New Mixed Media Pieces for "Home Art Explosion!" Art Show

I was recently in another art show of the Bagavagabonds. Their theme for this "Art Explosion" was HOME. This was an interesting theme for me because we just recently purchased our first home.

I decided to take some abstract photos of items around my own new home but magnified and at interesting angles so that most are indiscernible except to me - a curtain's pattern, a small portion of a chandelier, blinds, part of a lamp base, and part of a door handle made interesting subjects. I printed my photos on transparent acetate.

I wanted to juxtapose two different types of "home" in each of my pieces. Besides the physical dwelling, I also wanted to suggest our body as the most important home - the one we will never move away from as long as we are on this earth. I found a vintage book on immunology with drawings and photographs of lysosomes, cytoplasms, blood vessels and cells. I then combined my photos with these pages in interesting ways and framed them. I love utilizing vintage books in my photography work because I feel that photography in the present day has become so duplicable. I like to create work that is one-of-a-kind so that it inherently maintains its' integrity and specialness.

I then took some vintage keys I have collected over the years and dipped them into matte black paint. When dry, I dangled them with invisible thread in the front of each piece to convey the idea that we all have the power to unlock ourselves if we just realize that the key to understanding ourselves is within reach.

To see photos from the art opening, check out this page of my website.

Migration Mixed Media Art Pieces for Bagavagabonds Art Show

The theme of the Bagavagabonds show this time was MIGRATION. I decided to juxtapose two different styles of migration for my series of 6 mixed media pieces. I took photos that I took from a couple cities (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, and Brussels) showing different forms of transportation - elevators, airports, a bike rack, a subway. a ferris wheel, and a freeway - and printed them in grayscale on acetate paper. I positioned these with original pages from a vintage book on evolution I found at my favorite bookstore (my blog on this bookstore here). I wanted to show the immediate literal migration of people versus longterm migration of the theory of evolution. Here some photos of my process and the final product (All my pieces sold out for a great cause!) You can see photos of the art show reception here.

 

California Art Explosion Art Show

I was in an art show last weekend that was California themed. You can see photos of the event here.

This blog illustrates my artistic process behind the pieces. I started out with three metal pieces and drilled holes into the tops. Then I drew the figures with a black prismacolor pen. I cut out sections of old maps of California for wisps of hair and adhered them to the pieces. Then I painted on the metal using black acrylic paint and spraypainted with silver spray paint to push the acrylic into the desired shape while it was still wet. I wrote original quotes onto the work and tied black velvet ribbon through the holes to hang. Enjoy.