Northwest Collage Society Affiliate of The National Collage Society Volume 22 • Issue 3 www.nwcollagesociety.org February 2011 President’s MessaGe General MeetinG elcome back from the Holidays. I hope they were Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2011 - 10:30am enjoyable for you. Here we are in a new year, and SHORELINE CENTER, 18560 1st Ave. NE, Shoreline the time seems already going too fast. WI have a question for you to ponder during the second month refreshMents of this new year: “Is artistic ability a gift?” Not according to the author of Mindset, Carol Dweck. Cam Elder, Nan Harty, Pat Doran Among the many topics in her book, she explores how some people don’t have “drawing skills”, but they do have “seeing CollaGe drawinG skills”. She states people have “…the ability to perceive edges, space, visual relationships, lights and shadows and the whole”. February Donor: Alice Shoemaker She noted that “…some people pick up these skills in the natural course of their lives, whereas others have to work to learn them february ProGraM and put them together.” Ms. Dweck says we can see the results of developing “seeing Collage Demonstrations skills” in the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. She and Workshop states: “Just because some people can do something with little or no training, it doesn’t mean that others can’t do it (and some- Our Program this month is an opportunity times do it better) with training.” to watch, ask, and work in new ways or old but She addresses the premise of how someone like Jackson Pol- with perhaps different eyes. There will be four lock achieved success, when he “had little native talent for art … stations with Northwest Collage Society members, as his early paintings showed.” Yet, this man “became one of the Suzanne Fant, Meg Gray, Leslie Raphael and greatest American painters of the twentieth century and revo- Colette Laico presenting demonstrations on their lutionized modern art.” Stepping up to his dream of being an approach to collage. Join our fellow members in a artist, he devoted all his waking hours to become unique with group workshop. Bring your own 4x6 board or his style. Dweck continues to elaborate how Pollock was able to cardstock, collage paper and glue to use yourself “draw from his unconscious mind and convey a huge range of feelings.” and share with others as we all stretch our As I read her book, I remembered how I felt about the early horizons. paintings by Paul Horiuchi. Continued on page 3… He, too, was not very proficient, nor an exciting painter. But when he chose to concentrate on his collages, the man was a genius. As Winston Churchill said: “Continuous effort, not strength or intelligence, is the key to unlocking potential.” April Program I hope we all can think about our own personal art challeng- April 19, Tuesday: Deborah F. Lawrence, es when we create. Try to remember to follow your intuition MFA, uses satirical collage as a political and and just keep collaging. psychological tool. www.deedeeworks.com ~ Suzy June Program June 21, Tuesday: Eva Isaksen, printmaker and “Progress results from persistence with purpose.” collage artist. www.evaisaksen.com ~ Frank Tyger 2 Northwest Collage Society MeetinG hiGhliGhts noveMber Presentation General MEETING November 13, 2010 Suzy Kueckelhan, President: Welcomed 36 members and guests. Pat Doran, Membership: Members, please please make sure your one page resumé/bio for our Member’s Book is up- to-date. Bring updated page to meeting or mail to address below. nAre you represented on our website? Send your digital image to editor. Art will be presented on website under Members Art with name, title and email (or website). Gail Larson, Regional Rep: The 2011 Spring Member’s Show is in March at the Phinney Center Gallery, Seattle. Our Fall Show is at Parklane Gallery, Kirkland. We will again have a collage room at the Shoreline Arts Festival this June. The National Collage Society Postcard Show for 2012 will be held at the Bellevue Arts Museum. Volunteers: The NWCS can always use volunteers. We need people to help with Rita Gesinger hanging shows, receptions, newsletter, Art is risky - just begin website and more. Please contact Suzy Kueckelhan at [email protected] or With contagious enthusiasm Rita talked about how her art emerged 206-842-3395 for more information. and reemerged. She spoke of the artist block she endured and but how it also opened the door to paper mosaics. To work through her artist block she painted sheets upon sheets of watercolor paper. On some she northwest CollaGe soCiety used marks with a sumi brush and felt like she was writing letters to “our ancestors.” One day she started cutting up these sheets of paper and glued Information for the NWCS Newsletter the small squares down. She found her visual voice again. For her mosa- may be submitted to the editor. Deadline for submissions are the dates ics she uses a base of gesso on Ampersand cradle board or 7-ply birch of board meetings. (See backcover.) plywood, adhering her watercolor paper tiles with Elmer’s glue. To finish she uses a marine varnish with UV protection and gives the mosaics 3 to Newsletter Editor: 4 coats. Gina Hanzsek, 425-397-9103 Most of Rita’s pieces express movement. Movement probably inspired [email protected] her silk paintings, too. She showed us a few examples. Rita mounts her Mail: 9326 44th Pl SE silk banners to freezer paper using push pins to make it taught. Using Snohomish, WA 98290-9213 silk dye and sharpy pens, she gives visual life to the banners of silk. Read www.nwcollagesociety.org more about Rita at www.ritagesinger.com Northwest Collage Society 3 februar y ProGraM book review February Workshop Program Inside the Painters Studio Our demonstration presenters for February are: As you know by now, I love books. At our last Suzan Fant board meeting I brought “… exploration of possibilities. I appropriate. I along a newly make large what is small, small what is large. My focus purchased book is always on color and pattern, on light and movement. to share. The … countless opportunities to see what was previously title is Inside the hidden in often quite unexpected ways. …elements Painters Studio are included which were formerly parts of work seen by the author/painter Joe Fig. My as flawed as “whole” pieces; reincarnated by being cut, excitement led to a request for a torn, layered, and manipulated into new images and book review. So, here goes. forms.” ~ Suzan Fant The author interviews 25 con- temporary artists from those very well known to those on “…the cusp Colette Laico of renown.” The artists all live in and “The initial experiments in around New York City. He asked papermaking led to the most exciting and each artist the same 25 questions fulfilling discoveries in my work as an about their day to day creative life. artist.” Collage is a natural extension of Some of the questions were: this papermaking. • How long have you been in this studio? ~ Colette Laico • How do you come up with titles? • Do you work on one project at a time or several? Leslie Raphael • What advice would you give a young artist that is just starting “The process of defining patterns in out? nature. The fractal iterated movement of simple combinations of colors and shapes. At the end of each interview, To mirror the fluid geography of transitory you get to see how the artists have elements in a space that captures the created a special place to work, and elusive quality of constant change.” how they work within that space. This book has inspired me to go ~ Leslie Raphael to my studio and redesign a more workable space. Now, if I could just add on 300 square feet, I might get Meg Gray really excited! ~ Suzy Kueckelhan “Fractured days, fractured lives, fractured dreams all create havoc; but if one slows down to see the bits and pieces Let me tell you the secret that continue on, a new image that has led me to my goal. can be formed.” My strength lies solely in ~ Meg Gray my tenacity. ~ Louis Pasteur February 2011 4 Northwest Collage Society workshoPs Call to artists HANDS-ON DEMOS at Daniel Smith’s NCS Wish You Were Here Postcard Show by Wendy Lee Lynds Postmark deadline is March 28th. Show will be displayed at the “Stuck On You”: Adhesiveless Collage Downtown Gallery, School of Art, Kent State University, Kent, OH from April (2) separate sessions 8 to May 14, 2011. www.nationalcollage.com/entry_forms/pcform.html Monday, April 18th, 10-12 noon Monday, April 25th, 10-12 noon Artists’ Garage Sale Juicy Journal Pages June 18, 2011, 9:00am-3:00pm, Schack Art Center & Hoyt Ave Instructor Wendy Lee Lynds March 19-20. Fee: $255 Fresh Paint: Festival of Artists at Work www.pacificnorthwestartschool.com August 20 – 21, 2011, 10:00am-5:00pm, Port of Everett Marina Explore the newest rage: art journaling! More than just painting, Parklane Gallery: Local Color Juried Art Exhibition collage and writing, come spend two Parklane Gallery welcomes all 2D local artists to enter our upcoming days discovering your inner artist. “Local Color” Juried Art Exhibition, held March 8th through April 3rd. All art We will cover tools, techniques and which has a Kirkland theme or motif will be considered, either abstract or exercises to collage, doodle and write representational. Information and online entry/prospectus can be found at: your way through a journal – come www.parklanegallery.com/localcolor. Deadline: February 21.