy of the artist.</td></tr>
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<b>Rail: </b>Like a painting that has been painted over so many layers that you can see its accumulated history on the surface but you can’t see what has been buried underneath. At any rate, in citing the found materials that you use in your work, which are basically everything from milk crates, plumbing parts, old shoes, rags, bottles, and cans to various objects such as hand tools and so on, it reminds me of the bower bird, especially the male, which, to attract its mate, often builds a bower with a variety of materials such as feathers, stones, broken shells, and leaves, mixing them with discarded plastic items, coins, nails, pieces of glass, and so on. And this selection of various materials is what makes up the bower, and one is never identical to the next. This is what some ornithologists called the “transfer effect.” In other words, do you have a general idea that relies mostly on a spontaneous process in which the image is gradually formed? Or do you make drawings beforehand?<br />
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<b>Simms: </b>No, I never make a drawing beforehand. I always consider my drawing as something in and of itself. I don’t make sketches or little maquettes of the sculpture mostly because I enjoy the improvisational aspect by keeping the two activities of drawing and sculpture independent. But as far as your reference to the bower bird, I had looked at and admired many birds’ nests at the Museum of Natural History like I do with other natural occurrences, things that are made by different creatures and insects. It’s all open and all there for any one of us to take and use accordingly in to our works.</div>
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I will be including images of Arthur Simms' work in my talk on bricolage at the <a href="http://encausticconference.blogspot.com/">2014 International Encaustic Conference in Provincetown in June.</a><br />
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Nancy Natalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03325421420384484035noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2810378157994182121.post-37087560510872963382013-05-06T08:51:00.001-04:002013-05-06T08:54:20.508-04:00Bricolage at the Brooklyn MuseumI'm sharing a post here from <a href="http://www.artcritical.com/2013/05/01/el-anatsui/">Art Critical</a> about an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum by El Anatsui. I like the way the writer, Alex C. Moore, speaks about Anatsui's use of materials and the meaning Anatsui finds in them that relates to his own life, cultural inheritance and social movements. That's a lot packed into some discarded objects that shows the power of bricolage. Note that Anatsui uses the objects as raw materials from which to make his work. This is bricolage.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">The Wall is Also a Story</span>: (from <a href="http://www.artcritical.com/2013/05/01/el-anatsui/">Art Critical</a>, the online magazine of art and ideas)<br />
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<b>El Anatsui at the Brooklyn Museum</b><br />
by <a href="http://www.artcritical.com/author/alexmoore/">Alex C. Moore</a><br />
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<b><i>Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui</i></b><br />
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February 8 to August 4, 2013<br />
The Brooklyn Museum<br />
200 Eastern Parkway<br />
Brooklyn, NY, (718) 638-5000</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption">El Anatsui, Gli (Wall), 2010. Aluminum and copper wire, installation at the Brooklyn Museum, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Brooklyn Museum photograph.</td></tr>
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El Anatsui’s exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum begins in the fifth floor rotunda with Gli (2010), a majestic installation comprised of four sheets of delicate metal rings that are suspended at various heights, inhabiting the space from floor to ceiling. Gli is an Ewe word that has multiple meanings: wall, disrupt, or story. An accompanying text elaborates that Anatsui was thinking of walls in Berlin, Jerusalem and Notsie when making this piece. Probably less familiar to many New Yorkers than the other examples, Notsie is a town in modern day Togo, West Africa, where according to oral histories, the Ewe people settled briefly before fleeing an oppressive ruler sometime in the 17th century. Reminiscent of chainmail, these hangings are solemn and haunting, conjuring the memory of powerful walls and ancient sorrows. Gli is torn and crumpled like a curtain in places, but as one moves around the space, the sheets shift and glimmer, becoming more solid and lively.</div>
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It is for these elegant and impressive bottle cap tapestries that Anatsui is most well-known and, unsurprisingly, they are the centerpiece of Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui, an exhibition which originated at the Akron Art Museum in Ohio. The show demonstrates the range of Anatsui’s aesthetic—from the dense painterly abstraction of Black Block and Red Block (both 2010), to the gentle humor of Ink Splash (2010), and the seemingly precarious structure of Ozone Layer (2010) which flutters in an artificial breeze provided by fans hidden in the gallery wall, rattling like the gentle wheeze of an old smoker.<br />
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El Anatsui was born in Anyako, Ghana in 1944 and is a member of the Ewe ethnic group. In 1975 he moved to Nigeria to teach at the University of Nsukka, where he has resided ever since. After studying western sculptural traditions and methods at the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana, Anatsui became interested in the indigenous forms and materials of his home country. He began to look at adinkra symbols and kente cloth–a weaving style practiced by members of his family–and one of his earliest pieces experimented with the wooden trays used to display food in the marketplace. From there he moved into other wooden, ceramic and recycled forms, often choosing materials associated with consumption, before discovering a bag of discarded bottle caps outside a local distillery and starting upon the explorations that led to his current work.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption">El Anatsui, Gli (Wall), 2010. Aluminum and copper wire, installation at the Brooklyn Museum, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Brooklyn Museum photograph.</td></tr>
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Earlier artworks such as the painted wood reliefConspirators (1997) allow the viewer a glimpse of how Anatsui’s work has developed and the common themes that run through his practice. The picture that emerges is of an artist who is interested in the mutability of forms, works arduously to explore and reinvent his materials, and transforms personal and historical narratives into form and content. A number of the artworks reference specific stories that warrant a closer look. Waste Paper Bags (2003), an installation consisting of seven grey forms, modeled on the large, red and blue stripped bags that are deceptively strong, and are a ubiquitous sight at a West African bus station or marketplace—the go-to bag for a woman with a heavy load or a long distance to travel. In Nigeria these bags are referred to as Ghana-must-go, harking back to a moment in the 1980s when an influx of Ghanaian refugees into Nigeria caused tension between the two groups. El Anatsui’s versions of the bag are large enough to house or transport a family, but too heavy to move. They are made of discarded aluminum printing plates that carry the stories of contemporary Nigerian life–newspaper articles celebrating new anti-malarial studies or a local political leader, school textbooks, wedding announcements and church pamphlets. The piece is the most monument-like of these monumental works, commemorating the rootless and sometimes uncomfortable position of an expatriate.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgntK6I24J1ZPNNadGWmCZO0kdlErwGB4jHkV8bjiDxHshAr-qEORcJg7c2tB5A27fwX_jZoFuFUcyhzxKDsLQtHKIQC105glJy47Ochp_ZSTaXaMycVMBV5QHp5C4nWItS6RWJXGlx2Bs/s1600/AC_GRAVITGRACE-by-El-Anatsui-01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgntK6I24J1ZPNNadGWmCZO0kdlErwGB4jHkV8bjiDxHshAr-qEORcJg7c2tB5A27fwX_jZoFuFUcyhzxKDsLQtHKIQC105glJy47Ochp_ZSTaXaMycVMBV5QHp5C4nWItS6RWJXGlx2Bs/s640/AC_GRAVITGRACE-by-El-Anatsui-01.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">El Anatsui, Gli (Wall), 2010. Aluminum and copper wire, installation at the Brooklyn Museum, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Brooklyn Museum photograph.</td></tr>
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Like the trash that El Anatsui uses as raw materials, the difficult historical relationships associated with Gli, Waste Paper Bags, and the bottlecaps themselves (a token reminder of the Atlantic Slave Trade) are present in the galleries, but do not overwhelm our sensory experience of the work. Instead, memory and history are transformed into a celebratory occasion. The eponymous piece in the show is one of the largest of the tapestries, measuring 145 5/8 x 441 inches. As with all his work, Anatsui wields his deceptively simple palette masterfully, building blocks of colors with subtle care and changing the direction and rhythm of the weave as a painter would carefully choreograph her brushstrokes. A red form pulsates outward across the space, meeting a cool continent of silver and yellow. Suggestive of a pinwheel, a sunset, or a flower, the energy is vibrant and expansive. It is not a finished statement, but a ball of potential energy thrown up against a wall, continually growing and shifting, adjusting to circumstances with gravity and grace.<br />
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(Thank you Alex Moore and Art Critical.)<br />
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Nancy Natalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03325421420384484035noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2810378157994182121.post-90358919844176415362013-04-21T17:04:00.001-04:002013-04-21T17:04:19.413-04:00Thinking About BricolageI am gearing up for my two-day workshop on May 28 and 29 at <a href="http://castlehill.org/">Castle Hill Center for the Arts in Truro</a>, Mass. in conjunction with the <a href="http://encausticconference.blogspot.com/">Seventh Annual International Encaustic Conference</a>. This year, for the first time, <b>Bricolage: Making Fine Art With Found or Recycled Materials and Encaustic </b>will be a two-day workshop preceding the encaustic conference. I have expanded it to two days to give students more time to think about the concept of bricolage, make examples of work and present them to the class for discussion and critique. Having the opportunity to make several examples results in a big difference to students. I saw this last summer when I was a visiting artist at <a href="http://www.rfpaints.com/">R&F Paints </a>and able to extend the bricolage workshop to three days.<br />
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There are <b>three </b>places left in the class and you can sign up <a href="http://www.castlehill.org/post-conference.html">here</a>.)<br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;"><b>What is bricolage, anyway?</b></span><br />
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Last year I did some thinking about collage, assemblage and bricolage and defined for myself what the differences were between three types of art that use found, recycled or invented objects.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;">Collage</span></b> – <b>Works made using paper or fabric and glue, or also using wax as glue. </b>Collage is basically two dimensional in this more traditional definition.<br />
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Picasso and Braque were two early practioners of this genre, but perhaps the most famous 20th century "collage artist" was Kurt Schwitters. Note that gluing paper into the composition is probably the most important aspect of collage but paint, charcoal and other additions may also be incorporated.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlJikiVaiaIO0G0SAkZ7Oq3RbU-sr8O0a7l6-ghfmOcRiyTy70DorGThakgKCcduNcL8DyDb7MxnBPVb2c5aoR79_uZLNCTHWloKr60jav4bW3Rko5eZqCp08zItW1dUZxReLH7Lt_No8/s1600/Collage_SchwittersDasUndbild.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlJikiVaiaIO0G0SAkZ7Oq3RbU-sr8O0a7l6-ghfmOcRiyTy70DorGThakgKCcduNcL8DyDb7MxnBPVb2c5aoR79_uZLNCTHWloKr60jav4bW3Rko5eZqCp08zItW1dUZxReLH7Lt_No8/s400/Collage_SchwittersDasUndbild.jpg" width="315" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kurt Schwitters, "Das Unbild" 1919</td></tr>
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Collage can also be built up into more dimensionality with the addition of more and thicker paper or even other objects. Take a look at this interesting <a href="http://www.newcriterion.com/posts.cfm/-Painterly-Pasted-Pictures--at-FreedmanArt-7100">review </a>of a current show of 20th century works in collage.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;">Assemblage</span></b> – <b>Works made with found objects that are not changed but are brought together into a new whole.</b> The objects retain their original/unique identity and the new work emphasizes the connection between the found objects. (For example, works by Bettye Saar)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghms7YZJipJQVTnABAuovliu3TvuBf0nQFac1Jq_ajmVlT1O82tvnqGssRCdnbuheF3cYB6LXFvSoGpH_tSDMpzJzJ201EMe8m-Xk5jqmmsITEEkrb_Sn1I4xSBwNu4ITw4stpwU-I_i4/s1600/Saar_Sunnyland.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghms7YZJipJQVTnABAuovliu3TvuBf0nQFac1Jq_ajmVlT1O82tvnqGssRCdnbuheF3cYB6LXFvSoGpH_tSDMpzJzJ201EMe8m-Xk5jqmmsITEEkrb_Sn1I4xSBwNu4ITw4stpwU-I_i4/s400/Saar_Sunnyland.jpg" width="245" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bettye Saar, "Sunnyland (On the Dark Side", 1998 courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum</td></tr>
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Bettye Saar is well-known for her assemblage (and collage) works that reference racism and feminism. I have been a fan for some years. In 2011 I visited a show called "Cage" at her <a href="http://www.michaelrosenfeldart.com/artists/betye-saar-b1926">New York Gallery</a> and wrote a <a href="http://artinthestudio.blogspot.com/2011/01/betye-saar-cage.html">blogpost</a> about it along with the work of her daughters, Lezley Saar and Alison Saar. You can see more examples of her work by clicking on the <a href="http://artinthestudio.blogspot.com/2011/01/betye-saar-cage.html">blogpost </a>link.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">More Assemblage</span></b><br />
Joseph Cornell was perhaps the most famous artist to work mostly in assemblage by bringing together found parts, pieces and images and usually putting them into boxes that formed little worlds of their own.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGltEEYPl1ALDmK6xLSvTB2eya4uxaBV5BXDKKwWAXDprvFgSR6nkNrFcYKJd3QLsN982EusV0wKynncyPN-5ebUjwzheqV6G8AXjPTJUKqnZxJYhsJKc6RM7HUgURYQkoYNSr6KvJM2E/s1600/cornell.hotel-eden.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGltEEYPl1ALDmK6xLSvTB2eya4uxaBV5BXDKKwWAXDprvFgSR6nkNrFcYKJd3QLsN982EusV0wKynncyPN-5ebUjwzheqV6G8AXjPTJUKqnZxJYhsJKc6RM7HUgURYQkoYNSr6KvJM2E/s400/cornell.hotel-eden.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joseph Cornell, "Hotel Eden," ca. 1945, courtesy National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.</td></tr>
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Unlike Saar's more topical work, Cornell evoked an air of mystery with his strange juxtapositions and hidden allusions.<br />
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While Saar and Cornell are two of the most accomplished artists using this type of construction for their work, many unschooled and/or hobbyist artists are also drawn to the use or re-use of things they may have at hand. Some of these have a charming folk art quality, but others fail to achieve more than a desultory bringing together of disparate objects.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">What Makes It Fine Art?</span></b><br />
I think what separates "art" from "hobby" in creating assemblage works in particular is attention to formal elements of art making. This may be as simple as color or shapes of objects but these principles have to be made part of the work for it to succeed. For example, look at the arrangement of objects in the Cornell piece above: the unifying white color, the repeating square shapes, the repeating round shapes, the vertical lines broken by the diagonal white bar and the central focus of color on the parrot. This is an arrangement of forms in an illusionistic space.<br />
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There is also the issue of intention in creating the work. If the artist's intention carries too direct a message, the work may become trite.For example, if Cornell had inserted a sign saying "we are all caged" in the work above, it would have lost its air of mystery. If the artist <i>tells </i>the viewer what the work is instead of letting the viewer decide that for themselves, the artist is giving the viewer too much information and not provoking the viewer to reach his/her own conclusions. In more subtle work, viewers' interpretations may not match the intention of the artist, but the search itself provokes attention to the work Isn't that what artists all want - for people to pay attention to their work? Subtlety and universality of meaning seem to be learned skills.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;">Bricolage</span></b> – <b>Works made with found or invented objects that are re-purposed, re-identified and subsumed into the new whole.</b> The found objects are transformed by their inclusion in the new work. The work of art as a whole is more important than the individual parts and the parts themselves may be manipulated or changed before inclusion.<br />
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The difference between Assemblage and Bricolage can sometimes be a fine line, but I believe the amount of transformation the found objects undergo is where the distinction lies.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSc_9BbqkFb0P4wW-8f4c7pU4-_oNAgBxVcZHcf0_U_fGvGPHpqEsyB7l07ajTBkz1AKR9rszwjOFYjsOE0OwkRcOp3i00HuwDtbEECrSy5PXxVpT0DlIri67ZfncJ2WqH6As6YjJPbFA/s1600/NY+Jan+2013+013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSc_9BbqkFb0P4wW-8f4c7pU4-_oNAgBxVcZHcf0_U_fGvGPHpqEsyB7l07ajTBkz1AKR9rszwjOFYjsOE0OwkRcOp3i00HuwDtbEECrSy5PXxVpT0DlIri67ZfncJ2WqH6As6YjJPbFA/s400/NY+Jan+2013+013.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">El Anatsui, "Ink Splash" (I am not sure of the title or date), probably about 8' H x 10' W</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaSTYHiXS9nW9tn89NPv6z4gIdfxIFrDK-OpO2eg7zu5gL43WESjnlCRQjMl1JPbaGHbEJWhyphenhyphenVbwPoPFi0AwldangBNIKy2gQV2a1xVP9zlHrob1YfLIZTNxZ1EASYiYod0U4P7RfMkYY/s1600/NY+Jan+2013+015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaSTYHiXS9nW9tn89NPv6z4gIdfxIFrDK-OpO2eg7zu5gL43WESjnlCRQjMl1JPbaGHbEJWhyphenhyphenVbwPoPFi0AwldangBNIKy2gQV2a1xVP9zlHrob1YfLIZTNxZ1EASYiYod0U4P7RfMkYY/s400/NY+Jan+2013+015.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Close up of "Ink Splash"</td></tr>
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Above you see a work by El Anatsui, that shows the piece as a whole and then a closeup of the individual folded bottle caps and pieces of bottle wrappings - all held together with thin copper wire. (I saw this show of his work at <a href="http://www.jackshainman.com/">Jack Shainman Gallery</a> in New York last January and wrote a <a href="http://artinthestudio.blogspot.com/2013/02/anatsui-in-new-york-january-2013-2-jack.html">blogpost </a>about it that shows many more images of works. In fact, I am practically an Anatsui PR maven. If you search my <a href="http://artinthestudio.blogspot.com/">Art in the Studio</a> blog, you'll find it loaded with Anatsui posts.)<br />
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So, you see what I mean by the individual pieces being subsumed into the whole work?<br />
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Here is another artist whose work I admire:<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL9CvwkbyvO2dsZvUTBTkJCJyu2CWguR3R30pkO-juFcZtAmEHNlWf0b87SgZjQW00wmaHl_xhQYddTHepz5EUOvhHDvPXy79RTnC2IDGr631gvA62psI8Jb80CZGpq756dJ5gOfjObLM/s1600/Larsen_Two+Reds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL9CvwkbyvO2dsZvUTBTkJCJyu2CWguR3R30pkO-juFcZtAmEHNlWf0b87SgZjQW00wmaHl_xhQYddTHepz5EUOvhHDvPXy79RTnC2IDGr631gvA62psI8Jb80CZGpq756dJ5gOfjObLM/s400/Larsen_Two+Reds.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ted Larsen, "Two Reds Form a Slant," 2011, 14" x 3.5"</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNgXb5iArWPVWQKowUu_Z9VeyosOj1JmjZJ02J8pMA-X6UCPGtE4J0yJvX4Sf1RC-IxaI6r8zEsEsfwMmmvMbGF2SFJtIGMAQr0xZ9bjXSPdFlPZ7wkUnrlgrf5Z8LWT6hazED-lweayI/s1600/Larsen_Only+Choices.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNgXb5iArWPVWQKowUu_Z9VeyosOj1JmjZJ02J8pMA-X6UCPGtE4J0yJvX4Sf1RC-IxaI6r8zEsEsfwMmmvMbGF2SFJtIGMAQr0xZ9bjXSPdFlPZ7wkUnrlgrf5Z8LWT6hazED-lweayI/s400/Larsen_Only+Choices.jpg" width="350" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ted Larsen, "Only Choice," 2012, 18" x 24"</td></tr>
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Ted Larsen works in found painted metal, which I believe is mainly from salvaged cars.<br />
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Now here is some student work from the R&F workshop last summer.(I apologize for the bad iPhone photography, but I think you can get the gist of what is going on with this work.)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbjgINXme_YMFRZjsNi4e72lMym-a4VD4AcpZ9x-53pRS7Kfgr2gH0x6O7aTFSit1Iv6gp8p1Mhyphenhyphen-OzQMQTAJKzdpjyo0erZUVCYwNrof2RCE_UI3dTvpO90Wi8aM-fQqPTUeh454UjFY/s1600/Student+Work_Rita+Klatchkin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbjgINXme_YMFRZjsNi4e72lMym-a4VD4AcpZ9x-53pRS7Kfgr2gH0x6O7aTFSit1Iv6gp8p1Mhyphenhyphen-OzQMQTAJKzdpjyo0erZUVCYwNrof2RCE_UI3dTvpO90Wi8aM-fQqPTUeh454UjFY/s400/Student+Work_Rita+Klatchkin.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Work by Rita Klatchkin</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0ZS7k24XXzYKPpFFrHHIXAcon8UBaokIGW0sOuM3EZ3J-YLSLAS-MUUQlgZMFOe8BGc1OFBpbs3xK9GyyJBDh16CTsoicNCB_vLsIUfdutnEu1Ifu1yN6qaVts153-YtLuiGB_jVl0UA/s1600/Student+Work_Barbara+Winkel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0ZS7k24XXzYKPpFFrHHIXAcon8UBaokIGW0sOuM3EZ3J-YLSLAS-MUUQlgZMFOe8BGc1OFBpbs3xK9GyyJBDh16CTsoicNCB_vLsIUfdutnEu1Ifu1yN6qaVts153-YtLuiGB_jVl0UA/s400/Student+Work_Barbara+Winkel.jpg" width="373" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Work by Barbara Winkel</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFudeReb1hOs6_kYLDlLtZy5cmpwmBeTo9rFNNCd9LLZdNTdpNto5PWjgED5gO0XpbpFrI906P597CmInK9eYf2z63g4nuChCj5meAdw1swGd5rZEwowIZYYsfztCltt3skdUZt2Ilm8I/s1600/Student+work_Deb+Townsend2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFudeReb1hOs6_kYLDlLtZy5cmpwmBeTo9rFNNCd9LLZdNTdpNto5PWjgED5gO0XpbpFrI906P597CmInK9eYf2z63g4nuChCj5meAdw1swGd5rZEwowIZYYsfztCltt3skdUZt2Ilm8I/s400/Student+work_Deb+Townsend2.jpg" width="393" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Work by Deb Cole Townsend</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwbXQh1inZ9ZAEO0sJw0QONdRBWwlBdP8SpBSNr-uKRK4r83Gk4yEk6dbuFYAQnv_2zkoXY4oHTG_g49FVjNDntG6p6pjIyK7kCyQ2ZgRcdnga00_xmQB9gYcT3vwiAM7exjLSRJDqdak/s1600/Student+Work+_Laura+Cave.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwbXQh1inZ9ZAEO0sJw0QONdRBWwlBdP8SpBSNr-uKRK4r83Gk4yEk6dbuFYAQnv_2zkoXY4oHTG_g49FVjNDntG6p6pjIyK7kCyQ2ZgRcdnga00_xmQB9gYcT3vwiAM7exjLSRJDqdak/s400/Student+Work+_Laura+Cave.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Work by Laura Cave</td></tr>
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Summary</span></b><br />
Grasping the distinction between the three types of found object art takes some thinking and experimenting. I believe that our natural inclination is to focus on the individual identity of the found objects and to combine them in assemblage. Learning to use the objects in bricolage works of art means seeing the objects for their transformational possibilities as part of a larger whole. The objects may have to be taken apart to use their component parts, their color, dimensionality or some other aspect. The mental leap required may take a while to achieve but once there, the finished work can gain dimensionality and another level of interest. My workshop will help you to do this and to make some exciting work.Nancy Natalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03325421420384484035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2810378157994182121.post-24733633353965778272012-07-02T02:39:00.000-04:002012-07-02T02:39:33.751-04:00WAX + BRICOLAGE WORKSHOP IIIn many ways the encaustic <a href="http://encausticconference.blogspot.com/">conference</a> seems very long ago, while in others, it feels like just yesterday. But the fact is that it was nearly a month ago and I've been negligent in posting images from the two post-conference workshops I taught on Wax + Bricolage.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-vGARUvtj_KtP5Za4XOypONHLTSoerXfg31SVuk_Myt4i5ii1Li2JfKpmGjh8ik4DKRvfs30vhVQOkJoeFpDKbKnyMU852xtaZaAQXFQ8gCV2NxYMO4Rc_-ZG1Atu2vtq0okZDz9rAK4/s1600/Lenore's+work+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-vGARUvtj_KtP5Za4XOypONHLTSoerXfg31SVuk_Myt4i5ii1Li2JfKpmGjh8ik4DKRvfs30vhVQOkJoeFpDKbKnyMU852xtaZaAQXFQ8gCV2NxYMO4Rc_-ZG1Atu2vtq0okZDz9rAK4/s400/Lenore's+work+2.jpg" width="371" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A work by Lenore Tenenblatt</td></tr>
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On Thursday, June 7th, we had a full house with ten participants in the workshop at <a href="http://www.castlehill.org/">Castle Hill Center</a> for the Arts in Truro, Mass. Everyone got a mystery box with five or six types of items such as spring clips, a necklace, thumbtacks, a plastic scrubby and pearlescent shell pieces. There was also a 9" x 12" cradled panel in the box. The rules were that for the first panel, no additional objects could be added, but materials such as string, wire, oil paint, thread, and so on could also be used. Not all objects from the mystery box <i>had </i>to be used. For encaustic, we had seven colors: Cadmium Red Deep, Alizarin Orange, Cadmium Green Pale, Green Gold, Cobalt Blue, Titanium White, Ivory Black. (By the way, I should say that paint and medium were generously donated to the workshop by <a href="http://www.rfpaints.com/">R&F Paints</a>, <a href="http://evansencaustics.com/">Evans Encaustics</a> and <a href="http://www.encausticpaints.com/">Enkaustikos</a> so that the materials fee could be reduced.)<br />
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Here are photos of students with the works they made. Note that for their second panel, an 8" x 8" square, everyone had access to the giant bin of Stuff that I brought or they could use materials that they brought.<br />
Note: click to enlarge the photos so you can get a better look at the works.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2zmOaT1ZG_781D9-3OWEtLbH4izIjPaHpr5CXF_26BlbWxfbfgw-rQ3Ih-0A3jtNtTSMzbUYzb0Z32z8WR1ZpsYHm0vR0oWELYAO-N-AO1y9f0rDIHUeVGxpYkq8G05DudhwPfv5Skbo/s1600/Amy+Hannum+resized.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2zmOaT1ZG_781D9-3OWEtLbH4izIjPaHpr5CXF_26BlbWxfbfgw-rQ3Ih-0A3jtNtTSMzbUYzb0Z32z8WR1ZpsYHm0vR0oWELYAO-N-AO1y9f0rDIHUeVGxpYkq8G05DudhwPfv5Skbo/s400/Amy+Hannum+resized.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Amy Hannum<br /><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1Ct20wVVppHyFqAFH5tJxf5AljCOaoKcgeaHvnMszJvzRE4liU-3ccTjYWGKSe6NwOslXbbVntekYn35z5CjXXh8hTEk2_CwkKnGJq3T2UXkH_5cpq95jywAir8DKFjhOPuDn-FykNu0/s1600/Connie+Bigony+resized.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1Ct20wVVppHyFqAFH5tJxf5AljCOaoKcgeaHvnMszJvzRE4liU-3ccTjYWGKSe6NwOslXbbVntekYn35z5CjXXh8hTEk2_CwkKnGJq3T2UXkH_5cpq95jywAir8DKFjhOPuDn-FykNu0/s400/Connie+Bigony+resized.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Connie Bigony</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwbJFJQue5niTk1gmhUSluctpNofGG8h7csvmDJuI9mr2IQVlSGaw7nlFGYspu_Bdz_H15P9pwZ6YzQtWn5ru2kWE0uDv3CwxqScydU8GV8_FIplZZPEzjhq_bx_e2-q5bd4MQ83SlSyo/s1600/Helen+Dannelly+resized.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwbJFJQue5niTk1gmhUSluctpNofGG8h7csvmDJuI9mr2IQVlSGaw7nlFGYspu_Bdz_H15P9pwZ6YzQtWn5ru2kWE0uDv3CwxqScydU8GV8_FIplZZPEzjhq_bx_e2-q5bd4MQ83SlSyo/s400/Helen+Dannelly+resized.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Helen Dannelly</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqr5KNQ907h9Q5GqCpXp5hov33MEdLAXGUl0j2YqnR_xSJQaPSwtYsxvmcSHvKCGPopFb07u65LRlTlXBYXctwBzd_qmhhYaCesqCVe5orZS37ZCAxzKqk40NA_AaE1iS0yLporiO0iDU/s1600/Kathy+Cosgrove+resized.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqr5KNQ907h9Q5GqCpXp5hov33MEdLAXGUl0j2YqnR_xSJQaPSwtYsxvmcSHvKCGPopFb07u65LRlTlXBYXctwBzd_qmhhYaCesqCVe5orZS37ZCAxzKqk40NA_AaE1iS0yLporiO0iDU/s400/Kathy+Cosgrove+resized.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kathy Cosgrove<br /><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGXD8P7YRBtEQXPaYMmDxkKzs9dq1nvFXGvb2FqhY3x7_yZOnjMqDmjQhjKPeMmAVvaRqEZqY8lLPHkrg4c1VstRWVeF8gUBYcWVZ1tfHAGaSKYalIXUGc2ML4crXaFRIdZd4bKcNp82M/s1600/Kay+Hartung+resized.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGXD8P7YRBtEQXPaYMmDxkKzs9dq1nvFXGvb2FqhY3x7_yZOnjMqDmjQhjKPeMmAVvaRqEZqY8lLPHkrg4c1VstRWVeF8gUBYcWVZ1tfHAGaSKYalIXUGc2ML4crXaFRIdZd4bKcNp82M/s400/Kay+Hartung+resized.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kay Hartung</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6Tm4LnPCfeWxBbfVdjzFzH4qrsGljyWyh6VnGRRwJxAgnLKOjeDnDsaqjYkIzxIhmiTTjIBldIqLW_pIorK9k2NnmtnqmKEFr1zwyTLLkGRjoIE5d0gDhyphenhyphenCjaBQQE3hvgeCqn6uhSrOM/s1600/Lenore+Tenenblatt+resized.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6Tm4LnPCfeWxBbfVdjzFzH4qrsGljyWyh6VnGRRwJxAgnLKOjeDnDsaqjYkIzxIhmiTTjIBldIqLW_pIorK9k2NnmtnqmKEFr1zwyTLLkGRjoIE5d0gDhyphenhyphenCjaBQQE3hvgeCqn6uhSrOM/s400/Lenore+Tenenblatt+resized.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lenore Tenenblatt</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb1VNe7Q3qFt1g4HZ8jPsV4BpiDC8iIwB6eU3ErkSOlu7WTGf2bunSWDxSt58PrVXLkCqt27dwQgWnMjrpHw-z_o_e97jNeAgUwbJEP4CURR1_oE7UyE1Vn6xomwG_aDJS3gSUPb0_Yzg/s1600/Lera+Cavanaugh+resized.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb1VNe7Q3qFt1g4HZ8jPsV4BpiDC8iIwB6eU3ErkSOlu7WTGf2bunSWDxSt58PrVXLkCqt27dwQgWnMjrpHw-z_o_e97jNeAgUwbJEP4CURR1_oE7UyE1Vn6xomwG_aDJS3gSUPb0_Yzg/s400/Lera+Cavanaugh+resized.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lera Cavanaugh</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZrQuxgjM9UjxJNYCv_n4TXfq7-iTcvWymJVM9MziHc7xIyg7YfWiF0sprYDBLeq-4q63QqEDIt1eJjhNVLza6RuKhFzhzOBrmYLpQ02G4PYFQJAvu0YJV_yKX9P6A6jC8OuY9R9Q3lZA/s1600/Lisa+Zukowski+resized.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZrQuxgjM9UjxJNYCv_n4TXfq7-iTcvWymJVM9MziHc7xIyg7YfWiF0sprYDBLeq-4q63QqEDIt1eJjhNVLza6RuKhFzhzOBrmYLpQ02G4PYFQJAvu0YJV_yKX9P6A6jC8OuY9R9Q3lZA/s400/Lisa+Zukowski+resized.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lisa Zukowski</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYa3AAoJHP3cMd-NaqlCphqKS324yayXk_y2bQWHSgVraSJzkqBZEXmcZPX3GwurJKxybOSFljhmePUP53qykeDbFwSnUcHTXM_N2jiIDmLkwPWlsh_MZ2xal63DS6QPS6eh2j4Svhzj4/s1600/Maria+Lara-Whelpley+resized.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYa3AAoJHP3cMd-NaqlCphqKS324yayXk_y2bQWHSgVraSJzkqBZEXmcZPX3GwurJKxybOSFljhmePUP53qykeDbFwSnUcHTXM_N2jiIDmLkwPWlsh_MZ2xal63DS6QPS6eh2j4Svhzj4/s400/Maria+Lara-Whelpley+resized.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maria Lara-Whelpley<br /></td></tr>
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Missing from this line up is Gayle Abernathy who participated in both this class and the one on Friday, so her photo is included in the next post.<br />
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I thought the work in this class was really great. We had a group critique after the first panels were finished just before lunch and went back to work recharged. In most cases, the second panel that people made really benefited from studying what had occurred in the first one. It was also surprising that most people found themselves using the same color palette again that they had chosen for the first panel.<br />
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As you look at the works below, please note that the object of the workshop was to make works of art rather than a bunch of stuff on a panel. These works are all carefully considered, made with restraint and imagination and have used the found objects to enhance the works rather than dominate them.<br />
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Here are some completed works from the class.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqV84fjbmWaT1tGtcBu8lVhP4tvF4DCuYIa_dT9FNdlrl7szRiuZrpKCg44XT1sxJb8p1_PvQ2tlYnUSsOjyulsaDncpJH4G6WF4pWWMgsGctNpkhwjD1WSNnMUyrNllsmv4k55YtP7mM/s1600/Kathy's+work+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqV84fjbmWaT1tGtcBu8lVhP4tvF4DCuYIa_dT9FNdlrl7szRiuZrpKCg44XT1sxJb8p1_PvQ2tlYnUSsOjyulsaDncpJH4G6WF4pWWMgsGctNpkhwjD1WSNnMUyrNllsmv4k55YtP7mM/s400/Kathy's+work+1.jpg" width="307" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kathy Cosgrove's work 1 - excellent use of materials! That red webby<br />stuff is the scrubby that she cut apart and the black horizontal lines are pieces<br />of cord that she cut from the necklace. The spring clips are assembled<br />in a line that ends in wiry coils.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhauEcGcGfjCVWZMsud1XhQabDxLKSUN7t0gaiwxd-gKGUqBnaVaPH2aWaMZW4sijwlJiTR9i2VANFcHHBP7z2mE5iIpHpE9hBtVlG6fsnrQA51DEZPYUhl2-BJjlY9rK5_54Z8OHjn98Q/s1600/Kathy%2527s+work+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="397" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhauEcGcGfjCVWZMsud1XhQabDxLKSUN7t0gaiwxd-gKGUqBnaVaPH2aWaMZW4sijwlJiTR9i2VANFcHHBP7z2mE5iIpHpE9hBtVlG6fsnrQA51DEZPYUhl2-BJjlY9rK5_54Z8OHjn98Q/s400/Kathy%2527s+work+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kathy Cosgrove work 2 - great color in this one as well as shapes</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwYt_Y3xL_c6bPXfidNnLK2KxmyACSDIaGsBigAR2nPWHRPYUs50wwS1jQHD9eADCK-WEnJBaS2b35BcQpodb0pxO9Qa8LUUc67L9Qcjun6PHMS7ero70vraeUO8dIdwC8IWBfnIwBwU0/s1600/Helen's+work+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwYt_Y3xL_c6bPXfidNnLK2KxmyACSDIaGsBigAR2nPWHRPYUs50wwS1jQHD9eADCK-WEnJBaS2b35BcQpodb0pxO9Qa8LUUc67L9Qcjun6PHMS7ero70vraeUO8dIdwC8IWBfnIwBwU0/s400/Helen's+work+1.jpg" width="325" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Helen Dannelly's work 1 - that thin black thread connecting the one red <br />thumbtack really brings the work alive.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXQZx_HBhPO83OKeHdjLGqL49rvEQKzjEj5YHnuPV7yNR7vHT24muzwZPYp0yLgWGB6AxgNE71YL7qspk5yxykzqfMWbo3IyFHVYavqSwFKPut74AOyM1BCfIXxxF-WVqcsx2WeCb7VEE/s1600/Lera's+work+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXQZx_HBhPO83OKeHdjLGqL49rvEQKzjEj5YHnuPV7yNR7vHT24muzwZPYp0yLgWGB6AxgNE71YL7qspk5yxykzqfMWbo3IyFHVYavqSwFKPut74AOyM1BCfIXxxF-WVqcsx2WeCb7VEE/s400/Lera's+work+2.jpg" width="387" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lera Cavanaugh's work 2 - this was not really bricolage, but a great use of<br />Barbie artifacts nonetheless.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGzPJsKlVs597W3kuqPQiMJ2anoa9eQQTOJDwG13TrASPjOiKBq-T-CRGibr7GbhmYR6Xx7Nrfw8yqeyjyGIOSbJ7ebZMI6ewEZi_oIaRp_NmEAJ59Rn45MhrmIVAu5T8Ae5W_rdcpfS8/s1600/Connie's+work+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGzPJsKlVs597W3kuqPQiMJ2anoa9eQQTOJDwG13TrASPjOiKBq-T-CRGibr7GbhmYR6Xx7Nrfw8yqeyjyGIOSbJ7ebZMI6ewEZi_oIaRp_NmEAJ59Rn45MhrmIVAu5T8Ae5W_rdcpfS8/s400/Connie's+work+2.jpg" width="397" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Connie Bigony's work 2 (I also thought her first piece was quite successful but I<br />took a blurry photo - sorry!)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqwA7OJBIL0dsgOez4sjQotuumM5o0g3n-0ZL42xguo4a-uSfr_WCazkjWArZf7qrDFarfra-7tzNIZ7gHpwxUPgiDV4XNraZT7sSoVictxYC0_HnCasOzKUzXVODY3NryvZfFR3eVPHc/s1600/Kay's+work+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqwA7OJBIL0dsgOez4sjQotuumM5o0g3n-0ZL42xguo4a-uSfr_WCazkjWArZf7qrDFarfra-7tzNIZ7gHpwxUPgiDV4XNraZT7sSoVictxYC0_HnCasOzKUzXVODY3NryvZfFR3eVPHc/s400/Kay's+work+2.jpg" width="390" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kay Hartung's work 2 - Kay combined maps with dimensional materials but<br />still retained the feeling of terrain. The heavier black line on top broke through the<br />dimensional plane and brought a very different feeling to the work.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5N2x3PQcFA2YjTkmq69Jk8rWjC-JJ5YVw8OOchjvlI4xxuSg1S7DzFnagQG6LDmiTpFQOKyTZdd6By-pKx8kul605tqrQN4T8ZfeF0uaabmlGQvGKjsrMIJkz3Pvqe4inazjAVy5p1Wg/s1600/Lisa's+work+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5N2x3PQcFA2YjTkmq69Jk8rWjC-JJ5YVw8OOchjvlI4xxuSg1S7DzFnagQG6LDmiTpFQOKyTZdd6By-pKx8kul605tqrQN4T8ZfeF0uaabmlGQvGKjsrMIJkz3Pvqe4inazjAVy5p1Wg/s400/Lisa's+work+1.jpg" width="303" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lisa Zukowski work 1 (very hard to photo both black and white)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOCXaP9tc1y4ysyVIPErCiO7eQtNEUhFUxf-t1slijiu3wO5FYNccewT6_pr71PuTqgC7_Bzqq1vKaz0Z7_v3Ntet3K5-Jd0Soov9lLbEapSoxZ9-JBwY84Xooo1_PzqTj-YFk5RVY5ug/s1600/Lisa%2527s+work+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOCXaP9tc1y4ysyVIPErCiO7eQtNEUhFUxf-t1slijiu3wO5FYNccewT6_pr71PuTqgC7_Bzqq1vKaz0Z7_v3Ntet3K5-Jd0Soov9lLbEapSoxZ9-JBwY84Xooo1_PzqTj-YFk5RVY5ug/s400/Lisa%2527s+work+2.jpg" width="372" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lisa Zukowski work 2 - Lisa said she was not normally a minimalist, but these<br />strong works showed that perhaps she should pursue this approach</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxqXk6kzw5LmBXdZ9td53Gb0Gq1hi5sh6BTjkVN6hAPuCfXfPeDD68J_XfDTB4yKd43Uf9KUksD10BQUwbCCewOl4zdJrRI0B2xzJXAK0nFM8i6ZhbAjnrrEEaepv0jIqLe8KZPyeudaY/s1600/Maria's+work+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxqXk6kzw5LmBXdZ9td53Gb0Gq1hi5sh6BTjkVN6hAPuCfXfPeDD68J_XfDTB4yKd43Uf9KUksD10BQUwbCCewOl4zdJrRI0B2xzJXAK0nFM8i6ZhbAjnrrEEaepv0jIqLe8KZPyeudaY/s400/Maria's+work+2.jpg" width="367" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maria Lara-Whelpley's work 2 - I tried to shoot this to show the dimension that Maria got<br />into this work. The darker soldiers at bottom stood out 3" or so from the panel.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPLs32z5VAppuQxaR1r8ZGB_1-txZ_0DrjIzW-U4Kw3X9kzoJfcvRhu4aHhhXKWn9rybGodDMEB0RFkpcOjzSU-U99HEUvG4JWU3UOVe7cvvmbzFzsESXj83mYWd9P2sUb3Z51wS3XBeE/s1600/Lenore's+work+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPLs32z5VAppuQxaR1r8ZGB_1-txZ_0DrjIzW-U4Kw3X9kzoJfcvRhu4aHhhXKWn9rybGodDMEB0RFkpcOjzSU-U99HEUvG4JWU3UOVe7cvvmbzFzsESXj83mYWd9P2sUb3Z51wS3XBeE/s400/Lenore's+work+2.jpg" width="371" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lenore Tenenblatt's work 2 again - I really loved this piece because I've been dying for<br />someone to use the little stuffed animals and fuzzy balls I had in my bin. Lenore's use<br />of green felt under it all changed the shape of the panel into a quirky setting for all<br />that fuzzy stuff on top.</td></tr>
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I apologize for leaving out images of work by Amy Hannum and for my too-few-pixels iPhone photos. Thanks to everyone for a great class!Nancy Natalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03325421420384484035noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2810378157994182121.post-19950558194096027342012-06-17T22:07:00.000-04:002012-06-17T22:07:26.378-04:00Pre-Conference Workshop - Wax + BricolageI'm back from 12 days of the Annual Encaustic Conference in Provincetown, Mass. and a sustained period of more shows, workshops, talks, discussions, demos, presentations, panels and art bonding than can be imagined. This year, the sixth consecutive year of The International Encaustic Conference, under the Directorship of Joanne Mattera, in partnership with Cherie Mittenthal of the Castle Hill Center for the Arts, was a rousing success. It was so jam-packed with "All Waxing, No Waning" that it has taken me a week to come down from that all-pervasive waxy cloud I found myself on when I got back home. Whew!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7uN3EDTgUXotcj3PXAVPYo9Gtyvwp9sRC1mwi8UaC-6wX93GSCtCvGgrf_tDa5n3Q0Gyfq_6qW3csgrehkhosLlC441D77Whqs3XohWg8c_rfJXMv_8Zi4opwA425SHpE7FXo9DZGG90/s1600/Ptown+monument+distance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7uN3EDTgUXotcj3PXAVPYo9Gtyvwp9sRC1mwi8UaC-6wX93GSCtCvGgrf_tDa5n3Q0Gyfq_6qW3csgrehkhosLlC441D77Whqs3XohWg8c_rfJXMv_8Zi4opwA425SHpE7FXo9DZGG90/s640/Ptown+monument+distance.jpg" width="478" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Far in the distance: the Provincetown Monument. Up close: the unspoiled waters of Cape Cod.</td></tr>
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I would like to show you a little of what went on in the three workshops I taught on Wax + Bricolage at Castle Hill. This year, as at last year's conference, I distributed to each student a mystery box of found objects along with two small wooden panels. However, unlike last year, the number of objects for the first panel were limited to six different types and each box had the same objects with slight variances in colors.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpTslxibjJ5QYND_oWvBCFJcNilbHlS6tzznU5oT9Kgn6-XFezc1qIuXc3pcwql0uIQqe1iogtWu0bVYeoBa8f-hFuL2Iz5oDYT79bbwdseU4n-0nsua86sdCt48FBzAF8s_4QQ2DCY2s/s1600/1+Tables+ready+to+go.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpTslxibjJ5QYND_oWvBCFJcNilbHlS6tzznU5oT9Kgn6-XFezc1qIuXc3pcwql0uIQqe1iogtWu0bVYeoBa8f-hFuL2Iz5oDYT79bbwdseU4n-0nsua86sdCt48FBzAF8s_4QQ2DCY2s/s400/1+Tables+ready+to+go.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">10 workstations ready to go</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0T8Cu8Z2VlKZEESVlrCbx-EKunGxQQfy8zsoMMbh0NjdZ-qxHKpSztF3x06iikGhDEAWeCCKRIH1tk-SghCE1VhE0uNLaWgm7TwcXqoZuCs5bmWBJNWovLNSCLqZXFc6mkD5_Eu3yjRU/s1600/2+Wax+stations.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0T8Cu8Z2VlKZEESVlrCbx-EKunGxQQfy8zsoMMbh0NjdZ-qxHKpSztF3x06iikGhDEAWeCCKRIH1tk-SghCE1VhE0uNLaWgm7TwcXqoZuCs5bmWBJNWovLNSCLqZXFc6mkD5_Eu3yjRU/s400/2+Wax+stations.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wax stations</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdaHhM8UlChd1V2XUtKLzrvdpiIDoW42PWC9PleuBazJYmBlSlGxp2aait6kfiVO5Foha-rhWEsLdqVJBpB5e93STeS5QzAh72zL_3kIkLbL8bbhXTI2wiykmLknpm5pzBzi7eWGZ2dqE/s1600/3+Tools+ready+for+action.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdaHhM8UlChd1V2XUtKLzrvdpiIDoW42PWC9PleuBazJYmBlSlGxp2aait6kfiVO5Foha-rhWEsLdqVJBpB5e93STeS5QzAh72zL_3kIkLbL8bbhXTI2wiykmLknpm5pzBzi7eWGZ2dqE/s400/3+Tools+ready+for+action.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tools laid out and ready to use</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSdU_Opnj92kBnAfL3anRfn0Zb2-6YQxO982nFP-apKFDFrlMRDhvarrEMJ27cdDgt5hvQu_MutIkTOe6GFXBaLSzmH-72SD4hG9LqZUV4avlEYAW27kr2GTl3lehK8ahcw9ZAw-0kLJ8/s1600/4+Another+view+of+tools+and+supplies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSdU_Opnj92kBnAfL3anRfn0Zb2-6YQxO982nFP-apKFDFrlMRDhvarrEMJ27cdDgt5hvQu_MutIkTOe6GFXBaLSzmH-72SD4hG9LqZUV4avlEYAW27kr2GTl3lehK8ahcw9ZAw-0kLJ8/s400/4+Another+view+of+tools+and+supplies.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another view of tools, colored gesso, paper, etc.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3BagfJbMpQdON9N8vT73rQCWc_mjTbubzj7kEpGTUtAvLhfxJgsHalAmP0yCqglD9iXnssZu5fOs1vEpdTLo0jqfNRD6labPeK7FgaRstDk9dL005KkNa1pSW8cWYzdWFDJ_m_pv95OU/s1600/5+Stack+of+mystery+boxes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3BagfJbMpQdON9N8vT73rQCWc_mjTbubzj7kEpGTUtAvLhfxJgsHalAmP0yCqglD9iXnssZu5fOs1vEpdTLo0jqfNRD6labPeK7FgaRstDk9dL005KkNa1pSW8cWYzdWFDJ_m_pv95OU/s400/5+Stack+of+mystery+boxes.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The stack of mystery boxes</td></tr>
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This year, students were also assigned a theme for the first panel which was <i>A Relationship Between or Among</i> (which could also be considered a dialogue, a contrast, a comparison or a juxtaposition). Some suggested pairings for the theme were:<br />
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Exposed/hidden<br />
Movement/stillness<br />
Repetition/singularity<br />
Geometric/lyrical or expressive<br />
Harmony/discord<br />
etc.<br />
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There were some other simple rules and I stressed that, as always with such an assignment, editing is probably the most important consideration in making a work To assist with this, I limited the time to a bit less than two hours for the first of two panels and to allow time for a critique/discussion of the works.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwEdaQQRbOZk6Sz9hkL_3qh2F-dcCC80xzZQvncfd-zpKp3AkjhXJBcap7gs-TFPkUKl7P6N-HqgZ6qTmnfK9xxhLPzvyq86gCHwaEZNGItK2t_cy3yNYqBiG7NrGdccirwg5bHmWXZrs/s1600/6+First+panels.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwEdaQQRbOZk6Sz9hkL_3qh2F-dcCC80xzZQvncfd-zpKp3AkjhXJBcap7gs-TFPkUKl7P6N-HqgZ6qTmnfK9xxhLPzvyq86gCHwaEZNGItK2t_cy3yNYqBiG7NrGdccirwg5bHmWXZrs/s640/6+First+panels.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A wall with the first panels completed</td></tr>
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Unfortunately, I guess I needed to get my teaching hat on because I forgot to photograph each student individually with their work. However, I do have images of each of the works. I believe I have the names of the artists matched correctly with their panels, but I hope people will let me know if I have made errors.<br />
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I'm going to show you both panels made by each student because I think that after making the first piece, some lessons were learned about planning, editing and simplicity. (I apologize for my iPhone photography which leaves a lot to be desired.) By the way, although the first 9" x 12" panel was made with just the objects from the mystery boxes, the second 8" x 8" panel was made using objects from my Overflowing Bin of Weird Stuff and there was no limit on what could be selected. There was also no assigned theme.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuLcYibm8l9hP1o0aPfYPV5aEZpLIkAFvHF3Z9_mg6Rxzi-AAWyV9-_xoLNDqFIrFeiuBW8bVe8i7TMzDLubPdNskPYqteCJ7qiRfgi5BvGO68L84ycKf90s79KcBpUfP5AOgdXj-NlUc/s1600/Bob+%232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuLcYibm8l9hP1o0aPfYPV5aEZpLIkAFvHF3Z9_mg6Rxzi-AAWyV9-_xoLNDqFIrFeiuBW8bVe8i7TMzDLubPdNskPYqteCJ7qiRfgi5BvGO68L84ycKf90s79KcBpUfP5AOgdXj-NlUc/s400/Bob+%232.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bob Dodge #1 and #2</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHWwca-DexPSEQ1Us0vbZ8I4mSR5bbg_fAPyMaZQ8A1_gPB-xqM216tKcCSGr3X8rCPHVnMJkSsfcMghCxVcW5mmkYng-OW2TyjOfdKYUgwTcObwDUOexVRrfTzzZ2s7tEKdVktndZnnM/s1600/Corina+@1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHWwca-DexPSEQ1Us0vbZ8I4mSR5bbg_fAPyMaZQ8A1_gPB-xqM216tKcCSGr3X8rCPHVnMJkSsfcMghCxVcW5mmkYng-OW2TyjOfdKYUgwTcObwDUOexVRrfTzzZ2s7tEKdVktndZnnM/s400/Corina+@1.jpg" width="308" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Add caption</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijck6Rw2IAPk4v9ZL_21yt2479rnAhES_5Fc-7fdADTkQsosKtnC76qOpzpNfFy-qZwU7kh1tyxA1XpoHufxiKpEAILsDMGS0QtancvTXVP89hgjI4zEKQfI0AKuHTz7sFW7OCDMxogTk/s1600/Corina+%232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijck6Rw2IAPk4v9ZL_21yt2479rnAhES_5Fc-7fdADTkQsosKtnC76qOpzpNfFy-qZwU7kh1tyxA1XpoHufxiKpEAILsDMGS0QtancvTXVP89hgjI4zEKQfI0AKuHTz7sFW7OCDMxogTk/s400/Corina+%232.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Corina Alvarezdelugo #1 and #2</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNjSUhORMkeHwFpmNm0sT24SBwWBNmr6LHJly2DEKAkGhvx1qRqM9i9sxc_A4z1drCW1qUkf57aWy2RKDAqCLS_MST3llZb8hv2DWEukptAcN6P9_I7XmFXYdcrA0DavM5LauPC0X3Qiw/s1600/Dianne+%232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNjSUhORMkeHwFpmNm0sT24SBwWBNmr6LHJly2DEKAkGhvx1qRqM9i9sxc_A4z1drCW1qUkf57aWy2RKDAqCLS_MST3llZb8hv2DWEukptAcN6P9_I7XmFXYdcrA0DavM5LauPC0X3Qiw/s400/Dianne+%232.jpg" width="397" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dianne Miller #1 and #2</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTpIx4ALHIOddvOPYN5IjGIrCMAUPM3E7HB6YFDKrjqvLFuyletocWeRYJJ5NFLIgZ74Hbu4mlJ5BmmgwZti66gIuK5sF1RNDNJH9R19VUF-YOKHJvuRo1UKvJ4x0gltioMoh15-vv4bQ/s1600/Dora+%231.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTpIx4ALHIOddvOPYN5IjGIrCMAUPM3E7HB6YFDKrjqvLFuyletocWeRYJJ5NFLIgZ74Hbu4mlJ5BmmgwZti66gIuK5sF1RNDNJH9R19VUF-YOKHJvuRo1UKvJ4x0gltioMoh15-vv4bQ/s400/Dora+%231.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDbcgZIOQcvaG8i-dxcSMIcKkS924_wkk9UbHIi5NvJupIXJriQ-l-D_2Q9HuDcVCFSgya1lJoAw99-r2fTXmtbVjPQq9tKkGRr4-Ct3QUX36FOIGltZe52-BFPASdfD14V-vVZ8Txryc/s1600/Dora+%232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDbcgZIOQcvaG8i-dxcSMIcKkS924_wkk9UbHIi5NvJupIXJriQ-l-D_2Q9HuDcVCFSgya1lJoAw99-r2fTXmtbVjPQq9tKkGRr4-Ct3QUX36FOIGltZe52-BFPASdfD14V-vVZ8Txryc/s400/Dora+%232.jpg" width="390" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dora Ficher #1 and #2</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHqDHRaN8oF_L8aWD5Zmb-v5oxqmpy_ALjD8Qplu4DM2q6ok8mFPhyy2uXei_Ud1A9kyxHNI1m7hxcMUu0Yn0rFOo5yKwIw-XthNyKrNaNM0Zty8-jfBPnP7tVlGmhAPHow9Rz8Anr9QU/s1600/Idea+%231.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHqDHRaN8oF_L8aWD5Zmb-v5oxqmpy_ALjD8Qplu4DM2q6ok8mFPhyy2uXei_Ud1A9kyxHNI1m7hxcMUu0Yn0rFOo5yKwIw-XthNyKrNaNM0Zty8-jfBPnP7tVlGmhAPHow9Rz8Anr9QU/s400/Idea+%231.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM06VAwksRJcMIQdDQ2CxArWZFl09qHZuR1wg4tpf7dqrhbZaMBnHJouyuSdCPHT7UgZDPDhmVVMQs0RiY0Em_AfOjIE6keVOjvrZxpG2tITgaD7mZ1g48BREecD23pCd79ZxiuhXZxXk/s1600/Idee+%232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM06VAwksRJcMIQdDQ2CxArWZFl09qHZuR1wg4tpf7dqrhbZaMBnHJouyuSdCPHT7UgZDPDhmVVMQs0RiY0Em_AfOjIE6keVOjvrZxpG2tITgaD7mZ1g48BREecD23pCd79ZxiuhXZxXk/s400/Idee+%232.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Idee Schoenheimer #1 and #2</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGssBooPV27660LSJln67INjCudQNhYkK_z3SEzk1Hc5R_fkrDsRMRseVlA754UHl3KqlddJ6y8cmUZsLhyphenhyphenYoNi6FpC-OvdcaVuaMQxWftNrvDcac4SH5-axPW3vseg4knZ7yTEVtcYbc/s1600/Joan+%231.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGssBooPV27660LSJln67INjCudQNhYkK_z3SEzk1Hc5R_fkrDsRMRseVlA754UHl3KqlddJ6y8cmUZsLhyphenhyphenYoNi6FpC-OvdcaVuaMQxWftNrvDcac4SH5-axPW3vseg4knZ7yTEVtcYbc/s400/Joan+%231.jpg" width="303" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joan Lewis #1 (she only made one)</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS4uR9N-1dqNoDUh40qNYVxUjX3hyphenhyphenvNOStCvDE0-PclwnKC68yqyRwZnNC8Zhf5YUQo-VF52vnISb_PJt79eiMQuqkr886fWng4zo17VhrwXd9Az5aGH1BgT8gMIaGv_WoEqF08Za3M6s/s1600/Karma+%231.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS4uR9N-1dqNoDUh40qNYVxUjX3hyphenhyphenvNOStCvDE0-PclwnKC68yqyRwZnNC8Zhf5YUQo-VF52vnISb_PJt79eiMQuqkr886fWng4zo17VhrwXd9Az5aGH1BgT8gMIaGv_WoEqF08Za3M6s/s400/Karma+%231.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqSSOX0v7SzYIdNMMqdqzqtHEgd9uMQB_oHXoc56wQOQIHz_SrpQhR2Tposx75sdWNBOgxcCVCKdw4UrRSyq5VDpuYAFaRu3sJGNz7zJaGhONIew5o5V4ZnSJ-zLD-ImzNlaKj33xHAPo/s1600/Karma+%232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqSSOX0v7SzYIdNMMqdqzqtHEgd9uMQB_oHXoc56wQOQIHz_SrpQhR2Tposx75sdWNBOgxcCVCKdw4UrRSyq5VDpuYAFaRu3sJGNz7zJaGhONIew5o5V4ZnSJ-zLD-ImzNlaKj33xHAPo/s400/Karma+%232.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Karma Kitaj #1 and #2</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3DAviSp0tLdl-gUe6-EPOqqiRKErZvxg5Ug8nsHK2SUk9I_dxI7V1F2urGYqP7KdPKpZhP7zcmF1f2f7Yn4CTvgrN5fUs8PYP9EHAnStarI36UJPnGqkSixlqZ3gKUn7iO1UGAxgOPx4/s1600/Margaret+%231.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3DAviSp0tLdl-gUe6-EPOqqiRKErZvxg5Ug8nsHK2SUk9I_dxI7V1F2urGYqP7KdPKpZhP7zcmF1f2f7Yn4CTvgrN5fUs8PYP9EHAnStarI36UJPnGqkSixlqZ3gKUn7iO1UGAxgOPx4/s400/Margaret+%231.jpg" width="306" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_fMUBqtMxA9SMxIiukc3uPAwD5ybk4cnuU7B_2D4eMVoOKB5uqagq86SzV3V40MSYj10dRsgqTHfIF8ClRYOxNzGGq9ONRQW7kc-shgxkMwAzrClW5Ywvvt6DgpvJRhkboNpxH840LYU/s1600/Margaret+%232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="397" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_fMUBqtMxA9SMxIiukc3uPAwD5ybk4cnuU7B_2D4eMVoOKB5uqagq86SzV3V40MSYj10dRsgqTHfIF8ClRYOxNzGGq9ONRQW7kc-shgxkMwAzrClW5Ywvvt6DgpvJRhkboNpxH840LYU/s400/Margaret+%232.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Margaret Bertrand #1 and #2</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVF_PDSWc8NSQcYstDWaBppIwRXsj4LzH3citNoteZyyf2IRxpWOKOEdgREQAtRPEQXXH-S1aCQqfUHKSMEB3gkBk8lhAvnRkfyK9GVVyWXqJngEXSIu8cyb4iTZb9yQm64_IZlXdNYg0/s1600/Natalie+%231.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVF_PDSWc8NSQcYstDWaBppIwRXsj4LzH3citNoteZyyf2IRxpWOKOEdgREQAtRPEQXXH-S1aCQqfUHKSMEB3gkBk8lhAvnRkfyK9GVVyWXqJngEXSIu8cyb4iTZb9yQm64_IZlXdNYg0/s400/Natalie+%231.jpg" width="306" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCa_z7fWdjCkqHeB3cbPzFI808rcoiJaImGstldZegZyF0KtEl5faV4c5HQWxPAZZRo6h6PdaleWfGR6nSy_8_3_XIY7ICZoDsOMiWqbXEr9wU6WZZuazbYFyyJNfxRlPCSEbRzlU7H7Q/s1600/Natalie+%232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCa_z7fWdjCkqHeB3cbPzFI808rcoiJaImGstldZegZyF0KtEl5faV4c5HQWxPAZZRo6h6PdaleWfGR6nSy_8_3_XIY7ICZoDsOMiWqbXEr9wU6WZZuazbYFyyJNfxRlPCSEbRzlU7H7Q/s400/Natalie+%232.jpg" width="308" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Natalie Salminen #1 and #2</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQj_3k64vTWU9htLaknW7qMDDY3Lrcx_1I3nXua_8qRUAQ9AC6WHNGI5MW2WIe9LZu8Bw3EpDmHh4Z7Goxui0vL2ngy7G5hegfdpmtzH_xz-xPlgmgyxzA6DScpuMPfCVz9zO4Lop2oz4/s1600/Supria+%231.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQj_3k64vTWU9htLaknW7qMDDY3Lrcx_1I3nXua_8qRUAQ9AC6WHNGI5MW2WIe9LZu8Bw3EpDmHh4Z7Goxui0vL2ngy7G5hegfdpmtzH_xz-xPlgmgyxzA6DScpuMPfCVz9zO4Lop2oz4/s400/Supria+%231.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu06ftOXNhKdgL-byOE8iW7vlCw3QvjIuus4ms3kMhD1CqlpCSBQFsDi1yREpD7w2_Sjlz1L5CJVa3oY49TAma7nju12IBDNZynqzn7TMmSPJA8pNKXq1cDtr7bHHD2o-21WP_u6_60Mo/s1600/Supria+%232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="388" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu06ftOXNhKdgL-byOE8iW7vlCw3QvjIuus4ms3kMhD1CqlpCSBQFsDi1yREpD7w2_Sjlz1L5CJVa3oY49TAma7nju12IBDNZynqzn7TMmSPJA8pNKXq1cDtr7bHHD2o-21WP_u6_60Mo/s400/Supria+%232.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Supria Karmakar #1 and #2</td></tr>
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A very important part of the workshop was putting the work up on the wall, looking at it and then discussing the pieces in a formal analysis, also talking about how the works were made, what the artist's intentions were, how they were seen by viewers, and thinking about what could be changed or done differently and why some pieces were more resolved than others.<br />
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In between it all we had plenty of time for laughter and having fun. Thanks to everyone for participating and making it a great class!<br />
<br />Nancy Natalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03325421420384484035noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2810378157994182121.post-67446220050444260422012-05-28T00:07:00.001-04:002012-05-28T00:15:54.529-04:00Coming Soon To A Conference Near YouWell, it will be near you if you are in Provincetown, at least. Yes, <a href="http://encausticconference.blogspot.com/">The Conference</a> is nearly here - it begins officially on Friday, June 1st, at the Provincetown Inn in Provincetown, Massachusetts. But some of us will be going early and staying late. I'm one of the fortunate ones. I leave tomorrow morning and hope that I'll be driving AGAINST traffic.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdVat5yX-soQ8-XY85OJNxABq0i-EnJjVYQrCs5hKvUS1IiZ9wKNKnDNVRXs3M1OIdM1wZUKs4cgh1b-7tZ5sFodKfHpS7_N_X4NV95TY0XElLA1SgtGbbn0P55PYfXUYtnIwFBzukI3A/s1600/10_BarthelsonLA_theend_familydebrisseries_180.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdVat5yX-soQ8-XY85OJNxABq0i-EnJjVYQrCs5hKvUS1IiZ9wKNKnDNVRXs3M1OIdM1wZUKs4cgh1b-7tZ5sFodKfHpS7_N_X4NV95TY0XElLA1SgtGbbn0P55PYfXUYtnIwFBzukI3A/s640/10_BarthelsonLA_theend_familydebrisseries_180.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lisa Barthelson, The End, Family Debris Series, 24" x 24", encaustic and found objects on panel</td></tr>
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But just to tantalize you, here are three images of work by artists who will be featured in my talk, Wax + Bricolage, to be given on Friday morning, June 1st, at 11:00.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEclf3sChN65rbqRgbio1khPTe3At0xKXnsvfjCkGJjwfay2NSozAYh8LDm17j7RylTs0lzsi-S_q4Cz2sKEKfPljDJzqHkR2QgN1EYPvTbG2mwpyt86RueTtOjxs2cfOt-dXchSyqBA0/s1600/slaschkrevitt_Blossom_+Detail+1-180.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="554" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEclf3sChN65rbqRgbio1khPTe3At0xKXnsvfjCkGJjwfay2NSozAYh8LDm17j7RylTs0lzsi-S_q4Cz2sKEKfPljDJzqHkR2QgN1EYPvTbG2mwpyt86RueTtOjxs2cfOt-dXchSyqBA0/s640/slaschkrevitt_Blossom_+Detail+1-180.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Susan Lasch Krevitt, a detail of Blossom, 2012, encaustic with found and invented objects on panel</td></tr>
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My talk will present work by 15 artists who work in bricolage. There are some fabulous pieces that are bound to captivate and raise interest in bricolage to incredible heights. Bricolage may become The Next Big Thing.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir9WIDLllmJi5XJbRee7maB6Jl8eX6Tt3d1lEN22QfVZ51ccBhAXSQYSj4wkMC-PRA3Q5fqGZS5Jt5w0MCBxlFeK6SJe6qSg-dn88NxwfXLF3c5mbr5HWRnYq5GrMRMFdh8_I0-0OK_KE/s1600/Youdelman_Wrapped_Baby_180.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="454" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir9WIDLllmJi5XJbRee7maB6Jl8eX6Tt3d1lEN22QfVZ51ccBhAXSQYSj4wkMC-PRA3Q5fqGZS5Jt5w0MCBxlFeK6SJe6qSg-dn88NxwfXLF3c5mbr5HWRnYq5GrMRMFdh8_I0-0OK_KE/s640/Youdelman_Wrapped_Baby_180.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nancy Youdelman, Wrapped Baby #1, 2009, encaustic with baby shoe and other materials</td></tr>
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As you can see, the work presents encaustic works that look quite different from the norm - or is there any "norm" in how encaustic can be used?<br />
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In addition to the talk, I will be teaching three workshops in Wax + Bricolage before and after the conference and expect to post some great student work.<br />
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And, there are also all those shows in 15 (or is it 16?) galleries in Provincetown and Truro that are featuring work in encaustic in conjunction with the conference. An action-packed couple of weeks lies ahead!Nancy Natalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03325421420384484035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2810378157994182121.post-65127728130180365232012-05-05T01:38:00.001-04:002012-05-05T01:38:09.114-04:00Oh, those mystery boxes!I've been really slacking off on this blog because I've been too busy making work in bricolage all year. Since actually being in the studio making work is my priority, something had to suffer the consequences. Unfortunately, this blog was it - low blog on the totem pole. But now I guess I had better write a post seeing as The Conference with its Pre and Post workshops are nearly upon us. In the far reaches of the studio the Mystery Boxes have begun shuffling around and gathering their contents. Okay, okay, I hear you.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirRzoI4jlwrD8QZPGWTtzEQBi00Pcfsl86nxiG09e9VelY6NlVDKob5pjsRfYZSt2VTuSMlv7SCFn9WlKoE0Ap6QyS0OpRSDOLRYa_nUbHX22s7ja_zGnKh4tpx4cin6jCAc626Hk3jlU/s1600/Skarp+the+goat+2008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirRzoI4jlwrD8QZPGWTtzEQBi00Pcfsl86nxiG09e9VelY6NlVDKob5pjsRfYZSt2VTuSMlv7SCFn9WlKoE0Ap6QyS0OpRSDOLRYa_nUbHX22s7ja_zGnKh4tpx4cin6jCAc626Hk3jlU/s400/Skarp+the+goat+2008.jpg" width="270" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Mari Skarp</b>, <i>The Goat</i>, 2008, wood, found objects, paper, rubber,<br />handspun wool, goat horns. Mari Skarp's bricolage work with wax<br />will be included in my talk at The Conference.</td></tr>
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Wax + Bricolage Talk at The Encaustic Conference</span></b><br />
This year I am doing a lot more research about bricolage than I have done previously in preparation for my <a href="http://encausticconference.blogspot.com/p/event-schedule.html">talk </a>on Friday, June 1st, at The Sixth International Encaustic <a href="http://encausticconference.blogspot.com/">Conference</a> in <a href="http://www.provincetowninn.com/">Provincetown</a>, Mass. Perhaps the topic should actually be written "Bricolage + Wax" as I have found that examples abound of bricolage but work with wax is relatively more difficult to locate. I have been scouring the web to discover strong work that illustrates my definition of bricolage and have collected some wonderful examples.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipq7BejnqvDQhynnYlEjyC2SSvTZ1iIMrzmItmsZL1Ec6V6k9EHSNQz2OYd_FYJynsEQjonq2m9TmQi7xVVQu2CHGZVR5x9uIZOZiLUAwsRuT-Nsg-_J0WFp8hZb-Qpbj3IpIC82XTpf8/s1600/Skarp+Carriage+2008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipq7BejnqvDQhynnYlEjyC2SSvTZ1iIMrzmItmsZL1Ec6V6k9EHSNQz2OYd_FYJynsEQjonq2m9TmQi7xVVQu2CHGZVR5x9uIZOZiLUAwsRuT-Nsg-_J0WFp8hZb-Qpbj3IpIC82XTpf8/s400/Skarp+Carriage+2008.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Mari Skarp</b>, <i>Carriage</i>, 2008. Welded steel, found objects, fabric, rubber, wire,<br />barren sunflower heads, photo of artist's great grandmother. <a href="http://mariskarp.com/">mariskarp.com</a></td></tr>
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">My Definition of Bricolage Revised</span></b><br />
Looking at so much work that can be described as bricolage (with and without wax) has led me to revise or expand on my definition. Previously I had only been emphasizing the difference between bricolage and collage. I was focusing on the additional dimensionality of bricolage when compared to collage and, somewhat snarkily, calling it "muscle." Turns out some people interpreted that to mean I was claiming <i>only </i>bricolage had muscle, and that all other art forms lacked heft and robustness when compared to it.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2QIZnmD640-d4mMtWHCR03b2eT9FDLSNw7AgaDXW2WDHH1fvqrUM3Dl4_GfU2kLwBN6sw2a93KoBAxCHOkY5P49GvyCDKhkgl1xYWmugiqbbkXEn8FkaIUc3DW90tt5WPiTfmLysYzQc/s1600/Skarp+Rockinghorse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2QIZnmD640-d4mMtWHCR03b2eT9FDLSNw7AgaDXW2WDHH1fvqrUM3Dl4_GfU2kLwBN6sw2a93KoBAxCHOkY5P49GvyCDKhkgl1xYWmugiqbbkXEn8FkaIUc3DW90tt5WPiTfmLysYzQc/s400/Skarp+Rockinghorse.jpg" width="267" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Mari Skarp</b>, <i>Rocking Horse</i>, 2008, welded steel, found objects,<br />wire, wood, horsehair.</td></tr>
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First off, it was not my intention to dis other art forms. Secondly, I think a more meaningful definition of bricolage would also take into account its difference from assemblage or found object art. I had a hard time formulating what this difference was, but I think I finally have it:<br />
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<b>In bricolage, the identity of individual objects is subsumed into the whole of the work. Individual objects are re-purposed and re-identified as part of the whole.</b><b><br /></b><br />
<b>At the same time, the individual objects add a layer of meaning or content to the work as a whole because of their unique identities (which may be discovered on looking closer).</b><br />
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I will be talking more about this expansion of my definition and showing examples of what I mean during my talk.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUmP5rSLXBNjVxLVhtrKyKCVzU7i7M0CVLHnUSMMzcj6A2D47Z2Y5A5QLLVX5OkAeSCPnX4BAJ1XRoqhyphenhyphenhy0UWHAddE6D0u78TTQ3jzwFYWl4IJAbRLoBak2bz6c5JftwTbDJCQcSwLSw/s1600/mystery+boxes+2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUmP5rSLXBNjVxLVhtrKyKCVzU7i7M0CVLHnUSMMzcj6A2D47Z2Y5A5QLLVX5OkAeSCPnX4BAJ1XRoqhyphenhyphenhy0UWHAddE6D0u78TTQ3jzwFYWl4IJAbRLoBak2bz6c5JftwTbDJCQcSwLSw/s400/mystery+boxes+2012.jpg" width="352" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Now About Those Boxes</span></b><br />
Yes, I am getting the boxes ready for my Pre-Conference workshop on Wednesday, May 30th, and for my Post-Conference workshop on Thursday, June 7th. These workshops will be held at the wonderful Truro Center for the Arts at <a href="http://castlehill.org/">Castle Hill</a>. Last year, if you recall, I had the boxes absolutely packed with all kinds of stuff -- much more than could ever be put on the dinky panel I supplied. I wanted to emphasize how much working with found objects depended on editing and choosing what to include. I was hoping that all my emphasis on organizational approaches to making art would help students to pull together a work that became more than "a bunch of stuff with wax on a panel ."<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmBmZcAmQzxHJS2nilw97Z4g3GQecbixvu_JGqgtxUmQoeQe7hADo1BTBIwuaxEdIbYntTgGjuhxLjFFMkgXiUa-wH5ZWPiTL8u8wDZ_KoIcPN7uob0LcCpwRT_QzgdpdlS4yY8_JchpI/s1600/Conference+2011+268-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmBmZcAmQzxHJS2nilw97Z4g3GQecbixvu_JGqgtxUmQoeQe7hADo1BTBIwuaxEdIbYntTgGjuhxLjFFMkgXiUa-wH5ZWPiTL8u8wDZ_KoIcPN7uob0LcCpwRT_QzgdpdlS4yY8_JchpI/s400/Conference+2011+268-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An action scene from one of last year's workshops showing students<br />opening their boxes and examining the contents. (Donna Ramsey Nevers and<br />unidentified hands.)</td></tr>
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I think some students were able to conquer the over-abundance of materials that I supplied, but many had a lot of difficulty choosing what to use and packed too much on the panel. Finding a theme in the midst of all those objects also presented a problem for some.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">The New Challenge</span></b><br />
So this year, I am organizing the workshops differently. I will still have an abundance of materials and equipment (and encaustic) available for students to use, but in each Mystery Box I am only putting two panels and five or six objects -- the <b>same </b>objects in each box. So the challenge this year is for each student to take those same objects, use them all or only some of them, and make a strong work on one panel.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEJaVd3ycsinLw73EoVJCkIjlOcGrNkZkFQnb7cRMM2WdbDBsT6HO5P_Az2GEfmzw47v0EFO8kmkFuCkH_Sx6CoYkBGZhZ6phn5yauxFINTmPLdgys42G-d1OXebpoqZbnbh6sHm3F22Y/s1600/Conference+2011+Joanne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEJaVd3ycsinLw73EoVJCkIjlOcGrNkZkFQnb7cRMM2WdbDBsT6HO5P_Az2GEfmzw47v0EFO8kmkFuCkH_Sx6CoYkBGZhZ6phn5yauxFINTmPLdgys42G-d1OXebpoqZbnbh6sHm3F22Y/s400/Conference+2011+Joanne.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We had a lot of laughs and fun last year. Here are Donna Nevers, Joanne<br />Mattera, Sherrie Posternak and Binnie Birstein yucking it up.</td></tr>
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I will also provide a list of possible themes that students might use. This list is to counteract the problems some students had last year in understanding the difference between broader, more conceptual themes and literal illustrations. With this list, I am attempting to help students think about conceptual contexts for their works.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje9FrpMb47xQb7DpV8qR7fQITdp6TqeHUBnBdLrk5MqXBIJvR6xFjILEJ8Ct-cBJPlKYYRvdIOwhcNK8P3QM4wTgC-v369LXwulJBqGxSN66ysEWsqc_IBkHk5xSjU-R4Upx42MOyR3bc/s1600/Peggy+Epner-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje9FrpMb47xQb7DpV8qR7fQITdp6TqeHUBnBdLrk5MqXBIJvR6xFjILEJ8Ct-cBJPlKYYRvdIOwhcNK8P3QM4wTgC-v369LXwulJBqGxSN66ysEWsqc_IBkHk5xSjU-R4Upx42MOyR3bc/s400/Peggy+Epner-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The happy face of Peggy Epner after last year's workshop.</td></tr>
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Then, students will have the second panel to make another work with the benefit of compositional knowledge gained from the first piece. And it will all be capped with our mini show and discussion of the works completed. Whew! Sounds like a full program. And with plenty of time-outs for laughing.Nancy Natalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03325421420384484035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2810378157994182121.post-57669457382601816752011-12-28T23:20:00.001-05:002011-12-28T23:20:23.580-05:00The Stuff of ArtIt's been a long time between posts, but I just had to be sure that the bricoleurs out there were aware of Joanne Mattera's wonderful post that collects images of artworks made from non-traditional materials that she saw at the Miami art fairs. (Talk about a run-on sentence!) Anyway, there are some wild and wonderful pieces in her post and you can link to it <a href="http://joannemattera.blogspot.com/2011/12/fair-play-stuff.html">here</a>. (The image below is from her post, "Fair Play: Stuff" of today's date. The work is by William J. O'Brien at Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, at ABMB.)<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinxAf-w_hUGvwXD2QmKeHaPbQrN_Y7asRm2xguPZLhbNoxnBhq-0NMKAgEck43nqbhhgsvJJf7AzHZLsMaPrJrFw7Gsxr0BxOaaZXfpaTn1-ucZ_-SWGYWh-VYHjSLf70iMaP9gxWj10I/s1600/A.+William+J.+Obrien%252C+marianne+BOesky+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinxAf-w_hUGvwXD2QmKeHaPbQrN_Y7asRm2xguPZLhbNoxnBhq-0NMKAgEck43nqbhhgsvJJf7AzHZLsMaPrJrFw7Gsxr0BxOaaZXfpaTn1-ucZ_-SWGYWh-VYHjSLf70iMaP9gxWj10I/s640/A.+William+J.+Obrien%252C+marianne+BOesky+%25281%2529.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image from Joanne Mattera Art Blog - "Fair Play: Stuff" of 12.28.11. See details above.</td></tr>
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When you link to Joanne's post, you will see all her other wonderful posts about the Miami art fairs that give you a real sense of being there in a tour edited and organized by JM herself.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">My Solo Show at The Bing</span></b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3gAhL2wEskto_5mF_svc-SlPDo7WYTkdjaNlYcsxlB0WjF02zMDQGkRsNKKRM1qZu-hpX_C2fj68pVhPVWq-TKZMixPo_H0k-KgiC6XmZHwbkk1ihq0nrLr8jgRcy3K8To02fna_N5xs/s1600/Material+World+on+black+180.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3gAhL2wEskto_5mF_svc-SlPDo7WYTkdjaNlYcsxlB0WjF02zMDQGkRsNKKRM1qZu-hpX_C2fj68pVhPVWq-TKZMixPo_H0k-KgiC6XmZHwbkk1ihq0nrLr8jgRcy3K8To02fna_N5xs/s400/Material+World+on+black+180.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Material World</i>, 2011, tacks boxes, book parts, printed corrugated, rubber, <br />
patinated aluminum and copper, record album parts, tacks and encaustic on panel.<br />
This image will be on the postcard for the show.</td></tr>
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I am getting ready for a very large solo show that starts February 3rd and runs to the beginning of April. It will be called <i>GEOMETRIC BRICOLAGE: Found Materials Transformed</i>. Believe it or not, there are more than 100 linear feet of lovely white walls for me to hang on at <a href="http://bingartscenter.org/about/">The Bing Arts Center</a> in Springfield, Mass.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNCbFZLu1fShIkAdCeJiWYAvqQ0TWCZhtEst45BZi00r_wAD9nilqHV41lCyy0e2zaoD6Lsq0RFDC6fBO8sValnfczy3W8swXB7-8Wlc3JlvvEMzpSuFc4mTCb9T-LnAijAq54SOPILVc/s1600/Bing_NightShotsm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNCbFZLu1fShIkAdCeJiWYAvqQ0TWCZhtEst45BZi00r_wAD9nilqHV41lCyy0e2zaoD6Lsq0RFDC6fBO8sValnfczy3W8swXB7-8Wlc3JlvvEMzpSuFc4mTCb9T-LnAijAq54SOPILVc/s400/Bing_NightShotsm.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Bing at night, photo by Chris Marion Photography from the Bing's <a href="http://bingartscenter.org/about/">website</a></td></tr>
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The Bing is a 1950s neighborhood theater that has been revived and reinvented as a non-profit "multi-use hub for community cultural activity." The prime mover of this endeavor, Brian Hale, had a vision for the Bing that is becoming reality through dedication, hard work and a terrific blend of alternative arts programming. I am pleased to have the opportunity to exhibit in this great space. I'll be posting much more about this later complete with images. Right now I'm making two bricolage works in my largest size ever - 4' x 6', each made as a diptych. The plan is that these will hang in the lobby entrance at The Bing.<br />
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For more about this and The Bing show, see my other blog Art in the StudioNancy Natalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03325421420384484035noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2810378157994182121.post-57788723402984289502011-11-20T22:36:00.001-05:002011-11-20T23:03:27.247-05:00Marc Sparfel - The European Bricolage ConnectionWriting this blog and <a href="http://artinthestudio.blogspot.com/">Art in the Studio</a> have led to some surprising virtual connections for me with readers who let me know that they have appreciated posts I have written. One of those surprise connections happened recently when I received an email from <a href="http://www.marcsparfel.com/">Marc Sparfel</a>, a sculptor born in Brittany, France, who has lived in Barcelona for the post several years. He wrote to me when Google turned up a post I had written on Lee Bontecou*, whose work he had seen at the Pompidou Centre in Paris.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6MWsnrleM25jHX6FAHOnzce1UuaQe3agqTN4MqBWlBeyp-rrBx23iLvn0KJHBVQQm3bwjIO3ttDIir6MxOhZxeo8DIrGXtu4UsD175phu6eXggxAGVaiKPwHJsjn5po62ZtwrSQZKA7E/s1600/studio+interior+with+sculptures.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6MWsnrleM25jHX6FAHOnzce1UuaQe3agqTN4MqBWlBeyp-rrBx23iLvn0KJHBVQQm3bwjIO3ttDIir6MxOhZxeo8DIrGXtu4UsD175phu6eXggxAGVaiKPwHJsjn5po62ZtwrSQZKA7E/s640/studio+interior+with+sculptures.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of Marc Sparfel's bricolage sculptures</td></tr>
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I thought that Marc's work would be perfect for <i>this </i>blog because he creates sculptures from furniture and wood he finds on the streets of Barcelona. He says that he started late in sculpture, having begun only about seven years ago, but has always used found wood because it is free but mostly because "sometimes there is so much wood furniture in the street that you can 'hear' the trees shout! It's really sad." Also he enjoys the fact that there is a history within the materials and the idea of transformation which symbolizes the possibility of a different life. Chairs are his favorites. He loves disassembling them and giving them another opportunity that may be less stressful for them than having to support people as they did in their life as chairs.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFY0JgG6knazrV0z7qsBPLSEwlNiPOkJM3h34spNRjdg7VUSF2EEKNDwo4yhFzkOqyxtb_5kMY9qbb3cgcuZdkqB5MZZ0DJaXf39zn2VtitbkR1nOoUZIEzStLb1TzSHsj7PNRfGmAu0/s1600/Fossil+II+det6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFY0JgG6knazrV0z7qsBPLSEwlNiPOkJM3h34spNRjdg7VUSF2EEKNDwo4yhFzkOqyxtb_5kMY9qbb3cgcuZdkqB5MZZ0DJaXf39zn2VtitbkR1nOoUZIEzStLb1TzSHsj7PNRfGmAu0/s640/Fossil+II+det6.jpg" width="425" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In front of Marc's studio - <i>Fossil 2</i>, 75" x 71" x 8"</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg14XMuSlMYuJsCWvkNTiyKlOo8IbnS19og_jBRNkVEhTQn1Gd2LXsi9BDk9r7hsHj7r0e7BW04PCrF9GrkH7hAku_sIJrQdmYivu4a50uCEM8nfzPTicx-5-50ACsB1QUiOiaGPxTfRFM/s1600/fossil+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg14XMuSlMYuJsCWvkNTiyKlOo8IbnS19og_jBRNkVEhTQn1Gd2LXsi9BDk9r7hsHj7r0e7BW04PCrF9GrkH7hAku_sIJrQdmYivu4a50uCEM8nfzPTicx-5-50ACsB1QUiOiaGPxTfRFM/s640/fossil+1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Fossil 1</i>, 51" x 51" x 2.75"</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhakK99_N420X4dZYDkTPJPhK7Pj07otdUQh7UmZ5F3FUMNZ-uZ726GhXP49bxHYx19LhORRv3oWcHSl718VTOabGMASPfy_hptrsaut6IPECIx0hrdl0TJs26TJTSdthuT0sH73veK1eU/s1600/fossil+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhakK99_N420X4dZYDkTPJPhK7Pj07otdUQh7UmZ5F3FUMNZ-uZ726GhXP49bxHYx19LhORRv3oWcHSl718VTOabGMASPfy_hptrsaut6IPECIx0hrdl0TJs26TJTSdthuT0sH73veK1eU/s640/fossil+3.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Fossil 3</i>, 126" x 85" x 8"</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnqTmLwmR3vvpcnTSQlEp6KWqr3Q0_7ATyvAyf-0KR62NVrgXoC77XRf1GjaHbjG61V09FL03l7Sy9fetgkGX8dnudERZLZISg7lYGw_9t-Jn_MtT4aRg8dhPerCBdlFYGWuB6kCAxUuQ/s1600/fossil+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnqTmLwmR3vvpcnTSQlEp6KWqr3Q0_7ATyvAyf-0KR62NVrgXoC77XRf1GjaHbjG61V09FL03l7Sy9fetgkGX8dnudERZLZISg7lYGw_9t-Jn_MtT4aRg8dhPerCBdlFYGWuB6kCAxUuQ/s640/fossil+6.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Fossil 6</i>, 65" x 82" x 8"</td></tr>
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(Note that I have converted all the dimensions into inches from centimeters.) Marc says that he is usually able to find planks of wood for the backgrounds of these fossil pieces. He cuts and pieces the wood and then paints or stains it before mounting the sculpture on the background.<br />
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Since I understand that in France there are stores called "Mr. Bricolage" that are like Home Depot, made for the weekend warrior or do-it-yourselfer, I asked Marc if there was a bad connotation to the term "bricolage" in Europe. He said that "it can be quite perjorative in regard to art, as [in] the expression "Sunday artists," but if you think it's the best term in the U.S. to describe the type of work I do, maybe it's a good solution."<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>I picked these Fossil pieces above because they are more like the bas relief that I usually show here, but it looks like most of Marc's work is freestanding sculpture, so here are some examples:</div><div><br />
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</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhatofGh92E6dce4srE4VUF-Ki7yLIjFve4XlSoQzkOl8yS6qswmODLfaQl4IfNajhaxsmvTPmCd8oZmhN83A8yJCJ6xb9rgkuAv9TezNVJ-iZ1BkWkEFBHojXiC6jlmXGqdDqe32nXa48/s1600/Aphrodite+and+Satire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhatofGh92E6dce4srE4VUF-Ki7yLIjFve4XlSoQzkOl8yS6qswmODLfaQl4IfNajhaxsmvTPmCd8oZmhN83A8yJCJ6xb9rgkuAv9TezNVJ-iZ1BkWkEFBHojXiC6jlmXGqdDqe32nXa48/s640/Aphrodite+and+Satire.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Aphrodite </i>and <i>Satire </i>(I think that might be Saturn)<br />
Aphrodite is 53" x 29.5" x 12", Satire is 59" x 33" x 12"</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFr5gzJN7MX2LuwwEa5yZHZ-EFp2GGH6kfIUPuILono-eVKXeZ9EUNSNtDvZ8iWSlPS7c4K9qJd7iQlE5SSgMGAbp0wj4hPDb6NPsU6X8biC44eJgKWN7f_8dXQgm7ZGeoadF6ymJboAs/s1600/elephants.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFr5gzJN7MX2LuwwEa5yZHZ-EFp2GGH6kfIUPuILono-eVKXeZ9EUNSNtDvZ8iWSlPS7c4K9qJd7iQlE5SSgMGAbp0wj4hPDb6NPsU6X8biC44eJgKWN7f_8dXQgm7ZGeoadF6ymJboAs/s640/elephants.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Elephants</i>, 37" x 14" x 10"</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div><br />
</div><div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"></div><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQf4TcS4qRYL9EwgrVJWk7TDeRgihrphDCiGn3OoNEVUvIGjmb5tlaeOQiE4p3_mJu8HObyvYa-MJ7e0sm5UGrkqV4BFbEYS5Yrdz9mlApZ4rHzVk8Mco_uYOPBSaHZvrGqe3vf3daD-Q/s1600/Senufo+bird.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQf4TcS4qRYL9EwgrVJWk7TDeRgihrphDCiGn3OoNEVUvIGjmb5tlaeOQiE4p3_mJu8HObyvYa-MJ7e0sm5UGrkqV4BFbEYS5Yrdz9mlApZ4rHzVk8Mco_uYOPBSaHZvrGqe3vf3daD-Q/s640/Senufo+bird.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Oiseau Senufo (Senufo Bird)</i>, 39" x 21.5" x 12"</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Oz_sUnHkT5tPxHIZwkjenqeIO44Quhtf0QFL8oZErbdLC2h1lCLXTbEQ-zkjtLeE8hOrIvxdX6bWG_NT2pTGqMeQfCh9LXKNKM9kZgW6blO6mEouq-ieKHXcNdj_ma_Udn_njdSEAUM/s1600/guerrier+III.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Oz_sUnHkT5tPxHIZwkjenqeIO44Quhtf0QFL8oZErbdLC2h1lCLXTbEQ-zkjtLeE8hOrIvxdX6bWG_NT2pTGqMeQfCh9LXKNKM9kZgW6blO6mEouq-ieKHXcNdj_ma_Udn_njdSEAUM/s640/guerrier+III.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Guerrier (Warrior) III</i>, 37" x 37" x 16"</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuRnNQdRS9YrkaR7bb3hwU7o8X7BuWZ-cU3PYdQLoK5ZgCWeLWIV9Jyjli53c8VWbkfHBAPzkkL65i08FGGfVz6y2LK3hwhw2EjJZbOGXL-zmZb3WAzFnIwdaEruy6CZ8fC0Lq11AlFb0/s1600/Grand+Taureau.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuRnNQdRS9YrkaR7bb3hwU7o8X7BuWZ-cU3PYdQLoK5ZgCWeLWIV9Jyjli53c8VWbkfHBAPzkkL65i08FGGfVz6y2LK3hwhw2EjJZbOGXL-zmZb3WAzFnIwdaEruy6CZ8fC0Lq11AlFb0/s640/Grand+Taureau.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Grand Taureau (Large Bull)</i>, 53" x 29.5" x 12"</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
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Marc shows in Barcelona and is also represented by <a href="http://www.galeriefriedmann-hahn.com/">Friedmann-Hahn Gallery</a> in Berlin. Meeting him and seeing his work through the magic of the internet was really a pleasure and I am glad that we could make this connection. Who would ever imagine even a couple of years ago that the world would become so much smaller this way?<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBUz8QqjLfy9TBsgP5mY_5GqTp2g6tHxmafhlp64vzf-jXwAq_4PHokzw5Q1VXDc3FH_9fTplXkAM2S6aWRZlEJsGAay8VuwcG_kDMiXRsiXYqMIQcA5cWsndunAYCpUOsUuEYYA4S-dE/s1600/foto4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBUz8QqjLfy9TBsgP5mY_5GqTp2g6tHxmafhlp64vzf-jXwAq_4PHokzw5Q1VXDc3FH_9fTplXkAM2S6aWRZlEJsGAay8VuwcG_kDMiXRsiXYqMIQcA5cWsndunAYCpUOsUuEYYA4S-dE/s640/foto4.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marc Sparfel, Sculptor</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
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*Note: I wrote three posts on Lee Bontecou in 2010 in Art in the Studio, here are the links<br />
<a href="http://artinthestudio.blogspot.com/2010/08/lee-bontecou-personal-inspiration-part.html">http://artinthestudio.blogspot.com/2010/08/lee-bontecou-personal-inspiration-part.html</a><br />
<a href="http://artinthestudio.blogspot.com/2010/08/lee-bontecou-personal-inspiration-part_08.html">http://artinthestudio.blogspot.com/2010/08/lee-bontecou-personal-inspiration-part_08.html</a><br />
<a href="http://artinthestudio.blogspot.com/2010/12/discovery-of-lee-bontecou.html">http://artinthestudio.blogspot.com/2010/12/discovery-of-lee-bontecou.html</a></div>Nancy Natalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03325421420384484035noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2810378157994182121.post-12166124934009693902011-10-23T22:41:00.001-04:002011-11-12T20:50:15.289-05:00Bricolage All Around MeDo artists see differently than other people? I think they do, and I think it's because they have trained their eyes to zero in on particular elements in their surroundings to replicate the focus they use in creating their work. So, a portrait painter may be attracted by the way light strikes the side of someone's face, sculptors may see a form in nature that leads to a new work, and abstract artists may be fascinated by the arrangement of windows on a building or a particular color. Personally, I see bricolage. (not dead people).<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKXPyZjcu8oC5QzvdSNV0NDqjma4-F7jcfv24R-VEbF-WIaorLzO671VatWOOr5p0L72U25FZc-9C90LJ3DWG1q0kcdjGmupBAvVZAmvydFDM12_04YPDw0gp_bnzaFJ6RAA4ocDoAJHA/s1600/Kitchen+cannon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKXPyZjcu8oC5QzvdSNV0NDqjma4-F7jcfv24R-VEbF-WIaorLzO671VatWOOr5p0L72U25FZc-9C90LJ3DWG1q0kcdjGmupBAvVZAmvydFDM12_04YPDw0gp_bnzaFJ6RAA4ocDoAJHA/s400/Kitchen+cannon.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sculpture by James Kitchen</td></tr>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">James Kitchen</span></b><br />
So I'm walking by the courthouse in Northampton the other afternoon and out front on the lawn is not the Civil War cannon you might expect but a "cannon" made by Chesterfield sculptor James Kitchen from found metal pieces. I have seen Kitchen's work before and have been impressed with his skill in combining the pieces into works that look cohesively like sculpture rather than a pile of metal parts put together. (Be sure to click pix to enlarge.)<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ_pqef0-GQg6gKfJ0NiGzncI3-XbHrzfq-J0SkDl3FSESKtHF6UFcz6TsyjkOgL_OniK0oQqeq9stEyN0Duz9HX8Ub5WLnLZwa27cj5H3J2znEjgUaO-xutttCxb9JBlhowJKUknLVSA/s1600/Kitchen+wheels+on+column.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ_pqef0-GQg6gKfJ0NiGzncI3-XbHrzfq-J0SkDl3FSESKtHF6UFcz6TsyjkOgL_OniK0oQqeq9stEyN0Duz9HX8Ub5WLnLZwa27cj5H3J2znEjgUaO-xutttCxb9JBlhowJKUknLVSA/s400/Kitchen+wheels+on+column.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another work on the courthouse lawn</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
Kitchen was not trained as an artist and makes these sculptures as an avocation, although one to which he devotes a lot of time and thought. He often shows his work around the Pioneer Valley in western Massachusetts and his works range from sort of petite to the fairly monumental in scale. You can read more about him <a href="http://www.jameskitchen.com/about.html">here</a>. He has a great eye and has apparently developed his expertise through experience. I believe that he also unifies his work by applying a patina so that all the pieces are brought together by color.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSuDdg5GDoG-CXBLaxE2Wlc6Am1iif3SdoJ9D4C_ZA7fpmkiEHzeKTQI_C6JtpxOcHxTkzNrRRIeA1SVS5XfvtQ4n24hMHd8SiWr5s6LcO_EqhoMK4a_zdNGcYsvoz8gjWDQlKP8IVRZQ/s1600/Kitchen+whirling+planet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSuDdg5GDoG-CXBLaxE2Wlc6Am1iif3SdoJ9D4C_ZA7fpmkiEHzeKTQI_C6JtpxOcHxTkzNrRRIeA1SVS5XfvtQ4n24hMHd8SiWr5s6LcO_EqhoMK4a_zdNGcYsvoz8gjWDQlKP8IVRZQ/s400/Kitchen+whirling+planet.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
(Unfortunately, I don't have the titles of these works and did not see them on Kitchen's website.)<br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">OK, I'm Defensive About My Cluelessness</span></b><br />
The reason I bring up this business of how artists see is that I'm a little sensitive about what I personally see as I move through the world. I have had the experience of not realizing, until it was pointed out to me by someone close to me (guess who?), that a guy I had seen and spoken to at the studio for a few months had a full beard. I hadn't even logged it in as being part of his face. Why? Don't know. Does not compute. I also have the bad habit of just looking at the expressions on people's faces and not at their clothing, new shoes or the fact that they are missing a limb. (This really happened yesterday, although in my defense I only saw this person from the side and back, not the front. Would I have noticed if I saw all of her? Only if I had really looked, I guess, and I was occupied with something else.)<br />
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Anyway, I'm blaming my lack of observation on the fact that as my eyes range through the world, I notice things differently than other people. Now wouldn't it be dull if we all saw the same things?<br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Sally Curcio</span></b><br />
I did happen to notice the work of another artist out here in western Massachusetts whose work could be classified as bricolage. That artist is <a href="http://sallycurcio.com/Home.htm">Sally Curcio</a>. I have seen her work in a couple of shows and wouldn't have pegged it as bricolage until I started thinking about bricolage as a particular form. I was reading in the Northampton newspaper about a show she was in and the description of a particular work rang the bricolage BOING bell in my mind. When I went to her website, I discovered that she made lots of work using found materials. Unlike most bricolage, her work has a rather Minimalist aesthetic that is very elegant and streamlined as well as understatedly humorous- so take a look.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOiEOvR0lefRjowWAQ1S8RYjd7eD_CUgWQlANzyy8WrN8uwwdPIg59n3EkgCqzQ_gX2ZQW1OSYlIQ-Di238jy4pFmRCsMU_Vt8YMTVbAPQmf_fOvCA0rXFDtW0jkksWD24N8YeUb4piwg/s1600/Curcio_Prosthetic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOiEOvR0lefRjowWAQ1S8RYjd7eD_CUgWQlANzyy8WrN8uwwdPIg59n3EkgCqzQ_gX2ZQW1OSYlIQ-Di238jy4pFmRCsMU_Vt8YMTVbAPQmf_fOvCA0rXFDtW0jkksWD24N8YeUb4piwg/s400/Curcio_Prosthetic.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sally Curcio, <i>Petite Prosthetic Sinistral and Dextral </i>(diptych), 2005<br />
Doll arms on mat board, 11 3/8" x 40 3/8" each</td></tr>
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You see that I'm relating to my previous concentration in this blog on that American icon, Barbie. Although one might be hard pressed to identify the specifically Barbie arms in this diptych.<br />
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The next image contains elements that should also be familiar to many readers of this blog.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj7hRTA3F2-baUGl1fFM1jrdLw94p9TTG-LdsHrou08aYALTdecKsaY_M-lUk3-45dsjd7OafjMD8x1TcA2_4tRyvS4FlbKBLupvz2lcZI9r-6XOsD4b9B4_iWyeGbJSt0WQhzNlwQ4g8/s1600/Curcio_Samples.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="393" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj7hRTA3F2-baUGl1fFM1jrdLw94p9TTG-LdsHrou08aYALTdecKsaY_M-lUk3-45dsjd7OafjMD8x1TcA2_4tRyvS4FlbKBLupvz2lcZI9r-6XOsD4b9B4_iWyeGbJSt0WQhzNlwQ4g8/s400/Curcio_Samples.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sally Curcio, <i>Color Studies</i>, 2005, Wall paint color samples on mat board,<br />
16 1/2" x 16 1/2" each</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
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Next two pieces having to do with eyes:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy-BmZqPci9EkRK1m36hO9bIdhf4ohaJIdT2NNq6JbmD_jdHiGWKX44Tzl9pVwcOwc3MGYRryceNuRjcCAXK6Iv-1KYEfUBCgnLAcr_9tqb8DkBiyrCr_VqELkerVY7PAMDNY-JOd8fvo/s1600/Curcio_Eyecandy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy-BmZqPci9EkRK1m36hO9bIdhf4ohaJIdT2NNq6JbmD_jdHiGWKX44Tzl9pVwcOwc3MGYRryceNuRjcCAXK6Iv-1KYEfUBCgnLAcr_9tqb8DkBiyrCr_VqELkerVY7PAMDNY-JOd8fvo/s400/Curcio_Eyecandy.jpg" width="390" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sally Curcio, <i>Eye Candy</i>, 2005, Button candy on paper that<br />
spells out "eyecandy" in Braille, 17" x 16 1/2" (Note that the candy<br />
is mounted under glass so that the braille can't be read)</td></tr>
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<div style="line-height: 12.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: grey; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="line-height: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: grey; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i><b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLo2cFZcB6YXOadwbEwh4HY0rN84DhvUzUJE_14UUmQCixr4vqMc6Iey2FkH-CvD_YLUo-rsIuiJsQM3HMwJtMUHDzBZBlYQtKtTo0TKhsxfS5SlGoMnIcWhrirdUIXS2ycOfVczRRbD0/s1600/Curcio_Eye+of+beholder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLo2cFZcB6YXOadwbEwh4HY0rN84DhvUzUJE_14UUmQCixr4vqMc6Iey2FkH-CvD_YLUo-rsIuiJsQM3HMwJtMUHDzBZBlYQtKtTo0TKhsxfS5SlGoMnIcWhrirdUIXS2ycOfVczRRbD0/s400/Curcio_Eye+of+beholder.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sally Curcio, <i>I of the Beholder</i>, 2007,<br />
Mirror, clay, fake pearls, false eyelashes and velvet<br />
24" x 18" x 13"</td></tr>
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</b></i></span></div><br />
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And finally a piece that relates to work by one of my heroes, El Anatsui.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPL2LXr-e1oClFXdtWukSwYr19k68tpEwv4Y-xGKaxoQVRv3TstsgglUoC5FgtzOm5S7-_N1H_a-p_7oVOWQOSOJC6gbtaBcF3dQsp3BlRh8B1PdwpDC-fldecX_HeIyn1A256cEp4NXY/s1600/Curcio+Caps_B_Fullshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPL2LXr-e1oClFXdtWukSwYr19k68tpEwv4Y-xGKaxoQVRv3TstsgglUoC5FgtzOm5S7-_N1H_a-p_7oVOWQOSOJC6gbtaBcF3dQsp3BlRh8B1PdwpDC-fldecX_HeIyn1A256cEp4NXY/s400/Curcio+Caps_B_Fullshot.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sally Curcio, <i>Bottle Caps</i>, 2007<br />
Assorted bottle caps on painted panels, 6' x 10'</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj09udaKXm50fHmQH1wkHN2FywtHMT1J218VexOsvpP8HhDCwnDztradg81dNPs5uuLH4LnSD9YMEknzZ_AIL27yPH1ApeBI3ea7F70sj4OT4KweZWtlynCcxQKvdSgBhl3HvlpNUAoIbA/s1600/Curcio_Caps_detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj09udaKXm50fHmQH1wkHN2FywtHMT1J218VexOsvpP8HhDCwnDztradg81dNPs5uuLH4LnSD9YMEknzZ_AIL27yPH1ApeBI3ea7F70sj4OT4KweZWtlynCcxQKvdSgBhl3HvlpNUAoIbA/s400/Curcio_Caps_detail.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Bottle Caps</i> detail</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
Curcio had a statement on the page with her Bottle Caps piece that delves into some of the reasons for using found objects. I have some disagreements with her statement, but I'll tell you about them after you read what she had to say:<br />
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<b><i style="color: #990000;">The installation “Bottle Caps” consists of over 1400 bottle caps that were collected from friends, anonymous donations, my trash, and from visits to the recycling center. The bottle caps are glued to a 6’ x 10’ array of panels.<br />
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After their short functional life, bottle caps become garbage. This work resurrects these throw-aways as an artistic medium. The work engages in the most basic and powerful trick of magic and religion: transubstantiation.<br />
<br />
This assemblage attempts to evoke our innate fascination with categorizing and collecting, and our bent to be connoisseurs. This collection comically summons this impulse into action. The works offers, in a self-consciously naïve way, the self-satisfaction of collecting a “complete” or “large” set of objects, and the need for recognition in publicly displaying this triumph. The process of collecting, organizing, and display is a ritual that attempts to create an oasis of certainty, order, and self-identity.<br />
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This composition deliberately confronts the observer with a kind of alien and obsessive attention to precision and order suggesting an unconscious urgency. This translates positively into art that evokes the simplicity and “cleanness” of minimalism, the brightness of op art, and the innocence of folk art. The sundry shapes and patterns are simple and satisfying, the colors are bright, the format neat, and the materials familiar and everyday, albeit re-contextualized. With this work I try to speak to our perpetual drive to somehow, in some way, perhaps even in an outlandish way, try take control and make sense of things. </i> Sally Curcio (from her website)</b></div><div><br />
</div><div>Although I agree with much of what she says, I think that in her second paragraph describes what the real task of an artist is in making a bricolage work. She calls it "transubstantiation," but that seems to be a term used exclusively by Roman Catholics to describe the conversion of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.<br />
<br />
I believe what she's talking about is <b><i>transformation</i></b>, the transformation of found, readymade, recycled or invented elements into a work of art. I don't mean to be critical, but I don't think the rest of her statement really gets at what using found objects brings to a bricolage work, and actually seems to rationalize why she uses the found objects. I think no excuses need to be made for using found objects because those objects have an identity which is subsumed into the bricolage work and which enriches the new work. Suppressing the individual identities of the objects is the goal of the bricolage work. So it's like having your cake and eating it too. You see the work as something new but if you focus on the parts, you see the old. You might just call it having bricolage eyes.</div>Nancy Natalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03325421420384484035noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2810378157994182121.post-23295630432579038992011-09-25T12:01:00.000-04:002011-09-25T12:01:00.520-04:00A Work From The Sixties by Betye Saar<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-kvxK1UxYz2RQdBn2HwekkD-1pKGYPoAl_EIaJ6BuLDEEC0bEnfK4rCtGZ_RArqgMCGERhQZu8P_7IkMmrquU_8mMyyeszsZJv6mHoCqCj2XXVaQR5qZaZVQksbVNHzDKw_C50rDS0Do/s1600/Betye-Saar-Phrenologers-Window.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-kvxK1UxYz2RQdBn2HwekkD-1pKGYPoAl_EIaJ6BuLDEEC0bEnfK4rCtGZ_RArqgMCGERhQZu8P_7IkMmrquU_8mMyyeszsZJv6mHoCqCj2XXVaQR5qZaZVQksbVNHzDKw_C50rDS0Do/s640/Betye-Saar-Phrenologers-Window.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>I saw this work in the daily email from <a href="http://Art%20News%20signups@artknowledgenews.com/">Art Knowledge News</a> and just had to post it. It was included in a show at the Getty Center in Los Angeles called "Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture, 1950-1970. Show dates were October 1, 2011 through February 5, 2012. Here's a <a href="http://www.getty.edu/pacificstandardtime/explore-the-era/archives/v23/">link </a>to the Getty's page about Betye Saar that includes a video of her talking about her work. She cites the Watts Towers and Joseph Cornell as specific influences but also talks about the artist as shaman and what viewers bring to art to complete its transformation.<br />
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The Getty site comments on the 1950-1970 period covered by this show:<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><b><i>...Los Angeles has shed its stereotype as the land of sunshine, palm trees, and movie stars to become an artistic powerhouse and an increasingly important international creative capital. This fundamental shift in the cultural landscape of the city dates back to the 1950s and 1960s, a period of critical importance in art history that has never before been fully studied and presented.</i></b></span><br />
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Too bad the show is long over.Nancy Natalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03325421420384484035noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2810378157994182121.post-31207435495343551532011-09-18T23:35:00.001-04:002011-09-19T21:57:45.222-04:00Sandi MiotGotta love that Facebook - mostly! I saw a notice from someone about Sandi Miot's upcoming show, "Reliquaries: Requiem for the Printed Word" at <a href="http://www.marketstreetgallery.com/contact.html">Market Street Gallery</a> in San Francisco (opening October 8th). This piqued my interest on several counts: first, I know Sandi and her work from the annual encaustic conference, I showed with her in the Wax Libris II <a href="http://artinthestudio.blogspot.com/2010/06/live-from-encaustic-conference.html">show </a>at the 2010 conference and admired her works with book parts. Finally, anything called a "reliquary" is bound to attract me.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh797woFvj4a6w6hyM1Vi8HIzDcWw_YQPUw6_ummt2oYFD1oT0gbFH1bVUcNl3I0CG7fUBJDe2qjQ0aPvpI9mR69uWUirV0ARRpQGnMTjcquw4k3OyOYSC-kvQUCyepSnjG1fva88c9gY/s1600/Miot-Found+Out+Along+the+Way.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh797woFvj4a6w6hyM1Vi8HIzDcWw_YQPUw6_ummt2oYFD1oT0gbFH1bVUcNl3I0CG7fUBJDe2qjQ0aPvpI9mR69uWUirV0ARRpQGnMTjcquw4k3OyOYSC-kvQUCyepSnjG1fva88c9gY/s640/Miot-Found+Out+Along+the+Way.jpg" width="620" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sandi Miot, <i>Found Out Along the Way</i>, 12" x 12" x 2", encaustic, graphite, book parts</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
The still images in this post are from Sandi's <a href="http://www.sandimiot.com/gallery.html">website</a>, from her Folio Series, and I think will be included in her October show. I find them very beautiful - the deep black of the waxy grounds, the stained and aged pieces of old books displayed as relics, the simplicity of the compositions in the first two pieces that emphasizes their physical nature.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAEMX5k497oF_6sju4oRc-GtPPoRrQDlS1QQfmsfqbus9PfO5wmMZdLIw8rUtvF1SNE-5I4zi_Yws1leXkcJRbnbjFycCePvUart7hI8Yatb-H1y-S0OX6NeQoalcNgp6j7nTXSrnNyNo/s1600/Miot-thingslearned.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="624" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAEMX5k497oF_6sju4oRc-GtPPoRrQDlS1QQfmsfqbus9PfO5wmMZdLIw8rUtvF1SNE-5I4zi_Yws1leXkcJRbnbjFycCePvUart7hI8Yatb-H1y-S0OX6NeQoalcNgp6j7nTXSrnNyNo/s640/Miot-thingslearned.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sandi Miot, <i>Things I've Learned</i>, 12" x 12" x 3"</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI3Jstu1H3EO2nXN5ScBJsgZQXJABGbsWi695vrdzGGM6IOWbUmpSZQ2dwJhk8KHilSDxNs69XOmwQLE9r8UsdXnQ8zvhBzbFAKLy68D1uX8eA_HsHIJM2m00DkL-L-kUcqSOGPyAYs4w/s1600/Miot-etudes" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI3Jstu1H3EO2nXN5ScBJsgZQXJABGbsWi695vrdzGGM6IOWbUmpSZQ2dwJhk8KHilSDxNs69XOmwQLE9r8UsdXnQ8zvhBzbFAKLy68D1uX8eA_HsHIJM2m00DkL-L-kUcqSOGPyAYs4w/s640/Miot-etudes" width="633" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sandi Miot, <i>Chopin's Etudes</i>, 24" x 24" x 4"</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
This third piece introduces the element of music, along with those little heads. I am not sure if they are cast wax or another material. The physicality of the splayed book with dark cover and rusty looking binding is so rich and evocative of a lost history.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOXzigkRREJBNhLLV51raJHXvzvQAlvezBr7728LTHKo9PvG34OFESQRlhm065JFOhr9J63fUAm2c76ntVUvBwWUag7sWDYr4sh7JjIehx5H4QXJqU_02jurgXPLXUl2mYUFwFWN1BpMk/s1600/Miot-transformationI.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOXzigkRREJBNhLLV51raJHXvzvQAlvezBr7728LTHKo9PvG34OFESQRlhm065JFOhr9J63fUAm2c76ntVUvBwWUag7sWDYr4sh7JjIehx5H4QXJqU_02jurgXPLXUl2mYUFwFWN1BpMk/s640/Miot-transformationI.jpg" width="634" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sandi Miot, <i>Transformation I</i>, 36" x 36" x 2", encaustic with book spines</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
This piece has a different feeling from the first three, but I love the rhythm in the carved and colored lines, the texture, the pieces of buttons and the dark area at the bottom which seems like a book spine. (Sandi confirms that it is.)<br />
<br />
Finally, I was really intrigued with a short video of Sandi talking about her work and showing her in the act of creating. She speaks about the importance of books and how they are being lost in the overwhelming deluge of digital media. About found objects, she says that she works with a jumble of things but aims to bring order out of chaos. As she works out initial ideas, the selection of objects becomes an intuitive process.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SFrmiYyTbSE" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">From Sandi's artist statement:</span></b><br />
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I paint because to not paint is unthinkable and encaustics as a medium totally absorbs me. It offers a sumptuous richness of color and an abundance of texture--a subtle variety of surface markings--contrasts of smooth, silky wax and rusted, pitted metal: order and disorder, chaos and plan.Nancy Natalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03325421420384484035noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2810378157994182121.post-63216740974745535752011-09-18T00:45:00.000-04:002011-09-18T00:45:45.703-04:00John Outterbridge<div><b><i>Artforum Newsletter</i></b> (an online newsletter) of September 16, 2011 had an interesting <a href="http://www.artforum.com/words/id=28948">500-Word piece</a> about John Outterbridge, a Los Angeles artist with a long history of making work from found, recycled and discarded objects, i.e. bricolage. Students of bricolage, please note that the material (rags) that Outterbridge uses is where he begins, but he reaches way beyond that in relating his meaning and intention in the work. I'm quoting the whole piece from the AF Newsletter below.</div><div><br />
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</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZDfCGdO5rgKOMk5pj42HCRHOcp47YbIbulVhKNlVe4D62goF0nZlE-h7Q9T67W_wVRuNOMNE4zwpFQiUOZYrerA_-j5eFxpXLuPUnM-RhLO9Ss6WF9GvF2LUdO4_9rEjfYNYGzgX2EuE/s1600/The+Rag+Factory+detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZDfCGdO5rgKOMk5pj42HCRHOcp47YbIbulVhKNlVe4D62goF0nZlE-h7Q9T67W_wVRuNOMNE4zwpFQiUOZYrerA_-j5eFxpXLuPUnM-RhLO9Ss6WF9GvF2LUdO4_9rEjfYNYGzgX2EuE/s640/The+Rag+Factory+detail.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Outterbridge,<i> The Rag Factory </i>(detail), 2011, mixed media, dimensions variable. Installation view</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div><br />
</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For <a href="http://pacificstandardtime.org/">“Pacific Standard Time,”</a> the multisite initiative that runs from October 2011 to April 2012 and celebrates art made in Southern California between 1945 and 1980, the artist <a href="http://www.artforum.com/search/search=%22John%20Outterbridge%22">John Outterbridge</a> has created a site-specific installation at <a href="http://www.artforum.com/guide/country=US&place=Los%20Angeles&jump=4399#location4399">LAXART</a> made almost entirely out of rags collected from the streets of Los Angeles and from a downtown factory. Widely known as a teacher, mentor, and community organizer, and as the director of the Watts Towers Arts Center from 1975 to 1992, Outterbridge has made work for the past forty years that is widely associated with the California Assemblage movement. The show is on view from September 10 to October 22.<br />
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I SEE A RAG AS AN OBJECT OF MANY VIBRATIONS. You wear clothes, and after you’re tired of them, they’re just rags. But you can’t escape the importance of the rag, no matter where you go or what you do. We use them to wrap around our bodies, but we also hide in them. Because of the colors, because of their previous lives and their histories, rags are pretty much a statement about our social position in the world and the importance of the cast-off. I like using metal a great deal too, or really any material that has a voice. Rag is not as cold as metal, and you can fold it up and put it in your pocket, you can put it in a bundle, you can hang it from the ceiling, you can decorate with it, it becomes a pillow you can lay your head down on. And that’s why I chose not to use anything for this show but piles of rags.<br />
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I was born in 1933, a long time ago. When I was a kid growing up in North Carolina, I had a mother and a father who had a lot of faith in cast-offs, the beauty and the aesthetics of what is not of use anymore, and that has always excited me because I saw old fences, degraded buildings, and scrub rags not as foreign objects but as being of a piece in the language of life, each with a lot of kinship between them. When you grow up the way I did, the way most African Americans did, separation was the law, and there were certain things––many things––that you just couldn’t do. We don’t talk about race in the way that we should, because it’s not popular anymore. We think that everything has been done before––even though nothing has been done before.<br />
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You bring that in your studio with you, that anger, whatever knowledge you gain from it. You don’t just do art; art becomes your life. The creative expression, whatever you’re doing—the fact that you have to go on the sidewalk and protest, and sometimes you have to break a glass window—it becomes part of your creative gesture, and it becomes part of your art. There is a little time to separate the act of doing art and act of going into life. And sometimes you’re not capable or able to speak of it, simply because you choke up, when you have to get into the past.<br />
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I feel good about the use of rag as an expressive element, but I don’t see it as different from other aspects of my life, or the way I think about a general population, a world population. Rags have always been in and around the environments I’ve been a part of. With me, art has the audacity to be anything it needs to be at a given time. Anything. Because the creative process is the beginning of all things, no matter what we’re doing or where we are going. You just can’t get away from rag; even when you throw it away it comes back to you. It’s like water, nourishing to your character, to the character of the cast-off, and to the way we practice living. <br />
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— <a href="http://www.artforum.com/search/search=%22Allese%20Thomson%20Baker%20%22&sort=newest">As told to Allese Thomson Baker</a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYQ1RUXFXOYk2pthULOuiykf_RHy1nx9NPGRWhi1dCbQWSHzWbpoiJx0SXyOt_fSL97BOk_IWJ_kqRu5mAdO80vhOwb-lNx09A0kEVvLchGYAmLd_oE6khGTPiqV0_kPX3MaOALZ7c_Fw/s1600/outterbridge1_flag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYQ1RUXFXOYk2pthULOuiykf_RHy1nx9NPGRWhi1dCbQWSHzWbpoiJx0SXyOt_fSL97BOk_IWJ_kqRu5mAdO80vhOwb-lNx09A0kEVvLchGYAmLd_oE6khGTPiqV0_kPX3MaOALZ7c_Fw/s400/outterbridge1_flag.jpg" width="350" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Outterbridge, <i>Traditional Hang-Up</i>, Containment Series, 1969. Mixed media, 30" x 25"</td></tr>
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</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Note: All photos in this post except the first one (from the Artforum article) are by <a href="http://www.jacktiltongallery.com/outterbridge.html">Tilton Gallery</a>, New York © John Outterbridge</span></div><div><br />
<div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">More About Outterbridge</span></b><br />
John Yau in <a href="http://www.brooklynrail.org/2009/06/artseen/john-outteridge">The Brooklyn Rail</a> also wrote a piece in 2009 on Outterbridge when he had his first New York show at Tilton Gallery 8. Students of bricolage, please note that Yau speaks about the wider context of Outterbridge's work in terms of artists and writers with related ideas and also about the meaning of Outterbridge's intention and the wider meaning of his work. I'm quoting an excerpt from Yau's article below:<div><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTlZu6m8ZP2eYdkGMYDScBkD2O0aWmvZGL2KHWOQrOC7aQy5j4k9JoM4j1FPbESrZ-Pr5E_OYZCYeQuNAxrtGr9JbOr3d0dsXldnUg1Vm8P5FERy8escmD6hmmpDhonMv5I4zW9nB1_s0/s1600/Outterbridge.Asafetida+Yoke.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTlZu6m8ZP2eYdkGMYDScBkD2O0aWmvZGL2KHWOQrOC7aQy5j4k9JoM4j1FPbESrZ-Pr5E_OYZCYeQuNAxrtGr9JbOr3d0dsXldnUg1Vm8P5FERy8escmD6hmmpDhonMv5I4zW9nB1_s0/s640/Outterbridge.Asafetida+Yoke.gif" width="380" /></a></div><div><br />
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</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Long before it was fashionable to do so, Outterbridge recognized that identity is a construction, not a given, and certainly not something to be defined by succumbing to external pressures. In this regard, Outterbridge’s philosophical-aesthetic position has affinities with Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951-1982), Ed Clark, David Hammons (whom Outterbridge mentored in L.A.), Martin Puryear, Alma Thomas (1891-1978), and Stanley Whitney, artists and writers who do not utilize any of the familiar and ultimately reassuring racial markers to make quickly readable work that announces their identities. Rather, Outterbridge’s relationship to art history, including non-Western art, and personal history (Rodia’s monumental assemblage, for example) is complex, and does not fit into any of the overarching narratives used to categorize all art. The death of the artist and originality, as well as the emergence of deskilling and art that is supposedly anti-market, are not only irrelevant when it comes to Outterbridge’s work, but they are also exposed for their repressive nature—they too are manacles.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #660000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifdX4mm_dYoe6jCY7YxOP2S7hKWEV2zk9rSyq_FgQjlXVTv80-RPMLnMTrnn6_rxbOG9a7qjAGWaDB0IUTATX_aVJI5vJpZnc-J291FjLe8jjbb-zVt15dvaihTEMyo83Ffik3LCxByUo/s1600/Outterbridge.Hinged+window.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="510" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifdX4mm_dYoe6jCY7YxOP2S7hKWEV2zk9rSyq_FgQjlXVTv80-RPMLnMTrnn6_rxbOG9a7qjAGWaDB0IUTATX_aVJI5vJpZnc-J291FjLe8jjbb-zVt15dvaihTEMyo83Ffik3LCxByUo/s640/Outterbridge.Hinged+window.gif" width="640" /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #660000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of the central subjects in this exhibition is Outterbridge’s belief that art has the power to heal and to curse. In two otherwise very different wall pieces, Asafetida Yoke (2008) and Hinged Window with Asafetida Bags Branded (2009), the artist includes a tiny bag or bags tied tightly at one end. In African American Hoodoo, which should not be confused with voodoo, asafetida can be used for magic spells as well as for protection. By introducing these and other elements into his work, Outterbridge reminds us that in some cultures the function of art is not purely aesthetic or formal. Moreover, in his work, which often incorporates a wide range of detritus, from pieces of wood, wire, rags, tool parts, unrecognizable things, and hair, Outterbridge both uses and fashions his materials, all in the service of transforming them into something more than what they once were.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Formally, Outterbridge’s unearthings echo the subject of his work, which is the excavation of different histories that have been covered over, neglected, and hidden. He possesses a masterful ability to join delicate things (a tiny painted bell) to larger, sturdier things, which are often rusted, patinaed by time. Their power to endure time’s corrosive vagaries, to survive and become transformed, is the eloquent testimony suffusing all of the work.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVZNnAOGhrkjR_ba3uO6QWVKNU97x5JkktOrcIzwd-752eNn8dOWBEWt92cHGRp_t2ldo-oAPejKdzD6K7yLZuuHsULggW3jBIXnWLu1ATUHQGfb5fvatt8oq1vh-9BCfK-BwlPxJKR6I/s1600/Outterbridge+-+Rag+Bar+Code.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVZNnAOGhrkjR_ba3uO6QWVKNU97x5JkktOrcIzwd-752eNn8dOWBEWt92cHGRp_t2ldo-oAPejKdzD6K7yLZuuHsULggW3jBIXnWLu1ATUHQGfb5fvatt8oq1vh-9BCfK-BwlPxJKR6I/s640/Outterbridge+-+Rag+Bar+Code.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Outterbridge, <i>Ragged Bar Code,</i> 2008, Mixed Media 58" x 8" x 2 1/2"</td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In <i>Ragged Bar Code</i>, the artist wrapped twigs with brightly colored scraps of cloth and mounted them vertically in a horizontal line across the wall. A form of identification, barcodes compress data into a visual abstraction; as the poet Christopher Dewdney has advanced, one recent manifestation of them is tattoos.Ragged Bar Code is dense with data, all of which we have to translate. Inviting intimacy—I was tempted to touch the bits of cloth as if they possessed talismanic power—Outterbridge’s work conjures complex, multilayered narratives that are viscerally and visually enchanting. Having made a real and important place for himself in postwar American art, he continues with unparalleled grace to implicitly challenge many assumptions regarding the proper place and meaning of art in postmodern culture.</span><div><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHYQTzT2516yz1cpJkxu6sqlN-vDDNDOqh-E5dU6VqIeEUoFRn9hcAGMVyfwOPm2_nKYnin4SrQPhm7SP_t1gkMJBDpPYMcdXqtJRIxq8ukmJrEwfM34aFm5qoSeeDVQyEx9kUP59ZxnU/s1600/Outterbridge.GameBoard.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHYQTzT2516yz1cpJkxu6sqlN-vDDNDOqh-E5dU6VqIeEUoFRn9hcAGMVyfwOPm2_nKYnin4SrQPhm7SP_t1gkMJBDpPYMcdXqtJRIxq8ukmJrEwfM34aFm5qoSeeDVQyEx9kUP59ZxnU/s640/Outterbridge.GameBoard.gif" width="308" /></a></div></div></div></div></div>Nancy Natalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03325421420384484035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2810378157994182121.post-45087573347235006142011-09-09T01:19:00.002-04:002011-09-09T08:50:03.800-04:00Is "Bricolage" the New Buzzword?From the studio mailbag: Joanne Mattera forwarded to me an email announcement from the New Museum (or, as they apparently like to be called, just "New Museum" without "the") an announcement about a special program at 231 Bowery innovatively called "Studio 231." The inaugural production in this "pop-up program" will be launched by Spartacus Chetwynd and her traveling band of amateur actors. This improbably-named and London-based artist will present <b>Spartacus Chetwynd: Home Made Tasers</b>, an installation with performances and direct interactions with audiences.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyvJNEpwhS-2Izh-1i8R_8R_SL6DLKjcvRcf7TGBFYgaNgPlporZsVhV2AMOYa8TpyDHBb5TPUFOYvkslLV4eI6hSQjQKLRZqaBVxbuOEBUAXKZ-F3_Z9OamAhMXgsqIEcY_eNvnWoqK8/s1600/Spartacus+Chetwynd1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyvJNEpwhS-2Izh-1i8R_8R_SL6DLKjcvRcf7TGBFYgaNgPlporZsVhV2AMOYa8TpyDHBb5TPUFOYvkslLV4eI6hSQjQKLRZqaBVxbuOEBUAXKZ-F3_Z9OamAhMXgsqIEcY_eNvnWoqK8/s640/Spartacus+Chetwynd1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spartacus Chetwynd, image from Timothy Gaewsky's <a href="http://canyoudigit2.blogspot.com/2010/07/spartacus-chetwynd.html">blog </a>"Can You Dig It Too" (No indication of which one is the real Spartacus Chetwynd)</td></tr>
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Here's where it becomes pertinent, quoting from the announcement:<br />
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Spartacus Chetwynd <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">"uses the idea of bricolage as a physical practice as well as the organizing principle to bring together the disparate images and characters within her work."</span><br />
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(Read the announcement for yourself <a href="http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=c6bf7cce2a64f8749424edd72&id=45867c6db1&e=0450ca4c50">here</a>.)<br />
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OK, it's true that "bricolage" has many meanings and that the definition I use in this blog's heading is just one of many. It basically means that you take found or recycled whatevers and combine them into something. This very loose definition applies to music, architecture, cultural studies, philosophy, biology, education, information technology, popular culture, and you name it. Just see the Wikipedia <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bricolage">entry</a> for the list of examples. You will be amazed.<br />
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That being said, I seem to see the word used much more frequently in connection with art recently (probably because I keep saying it) and I think it's the start of a trend.<br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Citations to Support My Contention</span></b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpZVFI_LXE0uXO8jiKhtf-WpfLrlbP873Q2gCcJ_65-C3vnCaOQasLfE6PsgWkEkBQCZDT2DQFlNX8qGrhjqxtdIvNezJr6MVToBvrwfmwcRjILC1_z9sSxkyokLMjS0epf31TLGTUu4/s1600/larsen+-+strange+offsets+-+2009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpZVFI_LXE0uXO8jiKhtf-WpfLrlbP873Q2gCcJ_65-C3vnCaOQasLfE6PsgWkEkBQCZDT2DQFlNX8qGrhjqxtdIvNezJr6MVToBvrwfmwcRjILC1_z9sSxkyokLMjS0epf31TLGTUu4/s640/larsen+-+strange+offsets+-+2009.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ted Larsen, <i>Strange Offsets</i>, 2009, 15" x 5"</td></tr>
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For example, one of my favorite contemporary artists, <a href="http://www.tedlarsen.com/">Ted Larsen</a>, says in his statement that he is "constructing <i><b>bricolage</b></i> works in order to re-purpose the materials and re-identify their meanings: to re-contextualize and re-label the idea of Ready-mades." [my emphasis] Ted's work is made from metal that he cuts from junked cars. I wrote about Larsen in Art in the Studio <a href="http://artinthestudio.blogspot.com/2010/11/busy-day-of-arting.html">last year</a> when he showed at the Clark Gallery in Lincoln, Mass., and at that time his statement did not use the word "bricolage" to describe his work.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio_1i_CsF_5drK0Adqcz1McOgWUHKodoXwafSCaHlVJ6Q3scJvgo4AFWjGRIyKbMrRlcj-5vFbjXCyDZxy9-oEH3hH9egCiT-aRmBWPTqRljeSfA7RD38gBperF0-oQsYMpZwkGPxIef0/s1600/Bradford_strawberry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="548" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio_1i_CsF_5drK0Adqcz1McOgWUHKodoXwafSCaHlVJ6Q3scJvgo4AFWjGRIyKbMrRlcj-5vFbjXCyDZxy9-oEH3hH9egCiT-aRmBWPTqRljeSfA7RD38gBperF0-oQsYMpZwkGPxIef0/s640/Bradford_strawberry.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mark Bradford, <i>Strawberry</i>, 2002, 72" x 84"</td></tr>
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Another artist whose work can be described as bricolage is Mark Bradford, whom I have written about in Art in the Studio <a href="http://artinthestudio.blogspot.com/2011/01/manipulating-media.html">here </a>when he showed at the Boston ICA. When I Googled "Mark Bradford + bricolage," I turned up an <a href="http://chicagoartmagazine.com/2011/05/bricolage-visual-artist-as-social-multitude-mark-bradford-in-chicago/">article </a>headed "Bricolage: Visual Artist As Social Multitude (Mark Bradford in Chicago)" by Chicago Art Magazine of May 31, 2011. While I would certainly describe Bradford's work as bricolage, since he works with found posters and other papers, I am not sure if the "bricolage" of the article's title is referring to Bradford's work or to the social interaction of The Mark Bradford Project in which Bradford connects with "different Chicago communities to interact around the creative process....[and] serves as a catalyst for community engagement projects and ongoing discussion." It could be either one according to the dictionary definition of bricolage.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih_cokWlWql_q7QsGmUsUc9HxaFoSfgqdNqUtVz0Hqd7xZYqOl8Yo10lwJAkK8g14ZlUwT53Ehu8As8OQ0BTe-2kaTDKt5xWTzD-YT3W-oMU9-COrxz0gkZEzuJEh0d5gQhRwxQsO6EjQ/s1600/twitter_trends_map.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih_cokWlWql_q7QsGmUsUc9HxaFoSfgqdNqUtVz0Hqd7xZYqOl8Yo10lwJAkK8g14ZlUwT53Ehu8As8OQ0BTe-2kaTDKt5xWTzD-YT3W-oMU9-COrxz0gkZEzuJEh0d5gQhRwxQsO6EjQ/s640/twitter_trends_map.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A sample Twitter trends map (not the one for Bricolage)</td></tr>
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Here's something else: the Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter-trends.de/en/bricolage.html">trend </a>for "bricolage." (Here's the <a href="http://trendistic.indextank.com/bricolage">map </a>for the trend.) I am a non-tweeter, but apparently that's the number of times this word appears in tweets. It looks like most of the tweets are in French, but many in English refer to Bricolage Theater Company in Pittsburgh. <a href="http://www.webbricolage.org/node/588">Here's </a>their link. This is home to the Bricolage Production Company, founded in 2001 by Jeffrey Carpenter, who chose the name "based largely on the environmental philosophy of Claude Levi Strauss, who used the term "bricolage to mean 'the innovative use of what's at hand.'" So now we come around full circle with "bricolage" being applied to theatre companies.<br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Call for Info</span></b><br />
If you have seen other examples of the word <b>bricolage</b> being used, please comment to let me know. I would be interested in hearing about it. Am I right that it is becoming a new buzzword?Nancy Natalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03325421420384484035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2810378157994182121.post-58823688462714909442011-08-29T00:11:00.001-04:002011-08-29T00:15:47.107-04:00LEONARDO DREW - Three Small WorksI hate for this to be a totally dead blog, so although I'm not actively posting to it, from time to time I intend to put up a few images.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwmiEZj5ESXuJwrwIHJmszYpYjDZYaOt4TB33aXbwL6sjwpG5yzdwB4hwKI_Pn780byyWDTtRuthqm-GekZroArK8ta9JfXkN39l9OqHZQBuBevoCuBrsv64D-4cjL0icrCnO5xEw_D_o/s1600/Drew+in+studio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwmiEZj5ESXuJwrwIHJmszYpYjDZYaOt4TB33aXbwL6sjwpG5yzdwB4hwKI_Pn780byyWDTtRuthqm-GekZroArK8ta9JfXkN39l9OqHZQBuBevoCuBrsv64D-4cjL0icrCnO5xEw_D_o/s400/Drew+in+studio.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Leonardo Drew in his studio 2008 (image from the internet)</td></tr>
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Recently on the internet I came across these three pieces by Leonardo Drew, one of my favorite artists. Although he makes giant gallery-size work, he also makes smaller pieces and that's what these three are. I hope you enjoy them. For more of Drew's work, see <a href="http://www.sikkemajenkinsco.com/leonardodrew.html">Sikkema Jenkins</a> or Drew's own <a href="http://www.leonardodrew.com/">website</a>. Or, you can also see my posts in Art in the Studio about his work: at <a href="http://artinthestudio.blogspot.com/2010/10/leonardo-drew-at-decordova-museum.html">DeCordova</a> and in <a href="http://artinthestudio.blogspot.com/2010/02/out-in-world.html">New York</a> February 2010. Also, here is a link to the show <i>Existed </i>at the <a href="http://www.class.uh.edu/blaffer/exhibit_leonardo_drew.html">Blaffer Gallery</a> in Houston that has some videos included.<br />
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Drew's work is a prime example of bricolage. He says that he thinks of materials as "markers of cultural history" and the materials that he uses are all or mostly all found on the streets or in various other locations. Drew does not title his work, but numbers it. (BE SURE TO CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO ENLARGE.)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgne_bj7-PGg4umU3zkDXBDujKRvWHcbbXTLYDEpgjACYjKyUA6RfpPkU-IVOr-FBulc49hmYoQj8xl791MVm1sHVvtJ9YoThxJNe4naiLXsg7sizxb7vtVj5J8cCuR28ewr4_EuaFXRPQ/s1600/Drew+24x24x9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgne_bj7-PGg4umU3zkDXBDujKRvWHcbbXTLYDEpgjACYjKyUA6RfpPkU-IVOr-FBulc49hmYoQj8xl791MVm1sHVvtJ9YoThxJNe4naiLXsg7sizxb7vtVj5J8cCuR28ewr4_EuaFXRPQ/s400/Drew+24x24x9.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I do not have the number for this one, size is 24"x24"x9"</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaUQEo8tiPHd9bVdiWDIL4WqBLlM6JYcbQKOFSsAx7wV1TORfSK2Y6ARXvMZZROvo13N8NqqfjQ9oRe2ogXNl3efDNqFp-Z2YUFfpUS9bGEFXQJtRvARQ8YmYKbCgskYDeLZg8pXe_PK0/s1600/Drew+131+40x40x12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaUQEo8tiPHd9bVdiWDIL4WqBLlM6JYcbQKOFSsAx7wV1TORfSK2Y6ARXvMZZROvo13N8NqqfjQ9oRe2ogXNl3efDNqFp-Z2YUFfpUS9bGEFXQJtRvARQ8YmYKbCgskYDeLZg8pXe_PK0/s400/Drew+131+40x40x12.jpg" width="398" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No. 131, 40"x40"x12"</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgshK-LXeTdfe3loVXKn1VHKO_vvEQID04NQTJ8mC_oUG_SuhHcd_jeonfN4Zd4FCM-MijrWmaUs6bOSR06r2VGSNQPbeEEvV5tgBcEFK7JCncPTCGNaZF3crTH1H8kUbXFpONIr0C7ht4/s1600/Drew+142+-+24x24x8.5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgshK-LXeTdfe3loVXKn1VHKO_vvEQID04NQTJ8mC_oUG_SuhHcd_jeonfN4Zd4FCM-MijrWmaUs6bOSR06r2VGSNQPbeEEvV5tgBcEFK7JCncPTCGNaZF3crTH1H8kUbXFpONIr0C7ht4/s400/Drew+142+-+24x24x8.5.jpg" width="392" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No. 142, 24" x 24" x 8.5"</td></tr>
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xxxNancy Natalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03325421420384484035noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2810378157994182121.post-72577544690430079812011-07-07T17:29:00.000-04:002011-07-07T17:29:17.222-04:00Barbie Strikes Again<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibkR2-cl-Q3PQQTYu-lADM3ZT07kAAYDXxZgU17LmfYS09DykGfNKbmtc1TC34vX2AaF69JHLwj_H2-9w1AH048R06W2RgxG64u5Xp6EzCEyUNKqDg31J89m1p7GvQC-CSJSMaVdyiStI/s1600/freaky-barbie-hands-brooch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibkR2-cl-Q3PQQTYu-lADM3ZT07kAAYDXxZgU17LmfYS09DykGfNKbmtc1TC34vX2AaF69JHLwj_H2-9w1AH048R06W2RgxG64u5Xp6EzCEyUNKqDg31J89m1p7GvQC-CSJSMaVdyiStI/s400/freaky-barbie-hands-brooch.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">See the link below for info on the artist who made this great brooch</td></tr>
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No, "bricolage" is not a synonym for Barbie dismemberment, but the link that <a href="http://www.facebook.com/people/Karen-Frazer/1342115783">Karen Frazer</a> posted on Facebook was just too good to pass up. Take a look at this <a href="http://www.ecouterre.com/artist-dismembers-barbie-turns-body-parts-into-disturbing-jewelry/barbie-mouth-brooch/">http://www.ecouterre.com/artist-dismembers-barbie-turns-body-parts-into-disturbing-jewelry/barbie-mouth-brooch/</a> . This jewelry is very well done because you wouldn't recognize it as Barbie parts right away. But once you see it for what it is, there's a whole other level of meaning.<br />
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The whole trick is making it your own. Yes, that's right: take it away from Barbie (and/or Ken) and make it yours.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN_TETS0WsRUWinMmkU8bgP6IkNGMoVcXd4GjFwSQ9d1TNWEOsL3nT0fx79DfZV7CMVxOj67QRxscgyLMWAAmtf4luou2x4D_e4kFMgP4WgOCNRIxvmUgxpOULVmTbcCZA-kullHjLNXc/s1600/barbie-mouth-brooch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN_TETS0WsRUWinMmkU8bgP6IkNGMoVcXd4GjFwSQ9d1TNWEOsL3nT0fx79DfZV7CMVxOj67QRxscgyLMWAAmtf4luou2x4D_e4kFMgP4WgOCNRIxvmUgxpOULVmTbcCZA-kullHjLNXc/s400/barbie-mouth-brooch.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You can tell that Barbie was popular before the era of Botoxed lips</td></tr>
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Thanks for thinking of me, Karen!Nancy Natalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03325421420384484035noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2810378157994182121.post-54859776983709786862011-07-05T22:34:00.000-04:002011-07-05T22:34:04.022-04:00Barbie Mania<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTF3TdjFQZMOBbUZaldNaUnv7hOJ4ozcyY10eAL980zoYfBJ3uvs3kgHEsmOy5D_ZB0vmZFU3EjGcAvdmjb-uEX8yUicuhkWvT63ATsnogMLFeyvMZ9bP9EG5GMsN-uPULBfzA0WLYY3k/s1600/barbie+with+name.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="353" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTF3TdjFQZMOBbUZaldNaUnv7hOJ4ozcyY10eAL980zoYfBJ3uvs3kgHEsmOy5D_ZB0vmZFU3EjGcAvdmjb-uEX8yUicuhkWvT63ATsnogMLFeyvMZ9bP9EG5GMsN-uPULBfzA0WLYY3k/s400/barbie+with+name.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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I just came across this <a href="http://hyperallergic.com/28441/5-art-inspired-barbie-dolls/">post </a>from Hyperallergic that shows what could be done if one had the commitment to Barbie that some believe she deserves. Why Barbie? you may ask. Well, if you had opened your own mystery box, you might know the answer to that question. And some who did wanted to reinvent Barbie in new ways, one might even say deconstruct, but no names, please.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwgv6-qo9D8sOPCbf202uATXmT5NcUqs4PZRPxbSqU-el4roEG0o3xV0-ZSPGwt2Io1gj46wjeuik4Q4SU1gyVc9-YFpRdOEFbrAqccUimMV70C9MfvOsXTGNMThOrjpdV7vLrWhaISGM/s1600/old-barbie-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="372" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwgv6-qo9D8sOPCbf202uATXmT5NcUqs4PZRPxbSqU-el4roEG0o3xV0-ZSPGwt2Io1gj46wjeuik4Q4SU1gyVc9-YFpRdOEFbrAqccUimMV70C9MfvOsXTGNMThOrjpdV7vLrWhaISGM/s400/old-barbie-2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Nancy Natalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03325421420384484035noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2810378157994182121.post-26402584338572314132011-06-21T15:59:00.000-04:002011-06-21T15:59:21.939-04:00A Class Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgogXGBCHDcsHFt5c5qnOqCeJJGYpmtkenE-PEu5VxBPkFcuBUdNFDlJD21ytD5ajk6HdtNDfp7HJR7dmu-Ux1bhnqlp-Io_XVmV12pAKuGUkqjIRQHdYowNP3kFgo4lfkkFk0PXKU6jEI/s1600/five+stars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgogXGBCHDcsHFt5c5qnOqCeJJGYpmtkenE-PEu5VxBPkFcuBUdNFDlJD21ytD5ajk6HdtNDfp7HJR7dmu-Ux1bhnqlp-Io_XVmV12pAKuGUkqjIRQHdYowNP3kFgo4lfkkFk0PXKU6jEI/s200/five+stars.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here's a first-person <a href="http://www.fusedchicago.org/events-other/tale-from-the-encaustic-conference/#comment-335">report </a>from April Nomellini, a student in my Wednesday post-conference workshop at Castle Hill. You could consider it the equivalent of a restaurant review. Sounds like the class got 5 stars. Thanks, April!</div>Nancy Natalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03325421420384484035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2810378157994182121.post-50187815113481091012011-06-13T12:00:00.001-04:002011-06-13T13:51:25.935-04:00Class Results from the Post-Con Workshops: Thursday<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0_9hpCtlQDPXEVinTfwVvH6mk5uKeoNn9uqmw1uai57nKQx_7OcAi3tPlXTXvLPKRyxQ-A50t2d3kWfZZiUqPjp5MBpTNBOzOl6DJzbjcZl4jRUjAhTIp6fhb0ZriKnP_WikcOTBUUFg/s1600/Joanne+M%2527s+work+-+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="348" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0_9hpCtlQDPXEVinTfwVvH6mk5uKeoNn9uqmw1uai57nKQx_7OcAi3tPlXTXvLPKRyxQ-A50t2d3kWfZZiUqPjp5MBpTNBOzOl6DJzbjcZl4jRUjAhTIp6fhb0ZriKnP_WikcOTBUUFg/s400/Joanne+M%2527s+work+-+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A bricolage with encaustic work by Joanne Mattera.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">This calls for a series, in my opinion. <br />
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Thursday's post-con class in Unconventional Mixed Media With Encaustic was a bit wilder and more rambunctious than Wednesday's class. Besides Joanne, students included Cherie Mittenthal, Binnie Birstein, Lynette Haggard and other friends, as you will see below, and of course it was a real pleasure (and challenge) to have them take my workshop.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnHDvQX600_bE9Io_Kwaod_tg7_6PDmbTHealSNZCZtgbSWxWUNlTsXQIdyYXidLpsrMQpAmPOdqanKY4WJVaMnOnzgpv56tJyTs15pC844WLjCTXKR8IBm4PGcR03W2molwBJZiZoy_k/s1600/Conference+2011+262-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnHDvQX600_bE9Io_Kwaod_tg7_6PDmbTHealSNZCZtgbSWxWUNlTsXQIdyYXidLpsrMQpAmPOdqanKY4WJVaMnOnzgpv56tJyTs15pC844WLjCTXKR8IBm4PGcR03W2molwBJZiZoy_k/s400/Conference+2011+262-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Opening the boxes</td></tr>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1u8K7RTIJYV-WwdL-R8UVOHS1Xei8q_nQ2t3kRK-PfnjzMXfBnTb9mboCQ7_UbHtraQbGhP3qHh7eymJbijOiDEJUiQN2D-7GevgJnUgvCobowhKRuNp_ipWzJwPRGUlFvN-ORvlGyd8/s1600/Conference+2011+269-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1u8K7RTIJYV-WwdL-R8UVOHS1Xei8q_nQ2t3kRK-PfnjzMXfBnTb9mboCQ7_UbHtraQbGhP3qHh7eymJbijOiDEJUiQN2D-7GevgJnUgvCobowhKRuNp_ipWzJwPRGUlFvN-ORvlGyd8/s400/Conference+2011+269-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho5zUcJaZP-5V79FeN-YmQKNOm4jO7MfNuxieXMX_voFluPv_-CTP2GiWM8ZQGKC_bJ6mnBQ2uk_5uDyFKElxPNy3KaQtxUzYP5In61EiBr5-rpyk9ofplHyIx5nTEAR5E5wYlC1cORDw/s1600/Conference+2011+280-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho5zUcJaZP-5V79FeN-YmQKNOm4jO7MfNuxieXMX_voFluPv_-CTP2GiWM8ZQGKC_bJ6mnBQ2uk_5uDyFKElxPNy3KaQtxUzYP5In61EiBr5-rpyk9ofplHyIx5nTEAR5E5wYlC1cORDw/s400/Conference+2011+280-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joanne was very pleased with a Betty Crocker Cookbook</td></tr>
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The process was the same for this group of students as it was the day before. This class, however, wanted to work in multiples, so several people made more than one work.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2AcziXqCarfOZfNARQSmFDqKcWJoPAWRhX7mwYB6HLl4H1HH7LbF8wjf6tcJC7blSaduWZR565QHmGDKwZ4jVoWA62KhHt8o6ngdKLJXHBHRLIrVtwirVOvLkUi1vLxZQDFIDZJf-J38/s1600/Conference+2011+268-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2AcziXqCarfOZfNARQSmFDqKcWJoPAWRhX7mwYB6HLl4H1HH7LbF8wjf6tcJC7blSaduWZR565QHmGDKwZ4jVoWA62KhHt8o6ngdKLJXHBHRLIrVtwirVOvLkUi1vLxZQDFIDZJf-J38/s400/Conference+2011+268-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNj8_zE309Kdg8Yn2S6rUSyY-KrFE8DN_TVjNQX_GL8tl7cXabESfH_5UqQXOpvNH46gt9gPEg4OHI6x28-sq6Gvq4TbrRLQofN9g-vwBYrh6QbVxhGPUodBPBsn24jB_qRSEigRaC_0Y/s1600/Conference+2011+283-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNj8_zE309Kdg8Yn2S6rUSyY-KrFE8DN_TVjNQX_GL8tl7cXabESfH_5UqQXOpvNH46gt9gPEg4OHI6x28-sq6Gvq4TbrRLQofN9g-vwBYrh6QbVxhGPUodBPBsn24jB_qRSEigRaC_0Y/s400/Conference+2011+283-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></div><br />
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There was a lot of laughter and everyone seemed to be having a great time.<br />
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Now on to the work:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6q6-rXeFzs8D2Famz_aQ5IicdhcAYe2G-UPRT33dEnTHgPzS111pIIuUW4hJYA3Zg4OJlHv-gcRiWc984ox2q_xXUB5hOGrULqkV8aNHTnCtF4NqfRKQ97cRbNNY6qU3fHdMsptJGfEY/s1600/Binnie+Birstein-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6q6-rXeFzs8D2Famz_aQ5IicdhcAYe2G-UPRT33dEnTHgPzS111pIIuUW4hJYA3Zg4OJlHv-gcRiWc984ox2q_xXUB5hOGrULqkV8aNHTnCtF4NqfRKQ97cRbNNY6qU3fHdMsptJGfEY/s400/Binnie+Birstein-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Binnie Birstein (Did I say "everyone" was having a good time?)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuNun7_IZUi-oVkIS8QQ9b5GhMrTjTcWkNhxfNhyphenhyphen2n0kCpVnD0a7paJhsiq_09ZNMkq1vkS4lRtZsTqR_mv5ELKQlHdgO7h5BnGK0XZRmH_8UunK1WWeRgSbXsusjnFzOO374TDifbYCo/s1600/Binnie%2527s+work-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuNun7_IZUi-oVkIS8QQ9b5GhMrTjTcWkNhxfNhyphenhyphen2n0kCpVnD0a7paJhsiq_09ZNMkq1vkS4lRtZsTqR_mv5ELKQlHdgO7h5BnGK0XZRmH_8UunK1WWeRgSbXsusjnFzOO374TDifbYCo/s400/Binnie%2527s+work-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Binnie's work</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
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<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjte9WATvRB3mPBcb_P2ooHK24upSMx8mYC5HaeLrqUhdQOyzkcCxhAHJGxBdixPHnByHNMXuvMs2AQiGkXDDOz3NqoFkC3S2dUapve9AbV-sTqRMut87zLZmyde4VZSpE5Y1jpeTfC-GI/s1600/Cherie+Mittenthal-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjte9WATvRB3mPBcb_P2ooHK24upSMx8mYC5HaeLrqUhdQOyzkcCxhAHJGxBdixPHnByHNMXuvMs2AQiGkXDDOz3NqoFkC3S2dUapve9AbV-sTqRMut87zLZmyde4VZSpE5Y1jpeTfC-GI/s400/Cherie+Mittenthal-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cherie Mittenthal</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEIhxVG00gBPrfWcQ8xUcOKg6V4SN8VKLic1_IdoVPWe1j9ZyebzKBC2V1xKnAU87laHRywFJahvpdb11PkJMdx8K8vXZEiZ1tWZ_WdNV7VH6lRCedW-yzrASZPWfkKw2CFA__sODG4iM/s1600/Cherie%2527s+work+-+1-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEIhxVG00gBPrfWcQ8xUcOKg6V4SN8VKLic1_IdoVPWe1j9ZyebzKBC2V1xKnAU87laHRywFJahvpdb11PkJMdx8K8vXZEiZ1tWZ_WdNV7VH6lRCedW-yzrASZPWfkKw2CFA__sODG4iM/s400/Cherie%2527s+work+-+1-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cherie's work 1</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibCGmIFEPDcD6Vxr_FZqPsyhQ9hSo0ZoFOIw41ja2RRf_SDafP3eVfqu59FXyE7g9Jq8Esyc9tJmLTHq9inVrPel_rbQcvE3UeXE3acUxF0dcKAKAtJKWPN8P1yaOZFehbjshBWxP2Km4/s1600/Cherie%2527s+work+-+2-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibCGmIFEPDcD6Vxr_FZqPsyhQ9hSo0ZoFOIw41ja2RRf_SDafP3eVfqu59FXyE7g9Jq8Esyc9tJmLTHq9inVrPel_rbQcvE3UeXE3acUxF0dcKAKAtJKWPN8P1yaOZFehbjshBWxP2Km4/s400/Cherie%2527s+work+-+2-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cherie's work 2</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzMyOuQvqNb-sRm_SVt3faIeUWQpgY_umXE6BO82dDfPHKNEiwoznHnhHMww34mdb7f3ZxFFxTCxZmeMD5mTNQF4WRR6ucHPzfhItf-5H09t0eW6-LIxiLgxe6JO8q4HU4xURUocA6ik0/s1600/Gurli+Lovinger-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzMyOuQvqNb-sRm_SVt3faIeUWQpgY_umXE6BO82dDfPHKNEiwoznHnhHMww34mdb7f3ZxFFxTCxZmeMD5mTNQF4WRR6ucHPzfhItf-5H09t0eW6-LIxiLgxe6JO8q4HU4xURUocA6ik0/s400/Gurli+Lovinger-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gurli Lovinger</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM8i3noaNgmBa07Iz0wt10-dKqt9oDa6FSJPNYB8qJYexzsUQz2qa8BM8CWfpkecgkn5Unvp0jFrqVrh9HE0aIymMxbDOKOkPcgXvvAgINbSOrD9xfxjdprxA_kxGfqtuP5fsRCj_2S2k/s1600/Gurli%2527s+work-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM8i3noaNgmBa07Iz0wt10-dKqt9oDa6FSJPNYB8qJYexzsUQz2qa8BM8CWfpkecgkn5Unvp0jFrqVrh9HE0aIymMxbDOKOkPcgXvvAgINbSOrD9xfxjdprxA_kxGfqtuP5fsRCj_2S2k/s400/Gurli%2527s+work-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gurli's work</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4o6z9aD5ZZNGspP7omZVj4h2rURorsQQQ7ziXVDzFmIpzOwECd1dC2H1o-A-ugg-b6Z24egL8o5ap6vsw47A_AobXG9EN1giPZ8D0v9rLTYRm2n3CwJal8WmA2pzxyq53XJwibEsehZQ/s1600/Donna+Ramsey+Nevers-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4o6z9aD5ZZNGspP7omZVj4h2rURorsQQQ7ziXVDzFmIpzOwECd1dC2H1o-A-ugg-b6Z24egL8o5ap6vsw47A_AobXG9EN1giPZ8D0v9rLTYRm2n3CwJal8WmA2pzxyq53XJwibEsehZQ/s400/Donna+Ramsey+Nevers-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Donna Ramsey Nevers (aka Donna Two)</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0UPYC2UenLuAGQ5JLSoOW9kMFODh7ifWBduyAWHJudswGwxc1cR8f7Y0Ox5zPVhdN3ztA7EK9BXwfOqwoLGHmrZ_GhYilCSQfNhQhs5eoRq9FVSBLns6DUGI-pw3AwswoH-B0FHJsdiM/s1600/Donna+Nevers%2527+work+-+1-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0UPYC2UenLuAGQ5JLSoOW9kMFODh7ifWBduyAWHJudswGwxc1cR8f7Y0Ox5zPVhdN3ztA7EK9BXwfOqwoLGHmrZ_GhYilCSQfNhQhs5eoRq9FVSBLns6DUGI-pw3AwswoH-B0FHJsdiM/s400/Donna+Nevers%2527+work+-+1-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Donna's work 1</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmC9WVMVJ-0_VQlcGD1ItKFLNfhFry6SRWlJOJOHxx7VS973RI-JiHi9hplu5llW-Xlqg9H5ayF5h9Cp9AXcprEmwip02oZSe2wEMYX2gAFMxC6i9_Urhc3g569egt6zB_S1RMoKEbPeU/s1600/Donna+Nevers%2527+work+-+2-w578.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmC9WVMVJ-0_VQlcGD1ItKFLNfhFry6SRWlJOJOHxx7VS973RI-JiHi9hplu5llW-Xlqg9H5ayF5h9Cp9AXcprEmwip02oZSe2wEMYX2gAFMxC6i9_Urhc3g569egt6zB_S1RMoKEbPeU/s400/Donna+Nevers%2527+work+-+2-w578.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Donna's work 2</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6f30U_JAcs-sxpH6Gu4uhRActZhq1f1VgHyyGkDgpnQOq6omUYauPpJE7zlOu5c1SnSBmiUfQQj3izbIZNminKnbR7v6WzjHj5JbBE0hHDWs53-rGzM_4F7-3G4x5mDiORYH3UFvvJkk/s1600/Donna+Talman-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6f30U_JAcs-sxpH6Gu4uhRActZhq1f1VgHyyGkDgpnQOq6omUYauPpJE7zlOu5c1SnSBmiUfQQj3izbIZNminKnbR7v6WzjHj5JbBE0hHDWs53-rGzM_4F7-3G4x5mDiORYH3UFvvJkk/s400/Donna+Talman-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Donna Talman</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
Apparently I missed taking a photo of Donna Talman's work by itself, but it's the piece right beside her with the rust-colored top. She also did a second one which I neglected to photo as well. Sorry, Donna!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCeUbrfRIsOfpf9C2XgiMkzZ6-N0z1RjyjoN0TVgNKGLWf6G9Az66FsQrp9wzk09UJ5579w5TBVRFkaOQDwSJ2ur-cdjL6DhrAGO1eRkJpVqvD0vicU9MvhW4eaO_PTzKQhP0Mj7iRVjo/s1600/Fay+Senner-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCeUbrfRIsOfpf9C2XgiMkzZ6-N0z1RjyjoN0TVgNKGLWf6G9Az66FsQrp9wzk09UJ5579w5TBVRFkaOQDwSJ2ur-cdjL6DhrAGO1eRkJpVqvD0vicU9MvhW4eaO_PTzKQhP0Mj7iRVjo/s400/Fay+Senner-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fay Senner</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkq35yqzmYzbZGsMp9tGTtWkoyRwlMcxGuYvIGA-vMivMw5kndUBxZEYbGC0eaDvyvaLld6pIzYcCbzLiQr7UW4thO9zG9W0qLV26Z6lZKnHVUiRTeERmm3Yxuu8Tn-Eg5pT00JU2AB9A/s1600/Fay%2527s+work-w578.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkq35yqzmYzbZGsMp9tGTtWkoyRwlMcxGuYvIGA-vMivMw5kndUBxZEYbGC0eaDvyvaLld6pIzYcCbzLiQr7UW4thO9zG9W0qLV26Z6lZKnHVUiRTeERmm3Yxuu8Tn-Eg5pT00JU2AB9A/s400/Fay%2527s+work-w578.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fay's work</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSo9T6H2EknwOHe_Xt00gvaHo5xBpGvYyuIVkcMtdGfBHBKlabZ3kQdxKuKPx_jaSD4cbkvKqNndwpZ2qFFqKjUOmOkcuiJtE3cajuGW_5eXhyphenhyphencrhbrlvBjfgs8N70j8laQjj4Tz0se00/s1600/Joanne+Mattera-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSo9T6H2EknwOHe_Xt00gvaHo5xBpGvYyuIVkcMtdGfBHBKlabZ3kQdxKuKPx_jaSD4cbkvKqNndwpZ2qFFqKjUOmOkcuiJtE3cajuGW_5eXhyphenhyphencrhbrlvBjfgs8N70j8laQjj4Tz0se00/s400/Joanne+Mattera-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joanne Mattera</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGEN8TH-ggZKOUQpFWEZrXAjTXi7tFK39Txh8Az9DjZQnagRhTvzgbDglUOV2hX3mOpA573oP6f13bXxaM-dH5n2oCOC2dZ5O2IAhXEqEubH_m_4x0jaS1bcIfS0N21lM82FVQH-b4cnQ/s1600/Joanne+M%2527s+work+-+1-w578.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGEN8TH-ggZKOUQpFWEZrXAjTXi7tFK39Txh8Az9DjZQnagRhTvzgbDglUOV2hX3mOpA573oP6f13bXxaM-dH5n2oCOC2dZ5O2IAhXEqEubH_m_4x0jaS1bcIfS0N21lM82FVQH-b4cnQ/s400/Joanne+M%2527s+work+-+1-w578.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joanne's work 1</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiak8l3-BZWC_u2vvMGaLi0ZLNH1o41ib3tlHGveeCEnr0WzwifAR0VT6-vhK9QnvA_CeKxsnrdCtrATDlV0qs0tIvg35q8J_eeD0Jsh3eNezwcjgciG9jhB9Jy8bgAX1NszXoKhbXyi0o/s1600/Joanne+M%2527s+work+-+2-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiak8l3-BZWC_u2vvMGaLi0ZLNH1o41ib3tlHGveeCEnr0WzwifAR0VT6-vhK9QnvA_CeKxsnrdCtrATDlV0qs0tIvg35q8J_eeD0Jsh3eNezwcjgciG9jhB9Jy8bgAX1NszXoKhbXyi0o/s400/Joanne+M%2527s+work+-+2-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joanne's work 2</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip4dXWuVXxgyKUlqTkZCkNi6N6i-nHpk0eTwWGHQJWXAW_0AYgmVX1x1Ve4zbSBGEKLl360lZVDz2XZgkwdBLX9R1wNFvJhMtfyvPzsaQLk8uHlSq9020SUAMFLeDE4SX5BS2rNApsbrU/s1600/Joanne+Powell-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip4dXWuVXxgyKUlqTkZCkNi6N6i-nHpk0eTwWGHQJWXAW_0AYgmVX1x1Ve4zbSBGEKLl360lZVDz2XZgkwdBLX9R1wNFvJhMtfyvPzsaQLk8uHlSq9020SUAMFLeDE4SX5BS2rNApsbrU/s400/Joanne+Powell-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joanne Powell</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjELt1WFMOUiU6G1m86wgxkQ7TtieHCI-e41GIRE4T1kJgf1PhwIBj0VL8hlCNiVkuAQxgDVtjyH1x4LHctfDwXRft6t9mPAvpB5KLjNHYchco0IYKPH4ab6wrUwcH6N0SzR2NxAzd4d1Q/s1600/Joanne+P%2527s+work-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjELt1WFMOUiU6G1m86wgxkQ7TtieHCI-e41GIRE4T1kJgf1PhwIBj0VL8hlCNiVkuAQxgDVtjyH1x4LHctfDwXRft6t9mPAvpB5KLjNHYchco0IYKPH4ab6wrUwcH6N0SzR2NxAzd4d1Q/s400/Joanne+P%2527s+work-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joanne's work</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7uPTwJymDLoqXHdWfDPNNlxAt-z-2RUJwhW9w6j-FczupEdE7NFZ1M6obxhEy0RvPPUPCWg4QOzu3IznGOz5CIfhdzLmjj1ikw1mYzxowb7PL9C6baknoJIDuMFGXvfmxLV4iZan16KI/s1600/Lynette+Haggard-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7uPTwJymDLoqXHdWfDPNNlxAt-z-2RUJwhW9w6j-FczupEdE7NFZ1M6obxhEy0RvPPUPCWg4QOzu3IznGOz5CIfhdzLmjj1ikw1mYzxowb7PL9C6baknoJIDuMFGXvfmxLV4iZan16KI/s400/Lynette+Haggard-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lynette Haggard</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSeJn9S_Xl7s9p2pJQJ1ucJac-sI6TH9Z7lNP-muaBnGGkc_XsPG7MVKpSh1XnlWdv-ubrq3J-IxcDAhsj-EUhLVR4DN-v5wtcDkffPjnRF5ZtUd2oZTVZncUBa0F2ygt6Udme4ik2pwM/s1600/Lynette%2527s+work-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSeJn9S_Xl7s9p2pJQJ1ucJac-sI6TH9Z7lNP-muaBnGGkc_XsPG7MVKpSh1XnlWdv-ubrq3J-IxcDAhsj-EUhLVR4DN-v5wtcDkffPjnRF5ZtUd2oZTVZncUBa0F2ygt6Udme4ik2pwM/s400/Lynette%2527s+work-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lynette's work</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3uevFKVY6zJV4S6Wv9U_lwiL3cpCD3X6ioelikEGiTjHNzHnuTljsfSHqFs43zLde7QmXNjXVX74es3eTqyOxMUkbFVD67gYwIa8LuIWVkXbHALLbHYfYWZ-TqWGX5jJaSbc5sVVgaNQ/s1600/Nancy+Natale-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3uevFKVY6zJV4S6Wv9U_lwiL3cpCD3X6ioelikEGiTjHNzHnuTljsfSHqFs43zLde7QmXNjXVX74es3eTqyOxMUkbFVD67gYwIa8LuIWVkXbHALLbHYfYWZ-TqWGX5jJaSbc5sVVgaNQ/s400/Nancy+Natale-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nancy Natale</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgA7KGedNg9xC1aTM89pjcZ2muLKpDGa7dTBjRgIurpDapS9NtU1JJK0_xEcj7RtfjFpqc-I_X9dCIvshY44Jb3VdmHNgY6RzKdoBC8W6o7k6C16mjY5ozmrofxq1yvubLFO7-0sDhh4Y/s1600/Nancy%2527s+work-w578.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgA7KGedNg9xC1aTM89pjcZ2muLKpDGa7dTBjRgIurpDapS9NtU1JJK0_xEcj7RtfjFpqc-I_X9dCIvshY44Jb3VdmHNgY6RzKdoBC8W6o7k6C16mjY5ozmrofxq1yvubLFO7-0sDhh4Y/s400/Nancy%2527s+work-w578.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nancy's work</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkB10iUmSVgWFSLYWNN-iakpo0Wiw7bSF9VbI_CQUTYC30ZoM9qwR4P5CwrR1k1ZuaLbZxoIDDeLMg-G-LxPq04s5VU6anEHL_OTAzgXMyGlK2zHbsOGqHtpKHJgRUf-zBhOryan9LLvo/s1600/Patricia+Palmer-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkB10iUmSVgWFSLYWNN-iakpo0Wiw7bSF9VbI_CQUTYC30ZoM9qwR4P5CwrR1k1ZuaLbZxoIDDeLMg-G-LxPq04s5VU6anEHL_OTAzgXMyGlK2zHbsOGqHtpKHJgRUf-zBhOryan9LLvo/s400/Patricia+Palmer-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Patricia Palmer</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic7wkJ6rYFeZKohDH65CcPQYs730yQQkKl079Gj7V8R1v-6nURM-Yd0MOmFx7kfUXhtJy-2WYUj2TrzJI9RNT_K56ETAwLH0gjX-J2dH9wLKE1MGLs8K6KTDHQbCDmm_U46IG9l1KwoLA/s1600/Patricia%2527s+work-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic7wkJ6rYFeZKohDH65CcPQYs730yQQkKl079Gj7V8R1v-6nURM-Yd0MOmFx7kfUXhtJy-2WYUj2TrzJI9RNT_K56ETAwLH0gjX-J2dH9wLKE1MGLs8K6KTDHQbCDmm_U46IG9l1KwoLA/s400/Patricia%2527s+work-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Patricia's work</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAqovL8BZhL95WRSHjGWj3M6Cdq01Yrfj709M5MTUO40c5s_c6maCBnc3aMRErH9bqbOX74faaoPF1QNyvbi4mfFVrtbM3prrD3uBliaGNLX7xzJtCsHxcmJgQ2AWKnoon8m1es_JowaU/s1600/Patti+Russotti-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAqovL8BZhL95WRSHjGWj3M6Cdq01Yrfj709M5MTUO40c5s_c6maCBnc3aMRErH9bqbOX74faaoPF1QNyvbi4mfFVrtbM3prrD3uBliaGNLX7xzJtCsHxcmJgQ2AWKnoon8m1es_JowaU/s400/Patti+Russotti-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Patti Russotti</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3OQ32hYMsWoOz6MhAU4Q722yv8TS-RYA4bbY98VOXvZyWfj5KpgPnscxThew2Pgotqha3jvFur461iNsFMkguEEuvFma9P2rOeO5alSIjxkXy6f1cjMDvLA4A1fPcE55BVvDMtkIh5lw/s1600/Patti%2527s+work+-+1-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3OQ32hYMsWoOz6MhAU4Q722yv8TS-RYA4bbY98VOXvZyWfj5KpgPnscxThew2Pgotqha3jvFur461iNsFMkguEEuvFma9P2rOeO5alSIjxkXy6f1cjMDvLA4A1fPcE55BVvDMtkIh5lw/s400/Patti%2527s+work+-+1-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Patti's work 1</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiCc4hDKcv7il4tTCjWblFoddHsMm3MOQSVhz0z4An63i6QSEz4pvHUV0E8a_ylvvcUqlwZY4z3tUG35uxBd0KCzuoHFUbCClUTjfShnIc-qdngcxhJeIfyM5cXLSNziS8lheQ9v0rf0g/s1600/Patti%2527s+work+-+2-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiCc4hDKcv7il4tTCjWblFoddHsMm3MOQSVhz0z4An63i6QSEz4pvHUV0E8a_ylvvcUqlwZY4z3tUG35uxBd0KCzuoHFUbCClUTjfShnIc-qdngcxhJeIfyM5cXLSNziS8lheQ9v0rf0g/s400/Patti%2527s+work+-+2-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Patti's work 2</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicPb91iN_tCQxP_kPSbzI5KXCSSKjqonLOpe9runfL6zviI47vYbrWdqjd4pmcDb9IHidZTl8fSnGIsjvheJtCbyQvJs8V3m5OtDMEUGR2pGXHE48a4HanG2R5un7Kng6sOG1Plyvv9vk/s1600/Sherrie+Posternak-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicPb91iN_tCQxP_kPSbzI5KXCSSKjqonLOpe9runfL6zviI47vYbrWdqjd4pmcDb9IHidZTl8fSnGIsjvheJtCbyQvJs8V3m5OtDMEUGR2pGXHE48a4HanG2R5un7Kng6sOG1Plyvv9vk/s400/Sherrie+Posternak-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sherrie Posternak</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4LHdXhUzfrzks8d-Oht34UaUylb-Wxdw3GUmRwTRz02CvtepfSBrHo04ts8iYokQt8QPCoL8sYhbMm_FdgHUJMOPz6HduRJMvqGtKFb80GaGV6X5GmJTm7SyJRQMH12GCaT9J3yOKGVE/s1600/Sherrie%2527s+work-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4LHdXhUzfrzks8d-Oht34UaUylb-Wxdw3GUmRwTRz02CvtepfSBrHo04ts8iYokQt8QPCoL8sYhbMm_FdgHUJMOPz6HduRJMvqGtKFb80GaGV6X5GmJTm7SyJRQMH12GCaT9J3yOKGVE/s400/Sherrie%2527s+work-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sherrie's work</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZRtcJEUg3jQmCPx-JMpZkcT1mf9da6grS4Lmf9HpCcc85y__6QNFfGch9Kdqnqp75AcydXCZ_ON9D4eMqLKLegPn5SyfTpe97Ddl3D7kTsGp0iNqDgkr27wVWWMFS74sRxSoePNSpr4Y/s1600/Virginia+Lamb-w432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZRtcJEUg3jQmCPx-JMpZkcT1mf9da6grS4Lmf9HpCcc85y__6QNFfGch9Kdqnqp75AcydXCZ_ON9D4eMqLKLegPn5SyfTpe97Ddl3D7kTsGp0iNqDgkr27wVWWMFS74sRxSoePNSpr4Y/s400/Virginia+Lamb-w432.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Virginia Lamb</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmGwqbLF7L6ct-36PlkunCrs9Ewge0vJ3bQICcY7FGeLBQ1t0UyT6IEkmFinxidpgTeGIywG2jtndl0lknzy8gHoEFmGwIDbdU_qMC9jzdJedJZwHShkYAuPvNCKLVVuElChRpHN4-q40/s1600/Virginia%2527s+work-w578.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmGwqbLF7L6ct-36PlkunCrs9Ewge0vJ3bQICcY7FGeLBQ1t0UyT6IEkmFinxidpgTeGIywG2jtndl0lknzy8gHoEFmGwIDbdU_qMC9jzdJedJZwHShkYAuPvNCKLVVuElChRpHN4-q40/s400/Virginia%2527s+work-w578.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Virginia's work</td></tr>
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This class also found that knowing when to stop adding elements and undercutting the focal point of the work was the most difficult part of this process. Deciding what was important in terms of meaning or intention and then emphasizing or building around that concept visually was the stumbling block for most people. It seems that it's very easy to get distracted by falling in love with particular objects and wanting to add them in. In my conversations with people during the construction process, I tried to emphasize the importance of leaving areas of the work uncluttered and spatially open.<br />
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The other main problem, I would say, is being too literal with meaning so that the work becomes more an illustration of a statement or theme rather than an aesthetic composition. This can be a fine line to walk but usually resorting to formal components of visual organization can assist the process.<br />
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Thank you to all the Thursday students for a great day of art making and laughter!<br />
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These post-con classes were a wonderful experience for me and an opportunity to test some ideas about how to assist students in creating mixed media works with encaustic. Thanks so much to Joanne and Cherie for the opportunity to put my theories into practice.Nancy Natalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03325421420384484035noreply@blogger.com0