Class #7 Collage with Alexandra

“Being creative is not so much the desire to do something as the listening to that which wants to be done: the dictation of the materials.”

Anni Albers

 Today we continued on working with Gelli Plates (technically this is a gelatine plate but the commercial name used is ‘gelli plate’)but in a different way from last week. Roll a color onto the gelli using any acrylics paints. Right away, stamp into the surface. If you lean on the stamp and hold it a couple of minutes it leaves a good impression. Let surface dry (you can use a hair dryer to speed up the process). Add another layer of paint to the gelli and while the paint is wet mash a piece of paper down onto the surface. Let this dry -well. You can meanwhile use another gelli so that while your paper is drying onto the surface of the first one you can keep making stuff. I find that patience is the magic word in using this process. Eventually when you peel away the paper it will LIFT OFF all the layers of paint on the gelli plate. This technique requires hours of trouble shooting and adding layer upon layer. You can get fantastic Venetian Walls effects: peelings, flaking, torn and uplifted colors, the sense of what’s on top is underneath and what’s underneath is on top. The stamps and patterns can come and go under and over the layers. Deterioration, decay, peeling, layering, exposing, surfaces built up and scraped away, etc.

You can also try using acrylic matte medium as a layer instead of paint to lift off the paint on the gelli. 
Remember to always store a gelli plate on a plastic surface as they will absorb material like newspaper.
You CAN use thin transparent papers for this process although sometimes they will rip and tear when being pulled off the gelli. You can use Bristol paper or card stock for a nice heavy durable paper for the prints too. 
Explore the gelatine plates using all kinds of paints: heavy body acrylics, Open acrylics, fluid acrylics and any old craft acrylics.

Class #5 Collage/Winter

We started with an exercise in the small sketchbooks: take a piece of your painted paper and collage it down. Look thru magazines or books to find imagery to put in. Starting with your own papers is important because you are beginning with something that belongs to you. Mass media and printed material have a power and can dominate. I like to try to find stuff that flows into what I have started. See if you can take over the mass media stuff and integrate in into your material made from scratch (painted papers, prints, trace monotypes, drawings, etc).

SHAPES IN RELATION TO EACH OTHER:
I talked about Frank Stella and his quest for figuring out shape and shapes interlocking and puzzle piecing together. Try making small thumbnail drawings: over and over again draw a rough box and draw two or three shapes dancing together. The shapes can interlock or avoid each other. They can be in conversation or mute. Make some quick collages based on these simple sketches. ( I have been told that if you did these drawings daily that they would eventually begin to reflect the different types of  dynamics in your life).
Exercise: Do a drawing of many shapes together and then take a detail of your drawing and blow up the proportions and do a collage based on this simplification. In my experience we usually make about five compositions in one piece. See if you can play with simplifying simplifying simplifying. 
When making a collage try taking a detail of it with your phone. Often I realize that I’ve gotten too complex in my composition when I do this. 

SKETCHBOOKS:
I talked a lot about the importance of keeping a collage sketchbook. Sketchbooks in general are meant to be places of exploration and ideas. Allow yourself to make collages with a glue stick while traveling or waiting. Maybe at your kitchen table. Play with different materials and be open to doodling, grabbing images and making collages that are not necessarily meant for display but rather as a place to experiment and have fun. Lately I have felt liberated by collaging on vacation and using the limited materials at hand like a hotel flier, a museum ticket or something I found along the way. Limitations can be so freeing. 

Lately I have noticed a tendency in myself to be so serious as an artist. Yet I became an artist because it was so fun! So I’m going back to having fun and I do that by having a sketchbook where ANYTHING GOES.

Class #4 Collage Winter Semester

We began with a fun exercise in making word collages: look thru print from old books or magazines. See what jumps out at you and cut the words out and collage them down as a poem. You can collage them into a simple background or just on a blank page. I am starting each class with a different small exercise as everyone transitions into our three hour plus class and gets settled. It is nice to start by doing something completely different. 

We made Trace Monotypes using oil paint and a piece of plexiglass. Put a very small amount of oil paint onto the plexi, maybe half an inch. Roll out using a brayer. You can mix many different colors using the oil paints. Very faint pastel colors do not work as well. You want to roll out a very thin layer of paint onto the plexi. Then put a piece of paper facedown onto the plexi. 

There are different techniques at this point to do:
1)Take a ruler and a pencil and carefully draw grids onto your paper. I say carefully because if you lean your hand onto the paper it is going to pick up the color. Peel the paper off the plexi and look at your print.
2)Use rulers and stencils to make interesting shapes with your pencil. Peel paper away to reveal your print.
3)Take a picture of say, a bird. Put a clean piece of paper onto your plexi with the oil paint rolled onto it. Take the picture of the bird and place over your paper and then take a ball point pen and trace over the image of the bird, bearing down on the pen. This will give you a print of the bird onto your blank paper. This is fun for people afraid of direct drawing! Remember that it will print backwards. 

Later we collaged with these trace monotypes. They can be cut up and collaged into pieces in progress. Or the grids can be collaged down on a substrate and then you can start collaging into the grids. Trace monotypes using oils have a nice rich color. They can be a great additive for collages in progress. 
We used different kinds of papers to make the monotypes:
White or brown deli papers - they are nice and transparent and great for collages.
Any rice papers are great. 
Basically any paper will work. 
Try some lovely Reeves printmaking paper too.

Some artists to check out:
Bice Lazzari at the Phillips Collection
Claudia Vasells (look at what she does with space!)
Dan Tirels: watch his YouTube tutorials on monotypes, they are wonderful.
Two Bauhaus shows in the area: The Fogg at Harvard and the MFA.
Also recommended: Graciela Iturbide photography show at the MFA (If you cannot get out to see this you can still watch an interview with her on the MFA website - its excellent and I think you will enjoy seeing a strong sensitive wonderful person talk about her work with such depth and sincerity).

Collage Class January 31 & February 1

We continue to learn about Anni Albers, the brilliant fiber artist. I am encouraging people to make quick collages in the little notebooks using whites while everyone arrives and gets settled. I am also encouraging each of you to make small collages at home. Personally I am attempting to do a small piece daily for the month of February. I like to do them in a small notebook. 

We used Cold Wax this week. I have two similar kinds, one made by Gamblin and the other Jacquard. Cold wax is a combination of bees wax, paraffin wax, damar resin and mineral spirits. In encaustic the wax is heated. The way we were using the wax, the wax is cold, but soft and pliable like softened butter. Always use either barrier cream on the hands or gloves. We mixed about one tablespoon of wax on a plexiglass sheet with small dabs of oil paints using a narrow plastic scraper. We played with many techniques:
Using less paint for a more transparent wax color or more paint for a richer deeper hue.

Covering an area of paper with the colored wax - in thin layers, either using a scraper of a brayer (roller). These solids will make great collage material when dry.
Making paper stencils and templates and using the wax with them.
Using a brayer on the plexi and then doing ‘trace monotypes’ by laying paper over the plexi and drawing on the reverse side: this makes a print.
We introduced white into the colors to make greys and offwhites.
Why cold wax? Because mixed with oil paints (Windsor and Newton) the color is rich and wonderful. I also notice a texture that’s different. It feels soft, sometimes furry (especially when on rice papers). Next week we will start collaging with these papers and see what happens. We will also learn about the sculptor Barbara Hepworth. And watch a short film about Josef Albers.

Spring Thursday Class #3

Dear Marsha, 

Class#3: Mainly we played with Gesso, a white acrylic paint with ground chalk in it. I use Artist Grade Utrecht Gesso. It is nice and thick. We designed geometric stamps using Creativity Foam (available at places like Michaels and ACMoore) on cardboard. A great way to make a fast homemade stamp. I had everyone design a couple of stamps. Then brush Gesso onto the stamps and stamp into painted papers and/or directly into the collages. When the Gesso stamps are dry add a wash of paint (I also call this a 'glaze')  for a nice pop. This is a nice way to add grid-like structure back into the collages.

Constructing collages can be a balancing act between adding structure and tearing down structure. I like to show examples of how Robert Motherwell and Richard Diebenkorn constructed collages. The chaos and the control, the loudness and the calm. I compare making a collage to building a house: start with the foundation (space, color, light, texture, atmosphere). Start building the scaffolding (grid elements, forms and shapes like squares, images, horizon lines and verticals). Finish work: plastering and painting, details (drips and splatters, decorative stamps, painting). It's kind of ridiculous trying to describe art-making with so many words. Better to be in a room doing it. Mainly collage-making requires hours of trying and redoing and getting rid of and tearing off and adding back in. Put on some music and mix up some paints and paint back into the pieces (a great way to simplify a too-busy collage) and just go at it and have fun. Many of my students get together to make collages because it feels good having company and while it is fun to make art it is also hard, so to be together bolsters us up.