Fabric-Paper

I have been making some sheets of fabric-paper for projects in a new book I am working on. This one I particularly liked. I made it by using a red swirl design fabric as the base, and layering joss paper and tissue paper over that. The green paisley/floral element is a printed tissue paper. I added a few areas of metallic acrylic paints to give it sparkle. I can't wait to make something with it! I would love to hear from any of you who have experimented with fabric-paper.

COLLAGE WORKSHOP IN VERMONT!

Hi All,

I have been asked by so many of you if I offer workshops in my own studio in Rupert, so here I go! I am offering:
Scribble Collage, a weekend of painting, drawing, splattering, smearing, sponging, stamping, stenciling, and generally making a mess as well as an array of fabulous papers, for using in...... you guessed it...COLLAGE!!!
Official Description:
If you think you are “not artistic” or “can’t draw”, try drawing and painting with the intention of tearing up the results for collage! It is definitely in the category of dance-like-nobody-is-watching, and it’s a great way to engage your creative spirit. In this weekend workshop we create our own collage materials by making “paint playgrounds” and scribble drawings using acrylic, watercolor, crayons, pastel, oil pastel, charcoal, and other materials. We experiment with a variety of approaches to collage using these paintings-drawings as our foundation.

Date: October 23 - 25
Friday: Check in any time after 4
Dinner 6:30, opening session 8:00 - 9:30
Saturday: Workshop session 9 - 5 with an hour break for lunch (lunch is included)
Sunday: Workshop session 9 - 4 with a lunch break (included)

Accommodations are at a guest house two miles down the road from my studio, next door to a general store. Each person has a private room, and there are shared baths and full kitchen facilities.

Cost is $495, which includes tuition, accommodations for Friday and Saturday nights, dinner on Friday, and lunch on Saturday and Sunday. I will stock the guest kitchen with staples for breakfast (bread, milk, eggs, coffee, etc.) and provide a list of restaurants and other dinner options for Saturday night.

If you think you might be interested (without necessarily committing) please let me know asap. I will send out a registration form upon request. Space is LIMITED due to the size of my studio and capacity of the guest house, so sign up early!

Book Event

On Thursday, August 27 at 7:00 pm, I will be presenting my book, Collage Journeys, at the Northshire Book Store in Manchester, Vermont. This is a joint event with Judy Lake of Lake's Lampshades, who will be presenting her newly released book, The Lampshade Lady's Guide to Lighting Up Your Life. Here is what Northshire has to say:

Join us for an evening celebrating two noted local artists, as Judy Lake presents The Lampshade Lady’s Guide to Lighting Up Your Life and Jane Davies presents Collage Journeys. Judy Lake has been making lampshades for more than 20 years, and turning out distinctive handmade lampshades from her Pawlet, Vermont shop for more than 11 years. In The Lampshade Lady’s Guide to Lighting Up Your Life, Lake shows how to create lampshades that show off your personality. You’ll learn how easy it is to make unique lampshades using materials as varied as old cloth children’s books to antique postcards. Known for her bold use of color, Jane Davies designs tableware, fabric, paper goods, stationery and other products for prestigious manufacturers. In Collage Journeys: A Practical Guide to Creating Personal Artwork, the artist, designer and teacher shows how to take collage to the next level. The book presents a series of innovative workshop assignments, each designed to relate the technique and format of a collage to its subject, with stunning finished pieces to offer inspiration. She is also the author of A Glaze of Color and Collage with Color, and lives in Rupert, Vermont.

Edwina's Exhibition!

Edwina Kinch, a collage artist and (I am flattered to say) reader of Collage Journeys, is having an exhibition of her gorgeous figurative collages. Here is what she writes:

I thought I would let you know that I am having my first major exhibition of my artworks (20 exhibits) in my home town of Bromsgrove, England. The Exhibition is being held at The Artrix Arts Centre running from 5th August to 12th September 2009. If you have any friends, relatives or acquaintances coming to England during this period do encourage them to come and visit the exhibition. Remember, Bromsgrove is not very far from Stratford on Avon (a popular tourist stop!) The exhibition is open from 10am to 4pm Monday to Saturday.

So if any of you are in England this summer near Bromsgrove, CHECK IT OUT!

Unbinding the Visual Journal

"Unbinding the Visual Journal" in Williston went SO WELL!!! I met so many talented artists of varying backgrounds, and we all had a blast making collage journals. The gal pictured above is Holly Sierra. She brought color copies of her paintings, cut them up, and rearranged them into beautiful collages. Each person had such a unique approach to this process. It was truly inspiring to me.

Collage Journal Workshop

My Scribble Collage workshop at the Guilford Art Center in CT was SO FUN! I had great students, and we had a blast. Can't wait to do that one again. I'll post pix shortly. Meanwhile, I want to get the word out that I am teaching a collage journal workshop in Williston, Vermont (that's near Burlington) on Saturday, July 18, 9 - 5. The workshop is called "Unbinding the Visual Journal". Check it out! The contact person is Jill Abilock: jabilock@japanlink-trans.com 802-735-1443

Collage Workshop

I am teaching a Scribble Collage workshop at the Guilford Art Center in Guilford, CT on June 13 and 14. There are a few spaces still available, so if you're interested, sign up NOW. We will spend the first day painting, drawing, and playing with loads of materials and techniques in order to produce lots and lots of collage materials. On the second day we will have a collage marathon! The images here are examples of my scribble collages.
The following weekend, on June 20, I'll be teaching a workshop on layering with transparencies in collage, at Ink About It in Westford, MA. That one is full, but there is a waiting list. If there are enough people on the waiting list we may schedule another similar workshop in the near future.

Last weekend my Sweetie and I went to an opening of a show of quilts by Polly Stone. This is one of a series she did based on a trip to Machu Picchu. Beautiful textures, fine stitching, subtle colors... truly beautiful work.

I haven't posted in a while, as I am preparing for the Surtex show which is May 17 - 19. For the first time this year I will be showing collage work in addition to my "design" work. I have generally kept these worlds separate - my collage being the work I do to explore imagery and techniques without a particular outcome in mind, and design being what I do for a living - painting images, scanning them, and making them into artwork that can be used on commercial products such as paper goods, fabrics, ceramics, etc. My two worlds seem to be converging a bit, and I am excited to find out if there is interest in my collage at Surtex this year. This Coffee Collage was done using painting, collage and digital manipulation. Oh, and sewing.

Collage with Color

I recently heard from a reader, Judy Strom, who, after purchasing Collage Journeys, also ordered my previous book, Collage with Color. She kindly sent a photo of these gorgeous papers she painted, inspired by the book, and gave me an opportunity to put in a shameless plug for the book. Thank you Judy! Now I can't wait to see what she does with the papers...

I have been fooling around with layering fabrics, fibers, and papers with fusible web for a while, trying to create complex surfaces. I'm trying to incorporate more fabric-fiber-stitching kinds of techniques into my collage. I recently came across Sue Bleiweiss's web site. She is a master of this technique, and she has terrific tutorials available on her site. The pieces pictured here are my experiments in creating an overall surface. I did make a box out of the orange-pink piece using Sue's directions. I'll post a picture at a later date. In the meantime, check out her site and her blog, and have fun!

Speaking of foam core, here are a couple of jewelry items I made using paper-wrapped foam core as the base. They are embellished with fused Angelina fiber and film, wire, and beads. I would love to see what other mixed media and collage artists are doing with foam core. Please e-mail me and send photos! Thanks.

Gloria

Tonight in our Collage Journeys workshop we will start a project making collage on foam core. The fun part of this is that you can cut openings in the top layer of foam core, creating little niches, and place little three-dimensional things in them. The piece in this post is called "Talking with Gloria", Gloria being the gal in the striped sweater. I made the background using old maps of LaHave, Nova Scotia, where Gloria lives, and a letter from her. In the little niche, I placed pieces of sea glass from the beach in LaHave. It has been WAY too long since I visited Gloria! This collage makes me miss her like crazy. Check out her paintings on her web site (click "Gloria" above.)

Cloth Paper Scissors Article

The current issue of Cloth Paper Scissors contains an article BY ME on making collage on printable cotton. Check it out! I was so delighted to be asked to write for this publication, as I have been subscribing for several years, and I devour every issue.

On another topic: I am told that my "comment" function does not work on this blog. If anyone has a comment, please feel free to e-mail me - you should be able to by going to my Profile. Thanks.

Collage from a Reader

I love to get e-mail feedback from people who have purchased Collage Journeys. Lately I've been asking readers to send me pictures of their own collages. These just came in this morning from Edwina Kinch. "Sunflower" and "Emerald" are based on my "Color Collage" project. The red collage ("Collage 1") is made from discarded artwork that Edwina cut and tore into pieces and reassembled. I'm a big fan of recycling artwork this way. I love Edwina's use of texture and her stitching and beading. Fun! Thanks, Edwina!

Unfinished Collages

This week in our Collage Journeys workshop we are going to continue the Scribble Collage project. Last week we all scribbled, painted, drew patterns and doodles, and had a ball. I put together a few of my scribbles as collages, but I think I'll consider them unfinished for now and maybe introduce some imagery later. I'm teaching a whole weekend workshop on Scribble Collage in June at the Guilford Arts Center, so I'll be playing with it more over the next few months.

Scribble Collage

In my Collage Journeys workshop tonight we are doing one of my favorite projects: Scribble Collage. The idea is to make a collage or series of collages entirely from your own artwork, scribbles, etc. Anything you've created by hand is fair game, even grocery lists, journal pages, or doodles you've made while on the phone. I like to use this project as an opportunity to use drawing and painting materials that I don't use very often - pastels, charcoal, pencil. One way to start this process is to create ten to twelve quick drawings on cheap paper, not spending more than a few minutes on each one. The above images are my results. Then you tear up the drawings and make collages. See my book "Collage Journeys" for more suggestions.

Lima Beans

Did anyone ever like lima beans as a kid? I can only remember them tasting like mild cardboard, but on a whim I tried making lima bean puree, and they were SO good I've made them several times since. They are the color of wasabi, and go great with salmon.

Lima Bean Puree

If you have your own home grown lima beans, or some from a local farm, use those. If not, a bag of grocery store frozen lima beans will work perfectly well.

1 pound fresh or frozen lima beans
1/3 - 1/2 cup milk, heated
1 - 2 tablespoons butter
salt to taste

Bring a pot of salted water to boil, and cook the lima beans for about 5 minutes. Drain, and place in the bowl of a food processor. Puree while adding the milk in a stream. Add butter and salt. Puree some more. Serve hot. This dish can be made ahead of time and heated gently in the microwave. Variation: incorporate a head of roasted garlic into the puree (to roast a head of garlic, slice off the top end to expose the cloves; drizzle with olive oil; wrap in foil, and bake in your toaster oven at 275 degrees for about an hour. When cool, squeeze out the softened cloves. MMMmmmm).

Texture

Tonight at my Collage Journeys workshop we are going to explore texture using lightweight papers, gesso, matte medium, and paint. Texture in collage can be bold, three dimensional, in-you-face - think corrugated, wire mesh, objects glued to the surface. But it can also be subtle. Simple brushstrokes of matte medium, or layering of lightweight papers creates texture that you can emphasize by rubbing india ink or paint into the surface and then wiping it with a damp paper towel. Another way to emphasize subtle texture is to drybrush paint over the topmost surfaces, leaving the crevices unpainted. Here are a few examples of texture studies.

Workshop

My Collage Journeys workshop in Manchester, Vermont starts this evening, the first of six weekly sessions. I am excited to teach from my new book! Most of my students for this workshop are art teachers, so I expect the teaching and learning will go both ways. We're going to start with my "Color Collage" project, which is a fun way to get going if you've been away from art making for a while. First you gather and organize lots of different papers into color categories. Then you make several collage compositions using only papers from one color group. Of course, each group has many versions of one color - they can be patterns, textures, and all different shades. This project helps you to focus on composition, texture, and value, while exploring materials from many sources. Here are a few examples that I did for my book.

Cheese and Goats

We went to the farmers' market yesterday and bought some cheese from one of our favorite cheese makers, Angela, from Consider Bardwell Farm. Check out their site. This farm is just a few miles down the road from Rupert, and in the summer we often stop there on our bike rides to visit with the goats. Here is a photo of me a couple of years ago playing with them in the spring. They are VERY friendly, sweet and funny. Another item to check out is "The Vermont Cheese Book", by my friend Ellen Ogden . Nothing like a bit of cheese and wine after a twilight snowshoe on a snowy Sunday. My "Wine and Cheese" collage is now available as a print from my Etsy site.

My Father at 80

My father, whom I call Jimmy, is turning 80 years old on January 23rd! I can't hardly believe it. He still jogs, swims, skis, sails, and builds things. I had the honor of designing the invitation for his party. Check it out.

newspaper collage

I have just started fooling around with creating images in newspaper and then painting over them. I've used newspaper for background material in collage, but not as central image. A lot of collage artists make extensive use of newspaper; I don't know why I've never explored this before. Comments and suggestions are most welcome!