What should the city do with “This Green Space” — the open lot on 9th and New Hampshire beside the Lawrence Arts Center? A recent exhibit at the Lawrence Percolator put that question to the public. My response: build a playground! On Tuesday, April 27, a procession of Percolator members and volunteers took a model of the hotel proposed for that spot to City Hall, illustrating its large size in relation to other buildings and advocating for alternatives.
Come bid on my piece at the Lawrence Arts Center’s 32nd Annual Benefit Art Auction! The auction is April 14, 2012. Doors open at 5:30 pm, and the live auction begins at 7:30 pm. Click here for more information.
I’ve been having a lot of fun in my studio lately and I thought I would share some of my ideas, unfinished work, and creative process. I’m working on a mosaic commission as well as several pieces for two group shows in March.
This is the start of a collaborative piece that I am working on with Erika Nelson for "Art Lives!"
“Art Lives!” is a statewide collaborative project pairing women artists to work together to make art about the theme art lives. The project was conceived by Rachel Epp Buller, an artist and professor at Bethel College in N. Newton, Kansas, as a response to the condition of arts funding in Kansas; Governor Sam Brownback vetoed funding for the Kansas Arts Commission making Kansas the only state without an arts agency.
I am working in my studio on a collaborative piece for "Art Lives!"
I am working on a couple of pieces for this exhibit. I am most excited to be working collaboratively with artist Erika Nelson of Lucas, Kansas, known for her “Worlds largest collection of the world’s smallest versions of the world’s largest things.” I still haven’t met Erika in person, but I have enjoyed talking with her on the phone and through Facebook and email. We’ve decided to begin two collaborative pieces, one that is “political” about the state of the arts in Kansas, and one focused more loosely on the theme art lives. We are passing the two pieces back and forth in the mail, and by now have each had a chance to add to what the other has done. It’s a fun process and we’re thinking of it as a dialogue.
This is the first layer of the piece that I am making for "Art Lives!" I will be layering ink and other media on clayboard and then scraping back into it with a scratchboard knife.
I am also beginning to work on a piece of my own for this exhibit. I am imagining art lives as a depiction of a theatrical scene with dancers and actors springing forth and even flying through the space. I’m imagining this “play” as including subtle references to the Occupy movement because that movement has highlighted how publicly-funded programs like the Kansas Arts Commission are being taken over by wealthy corporate interests. I am excited to try a more process-oriented approach with this piece, so the final product might be very different from my first thoughts.
 
    
        
       
     
The exhibit “Art Lives!” will be on display at City Arts in Wichita, Kansas, from March 28 – April 21, 2012, with a Final Friday reception on March 30.
Call for entries
I am also planning a piece for an exhibit called “This Green Space” at the Percolator in Lawrence, Kansas. For this exhibit artists are invited to share their visions for imagining and re-imagining the green space at the corner of 9th and New Hampshire in Lawrence, a space that may become a large hotel — just across the alley from the Percolator. Alternately, artists are invited to exhibit work that tells the story of how they have re-imagined “green spaces” of their own.
The green space that I am imagining at 9th and New Hampshire is a fantasy playground. What I hope to convey in my finished scratchboard piece is a feeling of joy and play, focused on the needs and interests of children. I have quickly sketched out some ideas, made a more detailed plan, and am now in the process of rendering the piece in scratchboard.
“This Green Space” will be on exhibit March 3 – 25, 2012, at the Lawrence Percolator, and will be open for a reception during the March “Final Friday” event.
Mosaic in process
And as I move forward with the above new projects, I am also in the process of finishing a mosaic commission that I have been working on since December with a tree-theme.
         
Here are two new mosaics that I made, that will be on display and are for sale at the Strecker-Nelson Gallery in Manhattan, Kansas, from early November through December, 2011.
Each Mosaic, Winter Tree and From the Dark, includes many hours of work. I first created the basic concept and design for each, and then shaped the ceramic pieces to fit where I wanted them to go. The images change as I proceed, and I design each piece anew as each element is placed and new relationships are formed. I find the process to be a bit like putting together a puzzle that evolves as the creative process unfolds.
I made both mosaics from ceramic dishes that I found over time, mostly from thrift stores. Sometimes friends give me the remains of beloved dishes that were dropped or met some other dark fate, and I incorporate these, too. I stockpile dishes of particular colors that inspire me or that I know I’ll need eventually, especially black and white.
Each piece was inspired in part by the impending winter. I wanted to create a stark winter beauty in the piece Winter Tree. I have been thinking about the arch that appears in this piece for a long time. It is a personal symbol for everything that is here within, a bit like a rainbow but matter of fact and without the emotion. The other mosaic, From the Dark, is about illumination — the light that carries one through the dark — a dark winter or a dark time. The carrier of the light in this piece for me connotes fragility, yet the medium renders these papers boats rather solid. The boats were interesting shapes for me to work with.
The Strecker-Nelson Gallery is located at 406 1/2 Poyntz Avenue, Manahattan, KS. Hours are Monday – Saturday, 10 am – 6 pm. Phone the gallery at 785-537-2099.
Have some coffee and a scone and see my art at Wheatfields Bakery in Lawrence, Kansas!
My art is on display at Wheatfields Bakery (904 Vermont) from Monday, October 10 – Sunday, December 5, 2011. The exhibit includes mixed-media collages, clayboard drawings, and mosaics that I have made in the last few years through the present.
Some of my work is now available as prints, and these are listed on the information sheet at Wheatfields. Wheatfields is open M – F 6:30 am – 8 pm, S 6:30 am – 6:30 pm, and Su 7:30 am – 4 pm.
 I’m pleased to have recently finished this commissioned mosaic. The theme is prairie grasses, and the piece is 12″ x 12″. I used recovered dishes and pottery to make the piece. When I make mosaics, I use a tile nipper to shape the ceramic pieces to fit, then glue them to a plywood backing before applying the grout.
Occasionally I get the chance to create a piece of art that is commissioned for a particular purpose or occasion.
Once I made a collage time-line of sorts for a client who gave me important photos, memorabilia, and documents from his life to incorporate. It was scary working with such precious things, among them a copy of his birth certificate, weathered and encased in fragments of plastic. He was someone I didn’t know and he didn’t want to influence my design or working process at all — total trust. And that was nerve-wracking. Would he like it? In the end I think he did, or at least he said he did.
Once a friend commissioned a piece of art for her wedding; two nesting doves portrayed in scratchboard. The original black and white image was reproduced in purple for the wedding invitations, programs, and t-shirts. Ten years later my friend’s parents commissioned another piece, now for my friend’s tenth anniversary. I used mixed-media collage for this one, again in purple. And now the doves have kids.
Today I am in the process of making a small commissioned piece in mosaic. The design phase is over, and for me that’s the hardest part of the creative process and also the most satisfying. The finished piece will be a gift commemorating new beginnings in a story that only my client could tell. I’ve enjoyed gathering some of the details of the lives that this piece will honor. I’ve worked alongside my client to find the right symbol and design: blowing prairie grasses. I am using broken shards of recycled dishes to make the mosaic. In addition, I’m incorporating small pieces of colored glass, special to my client who picked them up around her farm. I’ll know whether or not the mosaic will come together as a whole only after I grout it and it dries. Grout is the unifier. Grout is good.
I made this piece for the Painted Donkey art auction to support the Kansas Democratic Party. Enjoy it and support the arts in Kansas!
More than thirty-five artists and I have contributed art to The Painted Donkey! It’s a party and a silent art auction to support the Kansas Democratic Party. The event is Thursday, September 8th at the Carnegie Building (9th and Vermont in Lawrence, KS) from 7-9 pm. Tickets are just $15. All of the contributed art will be roughly the same size and a list of artists will be available. But there is a “blind auction” twist — you won’t know which artist made which piece — so you’ll have to guess. Representative Barbara Ballard will be the Master of Ceremonies for the event. Should be loads of fun. Bids start at $100.
