Tag Archives: unusual materials

Materials

A Collection of Collections

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Jane and I collect lots of really interesting things–well, things that we think are really interesting. Corn cobs, seed pods, a piece of paper from the street, fake flowers from the cemetery trash, cat hair, Barbie doll accessories found in the street, twist ties, twisted metal from the street, game pieces, pantyhose, unusual branches, bent eyeglasses, tire tread.

Some makes it into our art. Some waits to become art. Some is perfect just the way it is.

For our current show, Jane and I had fun bringing our collections together to fill 90 display boxes of intriguing and interesting items. It left us excited and dreaming about future projects and shows.

Finished pieces

Found: art from detritus

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Jasper Art Center

Yay! The show’s up at the Jasper Arts Center in Jasper, Indiana!

There is new work, old work, and collections of the very cool and interesting materials Jane and I have found.

The opening is this Thursday, April 4 from 5-8 eastern, but the show will be up for the entire month of April. Check the Jasper Arts Center website for gallery times.

Works in Progress

Bundles of Art II

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Jane's Bundle

As I said in my previous post, my friend Jane Case Vickers and I have a show coming up April 3-28 in the Krempp Gallery at the Jasper Arts Center in Jasper, Indiana.

Our show will be made up of lots of found object sculptures, plus we’ll display some of our odd collections of trash and weird objects. As part of all this, we’re experimenting with the concept of bundles of found objects and assorted materials that are left outside for the elements to weather. The items included in the bundles may have special meaning and that meaning may be enhanced by the weathering process.

Pictured above is Jane’s version of this idea. As expected, it’s a little different than mine, but very cool. That’s part of what I like about making art with Jane. Similar ideas and materials interest us, but we have different approaches to them. Jane envisioned the bundle as more of a stack. Hers has an old chair seat arranged like book covers with a flat stack of papers in between. On the front cover are some bark and turkey feathers that she picked up last week on our journey to check out the gallery. I like the way it blends into the tree she tied it to.

Did you know that Boar’s Head brand turkey lunch meat originates with birds raised around Ferdinand, Indiana? We didn’t until we went looking for the reason why there were so many turkey feathers blowing around town.

Works in Progress

Bundles of Art

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Tree Bundle

Jane Case Vickers and I have a show coming up April 3-28 in the Krempp Gallery at the Jasper Arts Center in Jasper, Indiana.

Our show will be made up of lots of found object sculptures, plus we’re thinking we’ll display some of our odd collections of trash and weird objects. As part of all this, we’re experimenting with the concept of bundles of found objects and assorted materials that are left outside for the elements to weather. The items included in the bundles may have special meaning and that meaning can be enhanced by the weathering process.

Pictured above is my experiment with the idea. I found a fragment of brick in my garden and wrapped it in fabric scraps and paper, some with a brief reflection about the brick written on them. The brick is a reminder of structures that were part of my backyard when the house was built more than 100 years ago. I tied the bundle to the magnolia tree in my yard.

Residencies

Art in Unexpected Places

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Part of the concept behind the “people” that I created during my most recent arts residency was that they would travel around Coshocton and appear in “Unexpected Places” for the month following their creation.

I recently checked the Pomerene Center’s online gallery and was excited to see that they’re having a great time traveling around to all of the participating children’s schools. It’s fun to see how the project that I set in motion is continuing.

There are more photos of the people and their travels on the Pomerene Center for the Arts’ website.

Residencies

3rd and 4th Grade Reflections on Art

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As part of the art that the 3rd and 4th graders made with me in Coshocton, each group was asked to write about the body part they had constructed and the materials they had used, kind of like I do with my art. In response, they wrote many wonderful things.

Here’s a great selection of the kinds of things that they thought to include in their reflections. In case you can’t read them well, here’s a translation (with corrected spelling for ease of reading):

The head came from the Salvation Army, so it has a lot of story behind it. The hair we found in a bucket in art class. The flower was right beside the hair so we KNEW it was a perfect match. The hood was made from a very special fabric. It actually has a lot of story behind it too.

Lane’s shirt that Mom won’t let him wear.  Emily’s nice, cozy gloves. Brandon’s ring. Colton’s great sewing.

The pink pants is when I first went to the doctor to get my shot. –Tatum.  The jeans are what I wore on my first day of 2nd grade.–Arianna.  The jeans is when I went to first day of 1st grade.–Tatum. I used the jeans for the pocket.         I cut some of the designs.–Shalcey

The pants I brought in was my favorite pants I ever had. Now the pants are going to be a fake person.