Exhibition at Isabelle Percy West Gallery

Collaboration is...

I've been working on an article for the upcoming issue of The California Printmaker. The issue has a focus on collaboration, and I'm writing about Book Bombs!

Collaboration is such an important part of my work. Not only have I collaborated with Mary, I also have collaborated several times with Marie Elcin, and am currently working on a collaborative project with Anne Beck. And I can't forget my recent collaboration with Robert! The image above is from one of Anne's and my tests. In fact, one of the first artist books I ever made, which convinced me what I really wanted to do was make books, was a collaboration between sixteen artists.

As I was writing about Book Bombs, I was trying to capture the essence of what a collaboration really is. It's more than just working with others to make art in some way. As I was brainstorming, I ended up with the following list, which I decided to share here.

Collaboration is working together
Collaboration is an environment for growth
Collaboration is a loss of ego
Collaboration is exciting
Collaboration is a form of evolution
Collaboration is learning to listen
Collaboration is embracing the process
Collaboration is opening up
Collaboration is new insights
Collaboration is unexpected turns
Collaboration is a form of giving
Collaboration is a form of receiving
Collaboration is a form of gratitude
Collaboration is an act of love

Sneak Peak: (Re)Appropriate at Market Street Gallery

Last night was the opening for the California Society of Printmakers exhibition (Re)Appropriate at the Market Street Gallery. Above is a panorama of the show.

Colleen Terry of the Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts curated the show. She states, "Re/appropriation" can be read in myriad ways, and...speaks to historical as well as contemporary concerns with the creation of artistic content (whether by the first artist or by subsequent artists)."

My piece, Leap, was selected. In this piece, I was trying to bring some of the design impulses I've developed in my recent collages into an editioned form - breaking an image up into registers, playing with patterned elements (the blue bars in the image are fabric inclusions), as well as reduction blocks.

Actually, the most impressive thing to me about the gallery was their cat, Mo, who, despite the door being open all evening, does not leave the gallery.

The show is up till March 30, with a closing party on March 29, from 5-9 PM. It was also be part of the number of exhibitions during the 2014 Southern Graphics Council International Conference in San Francisco!