Art & design, musing no. 1

Art & design, musing no. 1 

I've been thinking a lot about my efforts to balance emerging art/collage interests with my long-established design practice. There have been times when I felt I could walk away from design and focus completely on collage. Then I have moments, like today, when I'm mulling over how to visually re-position a business and can't imagine not having that interaction and challenge in my life. 

I'll always think like a designer. It informs everything I do. It certainly contributes significantly to who I am as an artist. 

Balance could be wildly over-rated. Heading full-tilt in the direction of what I'm most interested in at the moment may be the best approach. One creative endeavor feeds the other. At this time of hybridization and collaboration, perhaps a renaissance approach suits me best. 

And then there's the overlap. Many of my design clients also collect my artwork, while many of my artist friends ask for design advice. My card says artist/designer. Maybe it should say artist+designer... It's all connected. 

(Photo is a pattern of light through moving tree branches, cast across a wall, just another random but visually intriguing moment in my day!)

ArtBizBlog surprise

Artbiznewsletter  Alyson Stanfield What fun to receive Alyson Stanfield's ArtBiz newsletter today and discover that she'd featured a photo taken when we met recently at my Rip/Tear collage exhibition. (That's Alyson on the left, me on the right, in front of four collages from the Time & Balance series.)Alyson's website, workshops, and book are great resources. For example, today's issue of her newsletter has an article about driving more traffic to artist's websites.It was great to meet Alyson and have a chance to talk art with an expert for a bit!Thanks, Alyson, for linking to my website in your blog. I'm sure I'll make some new contacts as a result. Thanks also to Elke McGuire for taking our photo.

Postcards from places yet to be seen

St.franciscathedral
I recently received a call to participate in a mail art exhibition in Stockholm during August, the requirement simply being submission of an altered tourist postcard in any medium. I've always loved postcards and have my own collection (including both scenic and tacky categories) so this seemed like a fun project to contribute to — with collage elements added. Above is one of the three cards I sent last week, with an image of Old Faithful superimposed on a postcard of the St. Francis Cathedral that I'd picked up recently in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The postcards will be exhibited at Gallery KG52 in Stockholm from August 14-29, 2010. An exhibition of the submitted postcards from around the world can also be seen online. Inspiration behind the exhibition included the Picadillys of Dieter Roth and the Chop Art of Ray Johnson.

Below are the other altered postcards I contributed, at left, a Route 66 gas station and, at right, Santa Fe's oldest house.

Route66Oldesthouse