My painting for the NZ Art Guild 2008 collaborate project

Participating artists were each sent a board prepainted (in this case cadmium red medium) on which to create - mine is an acrylic painting based on an image I am working with at present in a variety of media.

Each of these boards will be put together to create one large artwork which will be exhibited in the annual NZ Art Guild exhibition at the Bruce Mason Centre in Auckland, in July. At the conclusion of the exhibition the artwork will be auctioned with a 20% of the profit being donated to charity.

The project does have a title and theme but I'll write about that later when the painting has gone on exhibition.

2008 International Collage Exchange - ICE

Today I finished the last collage for this annual exchange run by Dale Copeland. I didn't think I was going to make it. It's odd how sometimes I agonise over a piece, and it takes hours to finalise. Other times the collage goes together smoothly and quickly. Naming them is quite a lot of fun too. Three collages I've already uploaded to flickr as I created these some time ago - "The Imagineer", "Radioactive Eden", and "Stories to Tell". Two others ("A Proposal in Blue" and "Elegant Seductress" were also on my blog a couple of posts ago although I've written all over the latter. It'll be on flickr shortly. The words are from an old song I found in a bundle of music in a charity shop. An interesting collection of all kinds of songs someone had collected and been using in a retirement home.

I mostly put these on canvas boards because when I've received collages in exchange, the standard size and solid base seems to be easier to frame. Otherwise I use a heavy art card.

If you're unfamiliar with the ICE we create thirteen collages A4 or less in size, and one is exhibited in New Plymouth and permanently online before being sent overseas (this year to Texas, USA). Another collage is in an online exhibition where each piece is for sale. The other eleven (or twelve if your sale piece doesn't sell) are sent out to participating artists around the world. We each receive a package of wonderful artwork.

The four collage works above are titled "An Appropriate Contract", "High Dance of Innocence", "Religious Scene with Fossilised Plant" and "It was never in your control".

Travelling journal

More than a year ago six journals set off travelling around New Zealand to six artists who were to complete a double page spread and send each one on to the next artist. The project turned out to be more of an undertaking than some of us expected, and some journals were lost for a time. Mine arrived home yesterday...what a thrill! One journal is still lost and I hope that it one day returns to it's owner - Amanda.
A group of us worked in a journal for one artist initially, and by the time each of us had created at least two pages of artwork in it, the journal really was a thing of beauty. Some of us enjoyed it so much we decided to repeat the process with each of us having a journal. 2006 was a pretty tough year for some and yet beautiful work was created and I'm sharing pages from my journal here. It will take two postings as blogger only permits 5 pictures per posting. These three are:

1. My own pages that I started the journal with: "Woman under construction is the text in the portrait, around the edge is a quote from Carmen ('Harbanera') which, in English, translates to: Love is a rebellious bird that nobody can tame and it's all in vain to call it if it chooses to refuse. Nothing helps, not threats nor prayers. One man is smooth tongued, another silent and he's the one that I prefer. He says nothing but he pleases me." The printed page is from a very old book ..." Edith opened her window to see if there was any hope in the distance; but the mist was full, and the world ended at the first terrace. She dressed, putting on her oldest skirt, for she knew there would be walking that day, went down shivering as she touched the damp woodwork, looked out of the dining room window. The clump of monk's-hood had not been disturbed; the spikes of bloom nodded reassuringly. It was strange, thought Edith, that so much beauty should arise from the roots of a deadly poison. She was calm and strong again; and as she stood at the window, an idea occurred, she could..."

Make of it what you will!

The orange pages with deadly looking flowers was from Ali:
2. The text reads "but Edith, isn't it odd that so much poison should arise from the root of such beauty. There are layers of art paper beneath paint glazes, and beautifully delicate text among and around the painted flowers and foliage.
The next spread after Ali's is from Denise:

3. Created in, I think, paint, collage, ink and the text reads:
Truth not seen
Truth not spoke
Under roof
Or out
No sweet poison fruit
to living death
condemned
but bitter poison
sprung in
labyrinthe hearts
took as mother's milk
in broken hope
alone
truth not seen
truth not spoke
under roof or out
And the words" Open your Eyes" and "it's just a fairytale".

Collaborative Journals

are very interesting and a real pleasure to work in. It's exciting to receive one in the mail and see what's been happening in it over the previous weeks. Yesterday I spent a couple of hours working in one. The owner of this journal had a hip replacement a while ago and her pages were about that with pieces from paperwork about what she may and may not do with her new hip collaged with imagery including a wonderful drawing of a woman stretching her body and hips in joyful freedom. I have a hip that was damaged in a car accident which is pretty good at the moment but has an unknown use by date, so I appreciated being able to see this work of Michele's. It reminded me of a Sam Hunt poem called Sara - he released a CD single "Your Body has no Flaw" where he recites the poem with funky music playing (click on the link and there is a 45 second soundbite from the CD there) - I love it. It's a good mantra. I have a lot of his poetry books - on our second date my husband and I went to a bar where The Warratahs were playing, and Sam was also there, reciting his poetry - including a favourite, Wavesong. There you go, quite a lot of personal information ... I don't usually impart that here!

I've collaged in some gestural drawings from a visual diary of mine, (these are 20-30 second life drawings), and then painted the page, and written the words of the poem around the figures. The figures look a bit like boiled lobsters! Couldn't stop myself adding my metallic paint, of course. There are seven artists in this group. Each artist completes a double page spread. There are several of these working their way around New Zealand and it's something of a long term project - it'll be a while before we each have a completely filled journal.

Sara

poem by Sam Hunt

Your body has no flaw.

That must be a lie!

Maude Gonne had sad hands,

Angela's temper never opened doors.

Your body has no flaw.

I look for one daily,

the darkness of the valley,

the climb to your jaw.

Your body has no flaw,

I part the earth and sky,

I witness birth,

I pray at a bleeding door.

Your body has no flaw,

buttocks breast and thigh

curved ankles where I lie

your calves...another shore.

Your body has no flaw.

The black shag neither,

nor the blue heron at prayer,

you live outside the law.

Your body has no flaw.

I've also photographed the other two contributions I made in the journal. The first entry was a compilation of ideas from the books I was reading at the time. There are many layers and pieces that fold back to reveal other images. The third image (music and houses) was an idea taken from the work of another artist, ("Union Road", by John Brack) and to be honest, I can't remember why. The wonderful thing about these journals is that they are a place to experiment!