Yavapai College Gallery Show

This is turning into a white knuckler, but on May 17th I will be delivering my work for an exhibition at Yavapai College Gallery.  The work for this show will be from my Artist Project Grant 2009 from the Arizona Commission on the Arts.

My project "Expanding the Digital Print to Uncommon Surfaces"  took me on a fabulous journey.  From creating digital prints on beverage cans, metal mesh, my hand made amate bark paper and many other surfaces, I was able to do some incredible things with digital prints.  This will be my first chance to photograph this work in one place that is also large enough to do justice to my beverage can assemblages.  There will be 3 beverage can assemblages.  Now all I have to do is finish the last 2 planned pieces.

The pieces for Mariposa Grove 3, the largest of the 2 unfinished pieces, has several phases of creation.  All the beverage cans have been cut to size to assemble as of yesterday.  Then holes punched, before going to the next step.  Once those pieces have holes punched they get a strand of hemp tied to each corner. Then the centers have to be punched and hemp strung in the middle holes for the next step. Small pieces of a print on hand made amate bark paper is wrapped around twigs and attached to the hemp in the center hole.  Once those steps are complete the pieces will be tied together in 10 foot strips.  After today, I will have a better idea of the amount of time still left to finish this piece.

Twigs to be added, bark to be cut.

Tomorrow I have a meeting with the gallery director for us to figure out exactly how this can be hung from the ceiling.  This will be interesting, but we have to solve the problem of how to hang the piece in the way I envision.  By Monday, I hope to have it pretty much finished.

Pieces before twigs and bark.

Pieces complete and ready to be tied together for the assemblage.

Creating with Digitally Printed Beverage Cans

New projects and workshops are in the planning stages. These workshops include assembling digitally printed beverage cans. This box created for one workshop, used 3 cans.  Materials included are: 3 digitally printed beverage cans, beads and waxed linen.

The other beverage can project is a journal embellished with beverage cans.  This is the start of  journal pages that combine painted fabriano artistico 140 lb hot press watercolor paper with painted pimatex cotton.  The cans are seen on the edges and as other elements in the journal.

Amazing Workshop Week at the Greenville Arms Inn

It was my extreme pleasure to teach a mixed media workshop in Greenville New York last week. Kim and Mark LaPolla have an incredible venue for their Hudson River Valley Art and Fiber Art Workshops at their Greenville Arms Inn.  Their list of workshops and instructors is long and mighty and offers opportunities for artists to learn and hone their skills in a peaceful creative environment.  

I loved the classroom, which is roomy, has great light, comfortable chairs and is open 24-7.  Mark is a wonderful cook and each meal is impressive.  You couldn't ask for a better environment in which to participate or teach a workshop. Kim and Mark are super hosts!!

The workshop was 5 days and we worked and produced a ton of work.  There is nothing better for me then combining digital media into mixed media art.  The workshop "Digital Mixed Media Fiber Journals" instructs artists to digitally print on uncommon surfaces and then combine the digital results in their artwork.  One of the treasures of the 5 day workshop format, is the freedom of time in constructing artwork. Each artist achieves varied results in their own vision.  With the classroom available non stop, you can always go back after dinner to work.

Jump on the internet and check out the information on the InnSane blog about the various workshops at the Greenville Arms. You can view content of some of the past workshops and get general information.

I am excited to be going back to teach at Hudson River Valley Fiber Art Workshops July 1-7, 2012.  I will be doing a complete digital printing workshop.  This workshop will teach how to print on recycled beverage cans, skins, specialty fabrics and surfaces, along with having the time to manipulate photoshop files and assemble the surfaces created in the workshop.  The workshop description will be posted soon. Although the workshop is a bit away, we will be taking sign ups for participants to take advantage on todays prices for early bird registration.  Details coming soon.  If you have any questions about this digital workshop, you could email me.

Playing in the Studio

The last couple of weeks have been long work days in my studio.  In May, I will be sharing a show with 2 other artists at the Yavapai College Gallery.  The 3 of us won Artist Project Grant awards from the Arizona Commission on the Arts last year.  We were all invited to show our work from our projects.  I have 2 pieces to finish which are pretty much labor intensive. These pieces will be among the 10-12 pieces for the show.  One of the new work contains around 350 printed beverage cans that make 1050 pieces to be assembled and hung in 20 - 24 piece strands.  The can pieces have 6  holes punched in each can. Pieces of hemp are attached in each hole.  The center holes have a piece of printed amate baek paper wrapped around twigs before the pieces are attached to hang.

The other unfinished piece is crocheted hemp that is 25" x 83". The crochet piece is the base and the top layer is composed of printed lutradur, heat distressed and torn, then layered.  Some of the layers are in place with several sheets of lutradur to be added.  You can see the yellow tops of the pins anchoring the piece in process.

Detail beginning of lutradur layers

Tomorrow I fly to Greenville New York to teach a 5 day workshop, but when I return to the studio, my main focus will be to finish this new work.  I will be taking all the work to the gallery to hang on May 17th and the opening will be the 28th.  It will be great to see these new digital pieces in a gallery setting where it can be photographed.

In the meantime, I also printed some beverage cans this week.   I used my Epson R2400 to print the larger sheet of cans you see below.  I also used my Epson PM 260 to print individual cans you also see below.  (This is the printer featured in my online workshop from last month)  This is the first time I used my little 4" x 6" printer for beverage cans and it worked great!