My 600th collage seemed like as good a reason as any to give it a personal shoutout on this very intermittent blog. Since starting this project/practice/obsession in 2017 I never really thought that it would be the constant that it is in my life, through good times and bad. But I m just as excited by it as I was when I started and it reinvigorated my passion for art and making new work. It saved my creative output and I hope to make it a few more hundred to hit the big 1k. Let’s see where it goes from here!
365 Collages in 138 Seconds
I made this video at the end of 2022 to celebrate having enough collages to have one for each day of the year. Sharing the video here now where it should be.
Vermont Studio Center - Work on Wall Video
Below is a very brief video of all the collages I made at the Vermont Studio Center while they were living and growing on my studio wall. I had never displayed my collages like this before and I loved it. Hoping for more opportunities to show my work in the future!
Vermont Studio Center - Weeks Two and Three
Writing this on my last afternoon here at the Vermont Studio Center - tomorrow I begin the trip hope with a one night stay in scenic Binghamton, New York (10 hours is just a bit too much for me to do in one day on my own.) Last night we had open studios and it was s much a wonderful experience to FINALLY see what all my fellow residents had been working on for the past three weeks. I gave out some o fly magnets an stickers, so I hope to see them out in the world one day. It was a great time and everyone is so supportive, it really is a special place that can be filled with great people.
For me I came int this residency with the goal to “make a lot of work” and I had an initial goal of 50 completed collages. Well, I doubled that: 100 collages in three weeks. I felt a bit torturous at the very end, but overall I am thrilled to have completed so many and you can see them all up on the wall in the pictures below. I feel like a snake that just ate a VERY big animal and am going to need to take some time to digest this experience and all the pieces I made - possibilities for posters, magnets, and new stickers abound.
While I am seriously looking forward to sleeping in my own bed again there is still more packing to do and few last stops to make in town and I am looking forward to one last dinner with my new artist friends, I have the feeling that when I get back to Baltimore I am going to feel like I just woke up from a three week long dream.
Vermont Studio Center - Week One
One week down, two more to go! It has been a great experience so far at the Vermont Studio Center. My fellow resident artists and writers are all very talented and supportive people, the food has been great, and the weather has actually been very mild (but that is about to change in another day or two!) Coming into this residency I set a goal of wanting to make 50 new collages, and after the first week I have already made 43, so I am well on my way to blasting past that arbitrary finish line.
It will be challenging to keep up the interest in making new work each day, as at home I tend to make artwork one day and then may set away for a few days, so doing this almost every day for several weeks will be difficult in unexpected ways. That and the fact that everything in this state seems to close up by 8pm each day!
InDesign Project #1
First InDesign practice project in the books! Think I currently like InDesign more than Illustrator, but we’ll see how long that lasts! So many options, but because the program is more focused on layout and the projects to me seem to be focused on one general area (booklets, packets, etc) it seems easier to get my mind into it as opposed to the limitless options of Illustrator. Mockup images of this project are on my Graphic Design Projects gallery.
Another Poster!
That is all!
Photoshop Posters
I’ve been delaying starting the third part of the online graphic design course for no real reason other then I have been distracted with the upcoming Vermont residency and applying to some jobs and various other little things, but lately I have been trying to make some interesting (to me) posters in Photoshop. Some of the images below are duplicates with altered text, where I couldn’t make up my mind with what paired better, but figured why not have two versions if I was happy with both?
Images have all come from Pixels.com - amazing source - with text from my own notes and cool free texture overlays that I have found from Instagram/online. I am unsure what these are doing, but making that has been very enjoyable so far.
Going to the Vermont Studio Center!
Super excited to say that a few weeks ago I was offered a spot in the February 12 - March 4th artist residency at the Vermont Studio Center! This will be my first ever artist residency experience and I can’t wait to get up there and focus on making art for three solid weeks and meeting the other writers and visual artists who will also be there during my residency session. I’ve also never been to Vermont before so I’m looking forward to seeing how beautiful the state is, scratching it off my stats-to-visit list, and getting a true New England Winter experience, if only for three weeks.
Expect lots of pictures of the experience, my work, and formal updates here and on my Instagram!
Graphic Design #6
This project was following along to make a package design fro a cookie brand. It wasn’t as difficult as some previous projects, but still very time consuming and lots to tweak and change as go. We made the logo in Illustrator first before moving on to editing the main cookie image in Photoshop, importing that back into Illustrator and then making the package up. I then imported the final product into a mock up for final presentation. Easier said then done!
Graphic Design #5
Illustrator Course continues.. There is a mock up of a set o business cards, letterhead, and mock-display that I made following along with the recording of the course. All of this seems simple enough at first but this easily took me hours to do with all the pausing of the videos, fixing things, etc.
Adventures in Graphic Design #4
First time using Illustrator since college - what cool, yet confounding program. Below are my first vector illustrations from my course. The project was to make a logo / flat illustration based around a spaceship. Like a patch worn on a flight suit. One was done “together” in the course and the other two were done on my own. LOTS of room for improvement.
Adventures In Graphic Design #3
My first two attempts at making mock book jackets are below - LOTS of parts and pieces to consider (this is quickly becoming the norm for these things!). The book design files were then uploaded into another Photoshop file that acts as the “template” or the general display setting for the design, aka the “fake room” the design is floating in.
These two examples were made entirely in Photoshop, and I believe the next book jacket design will be in Illustrator, which I have just begun in learning in the second part of the course. Cue my head getting ready to explode!
Adventures In Graphic Design #2
The next set of projects I worked on in the course were these basic YouThumb Thumbnail images - what you would see while scrolling on YouTube to try and get your attention to click and watch their video. It already a bit overwhelming of all the options you have just to make these small, seemingly unimportant parts of a YouTube VIdeo - but you can spend SO LONG on these. And these are just some very basic, ones I did with my hand practically being held!
Adventures in Graphic Design #1
Been a long time since I posted anything to this page, even though it has always been somewhere in the back of my mind. What should I post here? How can I keep myself accountable? Luckily, I think I finally have a proper use for this page after more than a year of not using it.
At the beginning of this month I left my 9-5 job and have started taking a class in graphic design. The course is already covering a wide range of topics from the nuts and bolts of graphic design theory to how to use Adobe programs (Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.) So I figured I can use this space as a place to post some of the projects, sketches, and random bits that I make from this course - from things I like a lot to things that I am embarrassed about.
This first post has some of the example projects that I have made in Photoshop over the past week either by following the course lessons or by seeing cool posts on Instagram.
To be continued.
This picture doesn’t even do the place justice. Tip of the iceberg.
Wonder Book and Video - THE Collage Maker's Dream Source
First time, long time. Thing shave been up, things have been down in 2020/2021, but I am back to say without question that Wonder Book and Video is THE best source for my collage materials and inspiration that I could have ever imagined.
I began my collage work by visiting The Book Thing in Baltimore, however as they have been mostly closed since December 2019 my collage materials supply was steadily running low throughout most of 2020, despite some quality work being done. But in August 2020 I was taken to Wonder Book’s Frederick location (did I forget to mention that they have three locations!?) These pictures do not do this place justice - it must truly be seen to be believed - and I didn’t even take any pictures of their movies and records section!
Books are so well organized, well priced (believe me that has helped after my 6+ visits), and you are guaranteed to find more then you anticipated.
Wonder Book, you are the real MVP.
Ooh Heaven is a place on Earth.
New-ish Drawings!
Well, technically drawings made in October and November 2019, but they are new to this site! Each drawing is a mixture of charcoal and pencil, made during a 5-week workshop I took at Pyramid Atlantic art center in Hyattsville, Maryland.
Collage in Quarantine
While the on-going COVID-19 crisis has stopped me from being able to pick up new collage material (in addition to doing seemingly anything except go to the grocery store and, occasionally, my day-job) I have not stopped collaging! While the process has slowed with my dwindling stock of images, these three are my recent “Quarantine Collages.” I will hopefully get to scan these pieces and get higher-quality images on this site soon, but depending on the virus situation that may take longer then I hope. So these cell-phone pics will have to suffice for now.
Also, here is the most recent look at my desk/workspace since I seemingly can not post here without a shot of that!
Printing!
Today I took some time to head to the MICA graduate lab to make some prints for myself and two close friends. Despite a few complications in setting up the master-file to print all these collages out I was very pleased with the final results and I hope my friends, or anyone who ever asks to get a print, will be as well.
That said, while I do not (at this moment) consistently offer prints from my site or social media, if you see an image or work that you would like to have printed I would be happy to add your request to my “to-print line up.” With my current work/life schedule I can accommodate making prints once a month so if you are drawn to a piece, please let me know and let’s print it!
Primary Sources
Just a snapshot of the sources I am currently using to make my collages. Really love any of the vintage Life Magazine photo books and I have lately been using photos of mountains in all of my collages, so the Reinhold/Messner book has been fantastic for helping make otherworldly, mountain-scapes. Also, as always, shoutout to my trusty Cthulhu mug giving me guidance and inspiration.
I try to get as many of these old, discarded books from The Book Thing in Baltimore on any Saturday or Sunday morning when I can squeeze in a trip (fingers crossed they reopen soon - I need new material to work with!)