Back in Skool

I have been taking a drawing class titled Sketchbook Skool.  Back in the day I use to draw a fair amount but for the past 20 years not so much.  This online class was terrific and one of the things I really liked is that each week we had a different teacher.  Each week there were several videos by that week's teacher- these included then talking about their drawing and showing their drawings in sketchbooks and usually a video of them working on a drawing.
Here are some of my drawings from the class.

Dedicated

My show Mad Men and Monoprints at the Wild Hare Bistro in Bemidji Minnesota opens tomorrow afternoon.  I am dedicating this show to my youngest brother Tom.  He is battling lung cancer and it has been and continues to be very difficult.  His perseverance is nothing short of amazing.  This show is for you dear brother.
The opening is tomorrow Friday November 7th from 3 until 5.  The show is up until December 3rd- so hope you can make it by to see what I have been up to this past year.  Here are a couple of pieces.

 Rescue

Mixed Media Collage

 Found Keys

Mixed Media Collage

 Flowing River

Monoprint with Collage

Stormy Sky

Monoprint

What a Month!

I can't believe how fast the month has gone.  I have been doing a lot of collaborations and have more yet to do. I will share the latest ones here.  I also made the yearly trip to visit friends and family in Iowa.  I also have been busy cutting mats and framing collages and monoprints for I show I am having in November.  I will include  the info for that at the end of this post.

The first set is a completed set started by Carol White.  Nikki Soppelsa and I finished it.

                                             I did the bottom third, Nikki did the middle and
                                             Carol did the top third.

                                            Here I did the top third, Carol did the middle
                                            and Nikki did the lower third.

                                           Nikki did the top third, I did the middle and Carol
                                            did the bottom third.


      The next set is in progress.  Nikki started this set. I will be mailing these to Cork Ireland               
       for Carol  White to finish.

                                                  Nikki did the top and I did the bottom

                                                    I did the top and Nikki did the middle

                                                I did the middle and Nikki did the bottom


                                           And here's the info about my up coming show

A Finished Accordion Book Collaboration

I recently finish an accordion book collaboration with a terrific artist, Jani Collins. I mailed her a blank accordion book and she did 2 spreads and started the back side and sent it back to me and I completed it with my two spreads and my additions to the back side.  This was a great challenge in the best way possible.  It's really like art improv.  One person starts the idea off and the other one runs with it.

Here are Jani's two spreads and the back:

Next are my 2 spreads and the back and a couple of views of the opened book.

A New Kind of Collaboration

I recently took an online collage class with Randel Plowman. One of the last assignments was to do a collaged accordion book.  I posted mine on September 5th  I thought that the accordion book would be a great form for collaboration. So  I decided to do just that and this first one is with Jani Collins, a wonderful artist living in Ohio. I made the accordion books.  One for me and one for her- On the inside we each get 2  spreads to collage.  So in the photo- 1 & 2 = 1 spread  3 & 4 = the second spread and so on.  The back side we both will work on. So the photographs below are my pieces in my book-  I actually just received Jani's book today but haven't photographed it yet.  I am finding this book format to be very fun for a collaboration.

   This is the cover of my book

 These are my 2 spreads together.

 Here's another view of my 2 spreads.

This is the back I started and Jani will finish it.

Real Studio Photos

I am participating in Seth Apter's blog project of having artist show what their studio tables really look like.  Not the pretty cleaned up ones that people often show. http://thealteredpage.blogspot.com/
I reach a certain point where I just have totally put everything in order- then do it all again.

Cyanotype Collages

One assignment for the collage class was to use solar or sun paper- you lay things on the paper go into the sun for a few minute then put it in a tray of water- The paper I had was at least 15 years old but it worked somewhat- Then I remembered I had some real cyanotypes.  These are made by coating nice paper with a chemical solution- then expose it to strong light. I made several years ago and put them away in a box- so it was great to use them finally.