With One Palette

Those of you who have followed my blog for awhile know my love for the color blue -- in all it's endless hues: sky blue, cerulean, navy, cobalt and all the rest. Every shade of blue is welcome on my paint brush. So when I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to be featured in the With One Palette section of the July/August issue of Somerset Studio...

...I knew exactly what range of colors I would choose: Blue, White, Black and Silver Metallic.

An Even Dozen

Issue number 12 of PASTICCIO QUARTZ has arrived. Sarah Fishburn and Angela Cartwright are the writers, artists, and masterminds behind this QUality ART Zine. I have always said that this publication is more than a zine and the current issue is no exception. Between the covers you will find 60-pages packed with artistic inspiration.

This issue features an interview with artist Amanda Marie Ploegsma, an article featuring ceramic artist Laurie Beth Zuckerman, and a workshop project by Suzi Blu. There are book recommendations and reviews, website recommendations, apps for artists, quotes, wordplay, recipes, and of course the Palais d'Art section which highlights the original artwork of more than 15 artists. And there seems to be endless tidbits of cool information sprinkled throughout, including info about eco-friendly products, chalkboard paint, Japanese cloth wrapping, and so much more.

And a big thank you is due to Sarah and Angela for also including a feature about Winds of Change, a collaborative project and self-published book that I completed with Roxanne Evans Stout from River Garden Studio.

You can purchase all 12 issues of Pasticcio here.

Collaborative Completion

Anybody who has followed this blog will know that I am usually involved in many collaborative art projects, all at the same time. Well, all good things come to an end and that is about to be the case for my collaboration with artists and friends Bridgette Guerzon Mills and Jen Worden.

Back in 2009 we began this project, where the main idea was to challenge and experiment with our creative skills. I created a handbound, vintage paper book with the theme Contexture. Jen created a series of loose metal pages with the theme Shine. Bridgette created a book with plaster pages with the theme Book of Trees.

We each now have our own projects back and are in the process of finishing them up. I plan to share each of the final projects on the blog and first up is Bridgette's Book of Trees.

Photograph by Bridgette Guerzon Mills

Bridgette's gorgeous cover was an enticing start and a great inspiration for my first attempt at working on plaster pages.

Reflection - Page published in Plaster Studio

Branch

Grow

Head on over to this post on Bridgette's blog, Contemplating the Moon, to see images from every page in her book and to read about her own personal experience with the collaboration.

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I thank Bridgette and Jen for their talent, friendship, patience, and inspiration throughout these 2 1/2 years. And the icing on an already very sweet cake:  we are all very excited that all three projects will be part of an exhibition curated by Jane Michalski in July called Come Together as part of the Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival in Chicago. Details to be posted soon.

Back on Board

I just received a copy of the new brochure from the Printmaking Center of New Jersey. Two of my handmade books had been part of an exhibit, Below the Surface, at PCNJ in 2009. I was excited to see that one of the pages from my book Billboard was used as an image in the brochure.

If you are not familiar with PCNJ, please take a moment to visit their site. They offer workshops, rent studio time, hold exhibitions, and provide valuable educational opportunities to children as well.

The Great Wall

In 2009 Julie Prichard, Lynne Hoppe, and I collaborated together on a project we called Graffiti Wall. You can read all about it and see images here. This project was so unique, fun, and inspiring that we decided to collaborate again on Graffiti Wall 2010. We each created our own hand painted papers and mailed these to each other along with assorted ephemera. Using Graffiti Wall as our theme, we were then free to create whatever we wanted, in any format, using the papers. We did not share what we were creating until the pieces were complete.

I am thrilled that this project is currently being featured in the March/April issue of Somerset Studio. And I am even more excited that Julie's part of the project is the cover image.

My project is called Lost and Found and was inspired by the layers and layers of graffiti that were such a large part of NYC in the early 1980s.

(click images to enlarge)

The palette of my piece reflects the darkness that seemed to permeate the city at that time. The triptych represents the three of us in collaboration. And the Lost and Found is reflective of the journey that the graffiti, the city, and I have taken.

Thanks to Julie and Lynne for being the perfect co-collaborators. And a thank you to Christen Olivarez, Director of Publishing at Stampington & Comapny, for allowing us to share this project with so many others!

The Cube, The Tube, and The Sleeve

As many of you know, I have been working on a number of art collaborations over the past few years. Several of them have come to a close in 2010. One of these projects was with Vivian Bonder and Stephanie McAtee. Called Self Contained, this was an out-of-the-box collaboration that focused on feelings that we tend to hide from others and that we could no longer contain. I am happy to say that not only is our project in the January/February 2011 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors but it is featured on the cover.

We each created our own, individual pieces bound by absolutely no rules. The artwork traveled back and forth from the United States to Australia and we each worked on all the pieces at least twice. There was a lot of creative synergy and we often added to each other's work. In the end, we were rewarded with the Cube, the Tube, and the Sleeve.

My piece is the Sleeve: 6 wrapped, mixed media booklets, feelings contained within. Click each picture to enlarge for detail..

Here is Viv's incredible Tube and some of the insides that I completed...

And here is Steph's amazing Cube. You may have seen my 'Unfinished' side on the right before. Both Viv and I completed 'Self'' on the left.

A big thank you to Jenn Mason and Barbara Delaney at CPS for all your support! I love the new direction you are taking the magazine.

The Daily News

Thanks to everybody who signed up for a chance to win The Winds of Change, the book that Roxanne and I self-published. Your comments were all so positive and affirming.

A thank you also goes out to Patti Edmon from Altered Attic who reviewed the book in this post.

I wish I could give a copy to everybody! But today the lucky winner is ...Gillian McMurray. Congrats Gillian. I hope you love the book.

The book can be previewed and purchased here. It would make a great holiday present for any art lover, including yourself!

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If you haven't added your answers to this week's survey questions on my sidebar, head on over and speak your mind. The questions will be up until late Wednesday, at which time four new questions will be posted.

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Submissions for my book The Artist's Pulse (working title) have been streaming in. The responses to the questions have been wonderfully authentic and the art images I have received are stunning. The open call continues and all the details can be found here. A reminder to all that the deadline for Q & A responses is November 30, a week from tomorrow. The deadline for the artwork is December 31. If you reading this and debating whether to send something in...consider this a sign that you should!