It’s an Art Exhibit!
March 2, 2017
My friend, Jackie Hanes, and I have our art on exhibit at the North Plains (Oregon) Library for the whole month of March. While I have had several pieces displayed at a shop or a gallery before, I’ve never had a real art show before. It’s exciting and a bit unnerving!
So I thought I’d take you through a virtual tour of the show. Open the door and come on in!
Jackie is a gifted artist in a number of areas. We met in the North Plains Artist Trading Card group where she collages vivid images on cards. She currently teaches classes in crazy quilting. The works she is exhibiting in this show, however, are all collages of various sizes.
My pieces include a variety of kinds of mosaics as well as several collages.
The two pieces on the upper left are mine. The one on the top far left is “Under the sea” and is made of smalti, shells/fossils, and a variety of stones. The next piece uses the glass on mirror technique and is called “Abstract horizon”. The piece on the right is one of two hat boxes that Jackie artfully collaged.
On the left is another glass on mirror piece, “Blue Flower”, and on the right is an underwater scene by Jackie.
I love the rich colors in Jackie’s work.
The pieces above are a mix of both of our works that are hung in the library conference room.
This is one of the first mosaics I ever did. It is glass on a cupboard door and is an abstract nativity.
This piece, “Aurora Borealis”, depicts icebergs in the Arctic with the glow of the Aurora Borealis behind it. It is glass, jewelry, and stone on the glass of a cupboard door. It is grouted with resin.
The top piece is Jackie’s while the two lower pieces are mixed media collage and paint on canvas. The girls in “I am enough” and “I am loveable”hold small banners with the names of the pieces cut out of room keys and credit cards.
“Hope springs eternal” is a mixed media mosaic on concrete board. It uses glass, tile, broken mirror, jewelry bits, and found objects to convey it’s message.
This very large piece is my most recent. “The creativity monster defeated” is stone, tile, glass, rocks, shells and more. Here’s the explanation:
Several years ago I was in a place in life where I just had no time or space for art. It was killing me. Literally. I decided to “liberate” all my bits and pieces of rock, shell, tile, and glass by sprinkling them liberally in my home landscape. At least, I thought, they would shine and sparkle and bring me joy when I passed by them. A miracle occurred and I was given the gift of time and space to create once again. I took my trowel out to the landscape and dug up as many pieces as I could find (now buried under dirt, bark dust, and dead plants). As I looked at the pieces, a monster appeared to me. And then, little sparks of creative joy. Thus, this piece represents the monster who tried to kill creativity but was overwhelmed and defeated by art.
All the pieces in this monstrous piece were dug from my landscape except the small black pebbles. The collages flanking the piece use vintage photos of Oregonians and are titled “Paris dreaming” and “It’s just a matter of time.” They are mixed media collage on framed mirrors.
The piece on the left , “Small flower,” is tile and glass on mirror. On the bottom right is a glass on glass –“Abstract landscape”.
“All that glitters is not gold” is a polymer clay mosaic with jewelry pieces.
These gilded insects buzz their rationalizations to do whatever you want into your ear. If you look closely, however, you will see that they are not made of gold and silver but cheap substitutes. Their words, too, are not genuine or foundational for good decisions.
Thanks for taking the guided tour!
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