The Eyes Have It

Capturing the Human Quality

For me the roosters seem to have a very human looking eye. It's the eye that is my favorite part to do with the collage. I feel like if you get the eye just right, it's really what draws the viewer in to the collage. Despite the fact that the tail feathers are incredibly fun to randomly rip and glue from many different papers and colors, it's the eye that draws me in.

SCC Fine Arts Gallery Show Catalog

Buy the Book

Robin Maria Pedrero and I have self-published a book for the upcoming SCC show. This 26-page spiral bound color catalog, featuring my unique figurative collage work and Robin's Visual Journey in soft pastel, is available on my Lulu Store along with my original "Paper Paintings" book.

In our collaborative catalog, you get a sneak peak at new works of art that will debut at the Seminole Community College Fine Arts Gallery in September, along with a few pieces from our "Chalk," Paper, Scissors exhibit from last year – and some award-winning favorites.

Start to Finish Part Four

A Very Productive Morning
This morning I set my alarm for 5am so that I could start my day with some painting. I know this sounds a little crazy, but I find that I get the most work done when everyone else is sleeping. I brew some coffee, gather up the dog and some water for my brushes, and head out to my backyard studio.

This morning I felt like I was ready to make some serious progress on this piece. Yesterday morning I made a visit to Home Depot to buy some bracing wood for it, lucky for me The Depot opens at 6am! Anytime the size of the piece exceeds 24-inches in any one direction the wood panel wants to warp, if it is not supported. Since this piece is 20x30 inches, I decided that before I made any more progress I needed to get some strips for the back. I cut, glued, and clamped them into place yesterday and let it dry overnight.

The above photo shows my progress from this morning. I am loving the layering of the papers and I am very very happy with the way this piece progressed today. I have worked in personal ephemera from my collector and she told me just yesterday that she was thrilled with the placement of the Sweet-n-Low packet when I ran into her in the grocery store. I just might be finished with this collage in one more session and then we will be ready to talk about framing artwork for galleries with some tips from my framer.

Stay tuned.