3 Opportunities to See my Artwork!

Depending on where you live, you may have a chance to see my artwork at a show near you in February!

See my art at SheVaCon, Hotel Roanoke, Roanoke, VA

SheVaCon, Feb. 8-10, 2013
The first opportunity comes the second weekend of February, in Roanoke, VA.  Several pieces of my fantasy artwork will be on display at the SheVaCon Art Show. The show runs Friday through Sunday, February 8-10 at the historic Hotel Roanoke.

Robin W. Bailey Book-Signing Feb. 15, 2013
Join Robin W. Bailey, Grace Townley, and me for an art show and book-signing at Prospero's Books in Kansas City (the 3600 Broadway #107, KC, MO location) on February 15 at 6:00 p.m.

Robin W. Bailey, author

Robin W. Bailey is a former president of Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA), one of the founders of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame (see another post about it on the KaCSFFS Blog), and is the author of numerous books, e-books, short stories, and poems.

In addition to his "official" website, which hasn't been updated in a while, he has an "unofficial" website, which also hasn't been updated for a while. I suspect that is because he's been too busy writing! 

I especially want to thank Robin for the idea of turning his book-signing into an event that includes a chance to show artwork, as well!

Grace Townley's Inspired by a Star Formation

Grace Townley is an accomplished oil painter whose passion is outer space. Her "Interstellar Weather" portfolio gives a representative sample of her work, which ranges from very large paintings to a wide variety of affordably-priced prints.

The image at right is one of my favorite examples of Grace's work. I first encountered Grace at the Art Westport show in September 2012, and she joined a group of us in December for the Holiday Visual Feast.

Since a good bit of my fantasy artwork probably won't be back from SheVaCon by then, I'll be showing a mixture of fantasy, nature, and architectural themes, including pieces from my two new multiple-original editions.

Arti Gras Gala and Annual Juried Art Show, Feb. 22-24, 2013
I am delighted to announce that for a second year a piece of my paper sculpture has been accepted into the Arti Gras Annual Juried Art Show, sponsored by the Leawood Foundation of Leawood, KS.

The big event of that weekend is the Arti Gras Gala on Friday, February 22, at the Leawood Community Center in the lower level under City Hall (4800 Town Center Drive, Leawood, KS). Gala 6-8:30 p.m. 2/22.

Rose Dance was accepted into Arti Gras 2013!

This is a delightful, Mardi Gras-themed reception, to open the show and announce the recipients of several cash prizes. Most of the artists will be there (including me!), and if it's anything like last year the food and drink will be delicious. It's a fundraiser for the Foundation, so there is an admission fee.

If you can't make the Gala, the show remains open to the public for free viewing from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. that Saturday and Sunday, February 23-24.  

Please note that the address for the Feb. 15 book signing/art show location has been updated from the original post.

IMAGE CREDITS: Many thanks to SheVaCon and the Hotel Roanoke for the photo of the hotel.  I would like to thank Robin W. Bailey, both for the use of his profile photo from his official website, and also again for inviting me to show artwork at his book-signing!  Thank you, Grace Townley, for the use of the Star Formation image.  I want to extend many thanks to the Leawood Foundation, the Arti Gras show, and juror James Martin for accepting my work into this year's show, and for making their logo available for use.  The image of Rose Dance is my own. It may be re-posted online, as long as the image is not altered, and credit is given to me as the artist, with a link back. Otherwise, all rights are reserved.

Life Catches Up, with a Vengeance!

I really must apologize to anyone who has grown tired of checking back for updates . . . we've had several simultaneous family crises (starting at Thanksgiving, and continuing through now).

In my diminished time leftover from dealing with them, I have made notes on about half-a-dozen posts I'd like to write, but spent more of it making art than writing about it.

As soon as possible, I'll write a post about creating Rose Dance.

The Nine-Part Herbal Fantasy is still in the works, but likely to become a diptych.

Coming Through! is a new multiple original that debuted at the Holiday Visual Feast.

That's a sample. I've also seen some galleries I'd like to write about, and there are other developments, as well.

Stay tuned. This family stuff can't go on forever!

The View from Above

I'm fascinated with the complex clouds I can see from a plane. 

I’ll fight you for the window seat.

For me, it’s about the only thrill left in air travel. Day or night, there’s often something to see from a new perspective, and it’s way more interesting than most in-flight movies (nighttime travel over thick cloud cover is a shameful waste of an opportunity, in my opinion).

Sometimes Nature paints with bold colors.

I love to look down at the patterns on the earth in clear weather: on the intricate patterns of landforms by day or the light-spangled darkness at night.

Even fairly thick clouds can offer amazing vistas of layers, canyons, or majestic peaks, and one of the most breathtaking spectacles I’ve ever seen was a nighttime electrical storm, as our plane skirted its edges.

Whenever I travel by air, my camera is always near at hand—and though it often isn’t equipped to capture some of the “best stuff,” I have sometimes managed to capture interesting images I can take back to my studio.

I couldn't resist this image, taken near Salt Lake City, UT.

Even those that don't make the best "photographer's choice" kind of image can offer me a wealth of subject matter. I'm always looking for ways to render them into paper sculpture in new and interesting ways. Perhaps I'll have pieces to show sometime soon!

PHOTO CREDITS: I took all the photos in this post, either on the outward-bound leg of a journey from Kansas City to San Francisco on July 13, 2011, or on the return trip July 18, 2011. These photos may be used under a Creative Commons license as long as they are not altered, and include an attribution to me and this blog.

A Meeting of Minds . . . and Media

Karin L. Frank's chapbook, A Meeting of Minds,
is full of beautiful, intellectual poetry . . . and
also my artwork!

Last winter I had a pleasant opportunity to create a series of ink drawings to illustrate a poetry chapbook by a friend of mine, Karin L. Frank.

My first thought, when my friend approached me, was, “a poetry chapbook? Seriously?”

Ah, but then I read the poems.

Several had already been published in other—as in, “mainstream”—print media, such as the Kansas City Star or Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction. 

I’d already known that my friend wrote interesting science fiction (prose), but the marriage of sophisticated science concepts with the poetry art form produced something rich and extraordinary indeed.

Karin titled her chapbook A Meeting of Minds: Poems from the Two Cultures, a reference to C. P. Snow’s concept of the sciences and the humanities as being two different “cultures” in “the intellectual life of the whole of Western Society.”

My holistic view of the world sees the two as integrally linked as the sides of a coin—not a strange thought to science fiction readers and writers. But the rest of Western society appears to see more of a chasm between the two.

If a chasm exists, however, these poems bridge it to elegant, often humorous satisfaction. Poetry is too seldom appreciated, these days, unless it is in the form of song lyrics. I hope some of my readers will find it worthwhile to click the Amazon link or go to Wolfweyr and open Karin’s rich vision for themselves.

Meanwhile, she’s authorized me to offer a sample:

Ecological Niche

She finds her level

on a suitable tree

where sunlight strikes,

nestles at the spot

where grubs grow plump

for baby birds,

nurtures and grooms

until wings feather out

and flocks of fledglings depart.

She remains and ripens.

Matured, plumage

reverted to scales,

she slithers down the tree,

and returns to earth.

Topological Twist

A torus and a cup

are alike to a topologist

but it’s messy

when I try to

Drink tea

from the doughnut

I’m dunking in it.

IMAGE CREDITS: Cover design is by Jan S. Gephardt, © 2012 by Honey Bee Publishing, and used with permission. Both interior illustrations are © 2012 by Jan S. Gephardt.

POETRY CREDITS: “Ecological Niche” and “Topological Twist” are © 2012 by Karin L. Frank, all rights reserved, and are reproduced here with the author’s permission. Please contact Honey Bee Publishing, P.O. Box 404, Odessa, MO 64076, for further information.

A Meeting of Minds: Poems from the Two Cultures is available from Amazon or directly from Honey Bee Publishing, via Karin's blog Wolfweyr.

Shadow Focal Length

I don’t remember consciously noticing that shadows have what you might call a “focal length,” until a few years ago.

This 18th-century Epergne by Thomas Pitts I is in the
Folgers Collection at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

I was enjoying a long, detailed look at the intricate baskets and trays of the amazing 18^th-century Thomas Pitts I Epergne at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, when I became fascinated by its shadows.

Some of the shadows, cast by lower parts (closer to the surface on which it stood), were dark, sharp-edged shapes. These shadows clearly showed the multitude of intricate openings (they appear to have been blurred and softened in the official photo published online).

The taller parts, however, cast paler, fuzzier shadows. I never realized shadows had depth of field, I thought. The piece is a beautiful and amazing tour de force in its own right, but that day I was even more entranced by the shadows.

Leaves from different levels on the tree cast sharper or
blurrier shadows depending on their distance from the street.

I’ve since had an opportunity to notice this effect in other places, most notably in the shadows of trees in my neighborhood when I walk my dogs.

It’s been so hot lately that I’ve taken to walking after dark, when it’s cooler. The streetlights on the leaves create a very similar effect to the one I remember observing at the Nelson-Atkins, and I managed to get some photos.

PHOTO CREDITS: The image of the Thomas Pitts I Epergne is courtesy of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO. The photo of the leaf shadows is by Jan S. Gephardt, taken in June 2012 in Westwood, KS, and may be distributed online under a Creative Commons license, providing it is not altered and credit (preferably with a link back) is given. 

Pieces of Art

Here's a Glimpse of Two Projects-in-Progress
I have been exploring new ways to make paper sculpture this year. I am coming up with some things that look cool to me . . . but so far I'm having difficulty completing a full composition. Here are the pieces I've made:


"Black-Headed Heron"
While doing research for a piece I am making for a private client, I discovered these wonderful, utterly gorgeous birds!

I had a lot of fun making this Black-headed Heron! But how to handle his background?

Black-headed Herons are indigenous to Africa, and live alongside hippos, alligators, anhingas, and many other species that inhabit riverbank habitats. I found some excellent resource photos on the Internet, and from them I developed a prototype drawing from which I could create "pattern pieces" for this assemblage.

This heron is made up of about 18-20 different pieces of paper. I think he turned out looking pretty decent, but all of the backgrounds I've tried to make so far look--pardon the expression--crappy.

"Horsefeathers"
Yeah, yeah, it's not very original, but it'll do for a working title.

This one originated with the wing. You might note the similarity to the Heron's wing, above. I used the same pattern, then added another row of feathers, to make it look more in proportion to the horse.

I was thinking about the heavy hair on some horses' feet, also called "feathers," and my fantasy artist side just couldn't resist playing with the obvious next thought.

So far, none of my backgrounds "work" for him, any better than the would-be backgrounds for my Heron.

Unfortunately, all of my attempts to give this guy a background that "works" for him also have been epic fails. 

The horse, by the way, is a somewhat simpler piece than the heron, though created via the same basic approach. There are only about 16 pieces to him.

The Reality-to-Unreality Balance
It is proving very difficult to come up with a background that can be executed with exactly the same balance of realism-to-unrealism as that of the "central figure." If the balance is off, the composition has no unity, and the whole illusion falls apart.

Part of the time I think the work I've done possibly could stand on its own as "complete," with just a solid-color, neutral background. Part of the time I don't think that would be enough.

Suggestions, anyone?

IMAGE CREDITS: Both images are photos I took of my own artwork. Both may be used on blog posts as long as they are not altered, and full credit with a link back to this post are given. Otherwise, all rights are reserved by Jan Sherrell Gephardt, (c) 2012.

August Art Night

I was ably assisted by my daughter Signy (R) and many others.

August Art Night came together very quickly. Sometimes things don't have to be protracted ordeals!

This quickly-assembled but quite successful little show was a display of work by local and regional artists, sponsored August 13, 2011 by the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society (KaCSFFS).

Five artists graciously agreed to join me on short notice for the display at The Writers Place in Kansas City. Two (Oklahoma City jeweler/author Bev Hale, and former Kansas Citian Lucy A. Synk) could not be there in person, so I set up their displays and made sales for them.

Jewelry tables were by the door: Bev Hale (L) and Signy Gephardt (R).

Besides me, the other local artists in the display were Allison Stein and Rachael Mayo, who displayed work on art show panels; and Signy Gephardt, who filled a jewelry table.

L-R, here is the work of Allison Stein, Jan Sherrell Gephardt, Lucy A. Synk, and Rachael Mayo.

If you read this blog regularly you already know quite a lot about my artwork, but I'd like to spotlight the other artists whose work made this show such fun to look at and such a success. And by success, I mean every single exhibitor sold at least one piece, even though we didn't have more than 25-30 people at the meeting where the display was held. Thanks, KaCSFFS, for supporting this show!

Hale's Avatar 3

Our two jewelers were Bev Hale and Signy Gephardt.

Bev makes pins, earrings, pendants, hair spikes, snoods, bracelets/bracers, hatbands, and medals with a Steampunk look and feel. She also includes a strong theme of time travel in her "Otherwhere" and "Otherwhen" series. As I understand it, these pieces include an image of another place and/or time, to which the wearer can "escape" if needed. Her 3-D work coordinates with her writing, much of which has been published by Yard Dog Press.

Three sets of wire-wrapped Swirl earrings (L) by Signy Gephardt, and her Swirls of Time pin (R).

Signy has been a master of wire wraps for some time, but recently has branched out into Steampunk, as well. She studied jewelry-making with Chuck Crawford at Shawnee Mission East High School, and several artisans at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. She normally uses sterling silver, copper, or occasionally brass, along with lampwork glass, crystal, or semi-precious stones. In her recent Steampunk work she has used gears, charms, and watch-parts.

Stein's Bad Boys gives a glimpse of her humor.

Allison Stein describes herself as "an artist and author with a dark Southern streak, in whom random cuteness runs very deep." I would strongly recommend you take some time looking through her website for a more full idea of her oeuvre and many talents--but the random cuteness was prominently on display for August Art Night.

Adept in several styles, Stein's most accessible artwork probably is her collection of watercolors and prints (available via Etsy) in which a breezy cartoon style and wicked sense of humor give her fantasy images considerable appeal.

For August Art Night, I also owe Allison an especially big thank-you for sharing her nifty little folding tables with Rachael Mayo and Lucy A. Synk.

Mayo's Jazzdragon incorporates many favorite themes.

I've been a fan of Rachael Mayo's for quite some time, and it seems to me that she just keeps getting better and more inventive.

Her bold designs, intricate detail, and command of color and pattern focus mainly on dragons, but she's not shy about tackling other challenging fantasy beasts; for example, I own a Hydra of hers that's really lovely (in a snakey sort of way).

The artwork she brought to August Art Night reflected a new trend in her work: going 3-D. She isn't making paper sculpture of the sort I do, but rather adding richness and fascinating detail by layering her images and adding jewels, trim, and other elements.

Synk's Oriental Delight was one of a series of fantasy still-lifes.

Lucy A. Synk's work once was well-known throughout the world of sf convention art shows, though she shows her work in them less often now. A gifted painter who also holds a BFA in photography, Lucy has always supported herself via her artwork. When I first met her, she was painting mainly in oils, and had just left Hallmark Cards to begin a successful decade as a freelancer creating originals, prints, and book covers. She lived in Kansas City during that time.

In the 1990s she moved into painting murals (in acrylics, with an airbrush--a total change for her, but she made it look easy), for natural history museum displays. Most recently, she has begun to explore the world of computer animation. She currently lives in Champaign, IL.

Before I close, I'd also like to acknowledge Diana J. Bailey, Director/President of KaCSFFS, who first had the idea to sponsor an art display at the meeting; Cindy Norton, who volunteered her truck to haul art show panels, lights, etc. to the meeting; and Tracy Majkol, who hauled art show panels in and out of The Writers Place, took pictures (and allowed me to post them!), and also bought some of the artwork!

PHOTO CREDITS:
Many, many thanks to Tracy Majkol, for the photo of Signy and me, as well as the two images of the display, and Signy's Swirls of Time pin, which is now in his private collection. He gave me permission to post them on blogs with acknowledgement (and there it is, Tracy! Thanks again!) 
The photo of Signy's series of Swirls earrings was taken by Ty Gephardt, and is used with his permission.
Allison Stein, Bev Hale, Rachael Mayo, and Lucy A. Synk each provided the images of their artwork that I used with their short biographical sketches. Many thanks to all of them!

Found Treasure!

Discovering Meiji-era Japanese Cloisonne

Greg's prize "lives" in his crystal cabinet.

During my recent visit to San Francisco, I met an enthusiastic collector of beautiful and interesting things, named Greg.

A true collector-personality, he takes pride in learning as much as he can about the items he finds in flea markets, antique stores, or even in the neighborhood trash (our first conversation was about wooden knitting needles he had found discarded).

The pride of his collection is what looks at first like a small brownish jar with a lid, which he normally keeps in a glass case with his cut crystal.

It doesn't really look like much, from a distance.  Look at it closely in good light, however, and you'll discover it is a jewel.

Greg believes it is a piece of Meiji-era Japanese cloisonne (sorry this blog interface won't let me put in the accent mark). He thinks it may be the work of Namikawa Yasuyuki, a samurai-turned-artisan who worked in Kyoto with a German chemist, Gottfried Von Wagner (or Wagener), to create some amazing innovations.

The lid is covered with tiny, incredibly detailed designs.

Maddeningly, there are a few differences from Yasuyuki's most frequent approaches (the finial on this lid is enameled, but most of the Yasuyuki work displayed online has a metal finial, for instance), and the piece is not signed. The craftsmanship and many details, however, seem to echo the confirmed Yasuyuki works. No matter who made it, the piece is stunning.

Here's a look at what's inside.

I gave my macro lens quite a workout, photographing it--with Greg's permission, of course! If anyone reading this post can help identify it, please contact me!

The shoulders of the jar are intricately detailed.

The larger panels on the lower part of the jar portray the traditional images of the "Dragon and Phoenix." There are two dragons, and two phoenixes, with intricate designs between them. The next three photos show details of these areas.

 

 

Here's one of the dragons.

Here's one of the phoenixes. Can you believe this detail?

Here is a look at the foliate design between phoenix and dragon.

Some expert-verified Namikawa Yasuyuki pieces: 

I found these online. A web search on "Meiji Cloisonne" yields a rich trove of utterly wonderful pieces. If you have time, I urge you to go "web surfing," and see for yourself!

Three lidded vases, 1880-1890, from the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Two lidded jars, from the Ginkgo Telegraph website.

Below are two images from the "I.D. Cloisonne" website (on that site you must scroll down, for the Yasuyuki pieces):

The dotted border and other details are similar to Greg's jar.

Full-length view of the piece in the detail above. It is dated 1890-1910.

The piece above shows a distinctive black color that Yasuyuki and Von Wagner perfected. 

According to the Victoria and Albert Museum's site, Yasuyuki was appointed Imperial Craftsman to the court of the Emperor Meiji in 1896. Also according to this site, his early work shows more traditional designs and stylized geometric or botanical motifs, but the later work became much more pictorial. This makes me think that if Greg's jar really is a Yasuyuki, it dates from earlier in his career.

PHOTO CREDITS:

     The photos of Greg's jar at the start of this post were all taken by me, with my Canon PowerShot SX110 IS on a macro setting. They are copyright 2011 by Jan Sherrell Gephardt, and are available under a Creative Commons license that allows use with credit given.  Greg's jar was photographed, and the photos were posted on this blog, with his knowledge and gracious permission.

     As noted in their captions, the three lidded vases are from the Victoria and Albert Museum, the two lidded jars are from the Ginkgo Telegraph site, and the two views of the black vase are from the I.D. Cloisonne site.

Examining "Patterns in Turquoise"

Patterns in Turquoise is a May 2011 artwork.  

I first showed this piece, Patterns in Turquoise, in late May 2011 at the ConQuesT 42 Art Show.  It was completed earlier that month, and is another in my "Next Generation" series of Snowflake Dragons.

I had scanned the page of my "Original Series" Snowflake Dragon body shapes, and manipulated the file in Photoshop to change the colors, adjust shapes, etc.

The second generation, many in tertiary colors such as this blue-green, was printed on archival-quality 20-lb. Southworth business paper, using fade-resistant Hewlett-Packard inks. I then cut them out and creased, molded, folded and glued each by hand to create the tiny, stylized 3-D dragon forms.

In Patterns in Turquoise I continued to explore the textural possibilities of paper weaving in the background layers, this time adding fringed paper and using artist-quality Prismacolor pencils to add depth, texture, and richer variety to the background. The colored papers used for the background are from an acid-free Canson series.

Archival Southworth worked well for the pure-white snowflake shapes, which I stacked three-dimensionally with one in the middle that was cut from translucent (acid-free) tracing paper by Canson.

IMAGE CREDIT: The artwork shown is my own original work, photographed by me, and is copyright 2011 by Jan Sherrell Gephardt.  It is available for re-posting under a limited Creative Commons license that allows use with credit given, but no alteration.

A Quick Peek at "Spring Swirls"

Spring Swirls was first shown to the public at ConQuesT 42.

I am currently on vacation.  The best way to spend one's vacation is NOT meeting all the usual deadlines and doing all the usual work--no matter how much I like blogging.

But I thought you might enjoy a look at a new piece of my artwork. This is Spring Swirls. It is one of the first "Next Gen" Snowflake Dragons to be completed.

It has only been exhibited in public once, at ConQuesT 42 at the end of May.  It is still available for sale. Each Snowflake Dragon is a unique original.

"Next Gen" Snowflake Dragons are developed from the original drawings used for "The Original Series" of Snowflake Dragons, scanned into the computer and adjusted in Photoshop. With these I changed some of the dragons' shapes, and radically altered many of the colors to give a whole new range of tertiary hues and tints.

IMAGE CREDIT: The artwork is my original work, photographed by me, and is copyright 2011 by Jan Sherrell Gephardt. It is available under a limited Creative Commons license that allows use with credit given, but not alteration.

Mail Piece Parts

This "Summer Sky" photo I took in
2010 is one of many I've collected
for Summer Mail Piece resource pix.

I am deep in the middle of producing the Summer Mail Piece right now. It is third in a series of multiple original editions I am creating in collaboration with the United States Postal Service and my subscribers.

As the project has progressed, it has taught me many things. For instance, developing a two-sided, multi-panel, 3-D object as a multiple original is a more complex project than I first anticipated!

At the start I thought 2-3 weeks would be enough development time.  By now I know it's closer to 7 weeks.  The Summer Mail Piece production is stretched over an even longer period, because its development was interrupted by my duties as ConQuesT Art Show Director.

A pattern of features that remain consistent from edition to edition also has emerged. At this mid-point in the project, I thought it might be interesting to examine what kinds of "Mail Piece parts" have developed.

This tri-fold template
by Ricardo Giorgio Botta
illustrates the design basis
for each edition.

Three-Panel Self-Mailer Format
My years as a direct marketing graphic designer made the self-mailer format an easy choice. I have always enjoyed the three-dimensionality of brochures, which offer a series of unfolding views.

Especially as the idea of "collaborating" with the USPS developed, I knew the piece itself had to be exposed to Postal Service markings: postmarks, barcodes, postage stamps, and any other spontaneous "texturing" that might occur.

Unfortunately, I'm told one of the Spring Mail Pieces got "textured" pretty thoroughly in transit.  I have promised subscribers they will receive "reference restrikes" of any pieces that are too badly mangled by my governmental collaborator.

These end panels, representing the New Year Mail Piece and
the Spring Mail Piece, have appeared in my blog posts before.

Quotations
One of my earliest decisions was to find interesting quotations and short poetry about the season featured in the edition, and incorporate illustrations and decorations suggested by them, along with the words in my designs.

As regular readers of this blog also know, I frequently have used the stand-alone designs of the inside-folded end panels, created using this approach, to represent the Mail Pieces in my blog posts.

The Myth of the Season
World folklore is rich with stories about the seasons, and I have been delighted to reap material from this seemingly endless source.

The New Year Mail Piece highlighted a legend from ancient China, about the fearsome Nian.

The Spring Mail Piece focused on the Greek myth of Persephone (see next section). In the Summer Mail Piece, I am exploring the northern European folklore surrounding Fairy Rings.

Cut-paper rabbit from the
New Year Mail Piece

An Element of Paper Technology
Recently my primary medium has been paper sculpture--originally inspired by teaching some of the elements of pop-up technology to my art students. I couldn't resist an opportunity to include an extra "paper element" in each edition of the Mail Piece Project.

The added paper element in the New Year Mail Piece was a cut-paper design, suggested by a Chinese New Year tradition. The Spring Mail Piece made use of a standard piece of basic pop-up technology, the "step" pop-up.

This view of the Spring Mail Piece inside panels shows the treatment given the Persephone myth, as well as the "step" pop-up in Persephone's flowery meadow.

The Summer Mail Piece uses a different technique from pop-up books and cards, the lift-flap. As research progresses and the designs for the Autumn Mail Piece and the Winter Mail Piece develop, they will suggest the appropriate paper elements to accompany them.

IMAGE CREDITS: The tri-fold template by Ricardo Giorgio Botta is a free download from the Adobe InDesign site.  All other photos and images are copyright 2010 and 2011 by Jan Sherrell Gephardt, available under a Creative Commons license for copy and distribution with credit given, but not for alteration.

Extreme Conceptual Art

These two panels show only small parts of the
New Year  Mail Piece (top) and Spring Mail Piece.

With the Mail Piece Project, I had thought I was producing some interesting conceptual art. The project was conceived as a series of multiple originals, created by me, in collaboration with the United States Post Office and my subscribers. So far, a New Year Mail Piece and a Spring Mail Piece have been completed. I currently am at work on the Summer Mail Piece.

But now I see that by actually laboring to produce a series of physical objects, I have fallen short of the full potential of conceptual art.

I have been shown the light by a recent article in Newsweek, Blake Gopnik's "Buying Art You Can't Take Home." 

This Newsweek photo by
Lucy Hogg shows art collectors
Aaron and Barbara Levine at
Art Basel, with unidentified
dealers, and a physical signifi-
cation of their purchase from
Lawrence Weiner.

I have to say, one lives in an interesting world when it apparently makes sense to pay large amounts of money for the idea of--for one example--a museum guard "slowly removing every shred of his clothes." (Gopnik reports that this "work" was purchased by Marc and Josee Gensollens of Marseilles from conceptual artist Tino Sehgal, but "has come alive only when they've 'lent' it to museums.")

The practical Midwestern girl in me can't help feeling that--naked museum guards notwithstanding (do their contracts now have to include a nudity clause?)--there's a major "Emperor's New Clothes" element at work in this type of art.  As long as we all agree to studiously suspend our disbelief, irrespective of how wide the gulfs of "you've-got-to-be-kidding-me" we must span, then we have art.

Somehow, I just can't see it playing well in the artistic universe I inhabit.  Does that make the art buyers I know less "sophisticated" . . . or just less gullible?

If I pay $100,000 for the idea of the Brooklyn Bridge, have I actually been "taken," or am I simply an art patron?  Perhaps the test lies in whether or not I can "lend" it to museums, after my purchase.

Just as ice-climbing is
considered an Extreme
Sport, perhaps Sehgal,
Weiner, and others are
pioneers of Extreme Art.

I can see some advantages to this kind of art, though.  Insurance might be interesting to purchase, but the studio-space requirements would not be excessive.  I certainly would have fewer laundry issues.  Getting ideas splattered all over my clothes would leave far fewer stains than ink, paint, clay, or other more material art media.

Those risks might be minimized, but I can't help wondering how truly brave the pioneers of this kind of art must have been, to seriously stand up in public among the avant gard of the art world, and propose that their patrons lay out hundreds of thousands for their "works."

How courageous, in turn, must an art buyer be, to lay out money like that, then go home and (try to) explain to their friends about this wonderful artwork they just bought?  (of course, it is guaranteed not to clash with the couch).

Wikipedia defines "Extreme Sport" as "a popular term for certain activities perceived as having a high level of inherent danger, and . . . counter-cultural."  I truly think that this kind of artwork, which is definitely not for the faint-of-heart or the uncommitted, really should qualify as "Extreme" Art.

PHOTOS: The two panels from the New Year and Spring Mail Pieces are my own work; the photo by Lucy Hogg is from Newsweek; the ice-climbing photo is courtesy of Wikipedia.

Wondrously Lost in Water Lilies

I am certainly not the first artist to get my imagination tangled up in water lilies, and I doubt I'll be the last.  But certainly one of the most amazing intersections of water lilies and art came through Claude Monet.

Monet is particularly on my mind right now, because I took advantage of a rare opportunity last weekend: I  went to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City to experience in person the reunification of The Agapanthus Triptych.

This photo shows the current Kansas City installation, with a new frame.
Built specifically for this show, it was inspired by frames Monet approved
for other massive triptychs at l'Orangerie in France.  The curator standing in
front of the painting is Nicole Myers.  (photo from Art Knowledge News.)

Monet's lily pond at Giverny,
in a photo posted on deviantART
by "Cansounofargentina."

More familiarly called "Monet's Water Lilies," this trio of massive canvases actually is only one of the many works Monet devoted to the water lilies in his garden at Giverny, France.

Being in the presence of the complete triptych is an amazing, immersive experience.  Monet planned it that way, in fact.  He wanted his later series of enormous diptychs, triptychs, and four-part "quadtychs" to be housed in round or elliptical rooms created just for them.

A view of l'Orangerie in Paris shows
how Monet intended for his massive,
multi-part artworks to be seen.

This goal is reached with a collection of other Monet compositions in the Musee de l'Orangerie in Paris.

The current display of the entire Agapanthus Triptych is unusual, however, because the work has been separated for most of the time since the canvases were split up in 1956.

That was the year when the St. Louis Art Museum bought only the central panel from a New York art dealer that had acquired the entire work from another dealer in Paris.  The French dealer had displayed the entire work to considerable acclaim, after acquiring it and several other, smaller works from Monet's son Michel.

At the urging of faculty and students from the Kansas City Art Institute, the Nelson-Atkins Museum bought the right-hand panel in 1957.  The Cleveland Museum of Art finished the process in 1960, when it bought the left-hand panel.  The last time the three canvases were reuinted as the complete triptych was in 1979, so this is genuinely a rare opportunity.

I went to see the triptych with friends. As a member of the museum's Friends of Art and a lifelong Nelson-Atkins Museum-goer, I of course had seen "our" section many times over the years.  Yet when one of my companions said, "I can't remember--do you recall which one is ours?" I was embarrassed to admit I could not.

Water Lilies and Agapanthus, 1917, by
Claude Monet (Musee Marmottan, France),
 shows what an agapanthus looks like,
when painted by Monet.   The one originally
 gracing the corner of the "Cleveland piece"
pointed right, not left. 

It would've been easier for us, if Monet had left the agapanthus in.  Ironically, the work is named for a plant whose image in the lower left-hand corner of the "Cleveland piece" was painted out by Monet at some point during his extensive revisioning and repainting process between when the work was begun in 1915 and Monet's death in 1926 (a photo from his studio in 1921 shows it was still visible then).

Experts aren't entirely sure whether Monet actually considered the triptych "finished," even in 1926, but his process of increasingly moving from representation to abstraction is a goodly part of why many people feel this is a ground-breaking work.

The Agapanthus Triptych remains in Kansas City through August 7, 2011.  After that, all three pieces travel to the St. Louis Art Museum for a display that is scheduled to run October 2, 2011-January 22, 2012.

The Cleveland Museum of Art also plans to display the three paintings together, but those display dates are less certain.  A blog post on the museum's website says the paintings will be shown together in Cleveland in 2015--exactly one hundred years from the time Monet started painting them.

PHOTO CREDITS: As noted above, the photo of the full triptych in its new frame is courtesy of Art Knowledge News, and "Giverny Water-Lily Pond" is courtesy of "Cansounofargentina."  The personal blog, All the Pages Are My Days by "Mike," featured the view of l'Orangerie.  The image of Water-Lilies and Agapanthus by Monet came from the Painting Mania website, where you can buy reproductions of the image.
ALSO NOTE: I found all of the historical information for this post from a lovely little well-illustrated book that I bought at the show,  Monet's Water Lilies: The Agapanthus Triptych by Simon Kelly, with Mary Schafer and Johanna Bernstein, published by the Saint Louis Art Museum.