Friday, January 1, 2016

January 1, 2016 Incite 4 and Cloth, Paper, Scissors blog

January 1, 2016

My artistic journey continues.  I had a wonderful surprise Christmas gift on December 25 when I opened my e-mail and discovered that the Cloth, Paper, Scissors blog/daily e-mail posting was about my piece, The Journey, which was published in Incite 3, The Art of Storytelling.  The online editor, Cherie Haas, called the posting " An Entire World of Possibilities" which is how I ended my story about the piece.  I was so excited that I smiled the rest of the night, even while asleep. 

Then, on December 30, I learned that two of my pieces will be included in Incite 4 which will be published in September 2016.  They accepted "The State of the Union" which is a 3D piece made up of rust.  It is a Lincolnesque top hat which I constructed from odd bits of rust.  I have collected rust for about 25 years, picking up interesting bits whenever I see them on the ground.  I knew that someday I would make something of them long before I became an artist.  I created this piece for the Backyard Sculpture Show at the Prairie Art Alliance in September 2014.  The premise was to create art from items found in the backyard (I used the wider sense of backyard to include all over the community).  It won Best in Show.  Then last January I entered it in the Chatham Library Art Show and it won Best in Show again.  So having it accepted into the Incite book for 2016 is like winning the Triple Crown.  I did have this piece for sale, but now think that it is definitely a keeper. 

The second piece accepted for Incite 4 is "Season of the Witch" which is the first piece that I made for my 60s show in October/November.  This piece was difficult to create because when I heard the Donovan song, a vision came into my head.  It was of a beautiful, strong woman wearing a grey hooded cape standing in a birch (or aspen) forest.  There were two white birches to her right.  She was a younger woman (about 40) and she had a definite presence.  I tried to create that vision on canvas.  NOPE.  It did not happen.  I tried, painted it out, tried again, painted it out again, and gave up on the vision.  So I let the art direct the scene.  Whenever I am lucky enough to turn the creation process over to the work itself, the piece is wonderful.  Instead of painting the face, I collaged a face from book pages.  She was old and not beautiful.  But she had a presence.  The forest became a thicket of twisted trunks and vines.  The old woman is carrying a basket (woven out of strips of book pages) which has a toad peering out.  The toad is also a collage from book pages.  The other animals in the scene are 7 ravens which are scattered throughout the scene.

My third wonderful bit of news is that the Chatham Library wants me to have a one-woman show there in June/July.  That is very exciting and a little daunting.  I have a lot of work to do in the next six months. 

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