Tag: paper art

Now showing paper paintings in ‘Meltdown’ at Soyal Gallery

July 3rd, 2010 | No Comments

paper paintings soyal gallery

One of the shows I’m participating in this summer is Meltdown, at Soyal Gallery in downtown Scottsdale. Bringing together the work of more that 30 emerging artists from around the planet, the exhibition takes aim at the mind-melting heat we experience every summer in Arizona.

For the occasion, I have produced a series of eight “paper paintings” — experimental compositions made of paper — that share a common geometric motif.

I approach making them the same way that I do with paint. I very much enjoy working with paper, and I believe that I do not do so enough. Paper gives me a bit of freedom to try out new shapes and color combinations. There’s vast opportunity to encounter “happy accidents” and explore them accordingly.

I also had fun generating titles for this set of new works, which share the word “meltdown.” Titles include Abstract Plastic Forest Meltdown, Alarmist Pharmacist Meltdown and Cape Canaveral Carnival Meltdown.

See for yourself at Soyal Gallery, 4200 N. Marshall Way, Suites 2 and 3, until August 12.


Detailed images of new paper art collage

June 26th, 2008 | No Comments

In my previous post, I explained the story behind Ekeliges Zeug!, a new paper art collage I finished last week. I’d like to follow that up with some detail shots, to give you an idea of the detail that went into the piece.

Here’s the paper art collage in its entirety. Click to enlarge if you like:

paper art collage

Here are detailed images:

paper art collage
paper art collage
paper art collage
paper art collage

There’s a lot of fluorescent paper going on — but, unfortunately, fluorescent anything doesn’t really come through on screen. You’ll just have to take my word for it. Better yet, if it gets into the show for which I created it, you’ll be able to see for yourself, in person!

I had some important accidental realizations as I was making Ekeliges Zeug!:

As I was cutting the colors up, the scraps fell to the floor, just piling up. Some very weird and unexpected color combinations resulted. These gave me ideas for color combos for future paintings. Like mustard brown, light fluoro orange, and crimson. Or beige, fluoro red, violet, and navy. It goes on and on.

Halfway into the project, I noticed that I kept gravitating toward the same colors. Naturally, I wanted to shake things up. So I reached out to my pile of available colored papers and flipped it upside down. Suddenly I was working with light lavender, burgundy, robin’s egg blue, seafoam, slate gray, etc.

I figured out how to turn off my brain in mid-project, and not overthink things. That was probably the most valuable lesson I learned. I just let one pattern or design element flow to the next.

In other news, I’m in the process of redesigning my site. I completely realize that the painting galleries are unfinished — there’s no detail information (like size and medium) on any of the images! I just never got around to adding it in. Regardless, I’m going to scrap the slide show format. It doesn’t work. Hopefully the new site will be up by the end of July.


Ekeliges Zeug!: New ‘paper painting’

June 22nd, 2008 | 3 Comments

I’ve just finished a three-week-long odyssey involving paper, glue, and spray adhesive coming up to my elbows. And I’d like to share evidence of it with you!

This paper painting is called Ekeliges Zeug! The piece is 6 inches (15.2 cm) high x 60 inches (152 cm) wide, and it’s made of 100% paper and glue. No ink involved. Here ’tis … click to enlarge:

paper painting

Ekeliges Zeug! is a German expression that means “Revolting stuff!” or “Nauseating stuff!” We had a German friend over for dinner a couple of weeks ago, and we forgot to put dessert (an apple pie) in the oven. As we were chatting, it became apparent that our guest had never experienced a Hostess Twinkie, Ho Ho, Sno Ball, or Ding Dong ever before. Seizing the opportunity to freak her out, once dinner was over, I raced up to the neighborhood convenience store to grab every Hostess “dessert” I could find. We cut up the Hostess treats into petit-four-sized pieces, and we walked her through a tasting. Our friend’s reaction was marked by predictable revulsion. “Ekeliges Zeug!” she remarked. Hilarious!

Title aside, I made this “paper painting” expressly for a local art show, which will feature works on, and made of, paper. Since it’s in my home town’s museum, I tried to do everything I could to experiment in paper. I think the project brought out my best.

Originally, I planned to make a series of five 6×6-inch pieces. But after the narrative — about an astronaut who gets lost in space — broke down, I decided to take the best parts of that and incorporate them into a paper panorama.

Long story short, this is where I’ve been for the past 3+ weeks. I’m looking forward to painting again. No more being hunched over a cutting mat and an Exacto blade for hours on end!