I'm so excited that I will be participating in The Contemporary Austin's annual 5x7 Exhibit. It will be Thursday, February 26th from 6:30-10pm. Tickets are still available. Hope to see you there!
www.thecontemporaryaustin.org/event/five-x-seven
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Dance Card # 27
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| Dance Card # 27 collage on paper 8"x6", 2014 collaboration started by Susanna Binder finished by Michele Hogan |
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| starter collage by Susanna Binder, 2014 |
Austrian collage artist Susanna Binder and I have collaborated on some collages. We mail each other a "starter collage" and the recipient finishes it. Here you can see the "starter" that Susanna mailed me, as well as my completed version.
If you would like to see another collage collaboration that Susanna and I did, you can check it out at her blog: https://susannascollagenblog.wordpress.com/. I mailed her a starter collage for that one. She completed it and titled it "A Man and His Birds". We plan to do more collaborations together because it's really fun. Susanna and I have never met. I hope one day we will!
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Far to Fall
Currently I'm working on a series incorporating some of my Grandmother Alma's things. I was recently given a box of her belongings that hadn't been opened in forty years. I never met my grandmother, but felt I got to know her a little in going through the things she saved. That made me reflect on the items we leave behind, and what they may tell others about us later.
In Far to Fall, Alma's Homework and Spring Collection of Geometry Dresses, I used her high school math homework and her friends' graduation cards from 1930.
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| Far to Fall collage on paper 5"x7", 2014 |
Alma's Homework
I began the collage, Alma's Homework, with a page of my grandmother's math assignment from the 20's. I then built the rest of the piece around that. Through the erased lines of her diagrams, I felt I could see her thought processes as she worked the geometry proof. I wanted the graceful diver to mimic the elegant lines of both her handwriting, and the diagrams.
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| Alma's Homework collage on canvas 7"x5", 2014 |
Spring Collection of Geometry Dresses
Both Spring Collection of Geometry Dresses and Value Study of an Egg were in the Art Science Gallery's 2nd Annual ATC Show and Fundraiser of 2014. Here I dressed this glamorous lady in my grandmother's geometry homework. I also experimented with hand stitching in the collage, which was a lot of fun! It was an honor to have this piece included in the show's logo, and I look forward to next year's show.
For Value Study of an Egg, I used a technique called stippling, in which all of the shadows are made up of tiny dots with a fine tipped marker. While I've been mostly working in collage for the past year, it was fun to get back to drawing a little bit. I found that the stippling process has the qualities of a meditation, the gratifying one of being pulled into a zone, and the frustrating one of demanding a lot of patience!
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| Spring Collection of Geometry Dresses collage on paper 3.5"x2.5", 2014 |
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| Value Study of an Egg pen and ink on paper 2.5"x3.5", 2014 |
For Value Study of an Egg, I used a technique called stippling, in which all of the shadows are made up of tiny dots with a fine tipped marker. While I've been mostly working in collage for the past year, it was fun to get back to drawing a little bit. I found that the stippling process has the qualities of a meditation, the gratifying one of being pulled into a zone, and the frustrating one of demanding a lot of patience!
Waiting for Degas
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| Waiting for Degas collage on paper 5"x4", 2014 |
In Waiting for Degas I used a layering technique I learned in Randel Plowman's class 'Experiments in Collage'. I began with a light background of pink and cream colored papers, then created subtle marks with watercolor and markers. I then used images from a children's coloring book of Impressionist painting and transferred them onto tracing paper. I continued to layer images that I had printed on tracing and sewing pattern paper, and finished the piece with some bold prints of Japanese washi papers and paint samples from the hardware store. I find it delightful how the layered images show through and the characters interact with one another in unexpected ways.
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