Golden Bear Collage

Here is another fabric collage I just finished yesterday. It's for my friend, Steve Hilferty (also bass player in Martian Horses.) A big thanks goes out to him for commissioning this piece, depicting a Golden Bear. This proud (but unfortunately extinct) animal is UC Berkeley's mascot and is on the California state flag.

The material that makes up the lighter parts of the bear is a shiny gold sari fabric, and the green background is a piece of fabric that Andy got me from India. So, I guess there's more of an Indian spirit in this one than I realized.

This collage is also a lot bigger than those I'm doing for my book. This is 24" x 48" whereas the others are 12" x 24". It's a lot more difficult to work on a larger scale, but I do love how it opens up the palette to include busier textile designs.

Quail Collage

I finished the first collage for my book this weekend. Yipee!



Lessons learned from this first piece:

- make sure the colors of the subject have the highest contrast with the background
- use thread colors that are different but analagous to the fabric colors
- get out of the house and talk to people during the day, or you'll drive Andy crazy!

Here is the work that I did for this collage:

the study

the sculpture

the drawing

the vector graphic

As always, any feedback or suggestions are welcome. Stay tuned for pictures of the next animal!

animal books!

I'm working on a book of animal portraits and poetry called, Animals on Land. It will be the first in a trilogy of animal books:

Animals on Land
Animals under Water
Animals in Flight

You can download a short excerpt of the book here.

To view the portraits that I've completed so far, please click on the thumbnails below:

For each animal I have done a...

study of the animal

sculpture from the study

drawing of the sculpture

vector graphic of the drawing

and finally... a fabric collage

Thoughts behind the process:

I want my work to become something I could never imagine on my own. I want to give up my control over it, so that imperfections and variables can come in and abstract it. I've realized that each time I pull a subject in and out of a different physical space (whether 3D, 2D, or digital) it is translated in a way that I wouldn't expect. It loses realistic qualities and gains other qualities that might make you stop and look a little closer.

I'm officially a full-time artist

Hoorah!

First things first — a new blog so I can share my current work with you. I hope you enjoy!