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.

Jumping the Rut

It's possible for a routine to get as entrenched
as the ruts in this historic Wyoming wagon road.

It can be a real benefit to break my routine--even if it plays havoc with production for a while.

If you've been following this blog you know I sort of dropped out of sight after the May 5 post. That's because I was deeply involved in a new project that required all my time.

I was working as the Art Show Director for ConQuesT 42, a science fiction convention held on Memorial Day weekend in Kansas City, MO.  ConQuesT is the annual project of the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society, Inc.

Four of my intrepid Art Show staff members, Kat Gibb, Kat
McCullough, Signy Gephardt, and Ty Gephardt, helped me
set up the display area Thursday May 26, 2011.

I sort of fell into the job in the early spring, only about 3 months out from the show--so I had to scramble to get ready. This was especially challenging because although I've been showing my artwork at sf conventions since 1981, was an agent who handled other artists' work for many years, and even helped co-author the ASFA Art Show Guidelines for the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists, Inc., I'd never been an art show director before.

It was a job I'd always avoided. I figured it would be a distraction.  It would keep me from creating my own work before the show, and during the show it would prevent me from making professional contacts.   Not worth it, I figured.

Here's a general view of the Art Show, after it was set up.

Oh, it certainly was a distraction. It hampered my ability to make my own work, and it anchored me in the art show all during the convention.

What I did not anticipate was how stimulating it would be, and what a great rush of creative input it would provide.

I did not realize how much more familiar I would become with the work of the other 24 artists who participated in this show, than I could have become simply by looking at their displays at the show.

Being the Art Show Director gave me a chance to interact with them, view their websites, handle their art as we put it up, sold or took it down at the end of the show, and talk with both attending artists and art buyers about this varied collection.

I'd love to offer you a chance to see their work in more detail, too.  That's why the rest of this post consists of links to the websites, blogs, etc. of all the ConQuesT 42 artists who maintain a Web presence. They are:  Allison Stein, Arden Ellen Nixon, Bev Hale, Cat (R. Cat Conrad), Chris Dame, Lubov, Lucy A. Synk, Mark Roland, Peri Charlifu, Rachael Mayo, Sarah Clemens, and Theresa Mather.

Please take time to enjoy a look at their varied and interesting artwork!

PHOTO CREDITS:  Many thanks to the "Heritage Gateways" website for the pioneer trail image, and to Ty Gephardt for the image of the ConQuesT 42 Art Show as it looked when all set up.  I took the photo of my staff at work on May 26.

Reframe III: "The Wild Thing in the Weeds"

    

This was my 2009 display at ConQuesT 40,
a science fiction convention held over Labor
Day weekend.  Clockwise from the upper left:
The White Dragon, A Nest in the Wildwood,
and The Wild Thing in the Weeds.

My small fantasy piece, The Wild Thing in the Weeds, is one of my most recent "reframes," although it was one of the earliest pieces of artwork I did.

I finished it in the spring of 2009.  I had just completed A Nest in the Wildwood, which had been in the works for nearly two years, following my first paper sculpture, The White Dragon.  All three were made in a similar way: each has a somewhat abstract, acrylic background, with a fantasy creature made of white paper nestled into it.

Wild Thing completed the "white on acrylic" phase, for me.  After I finished it, I felt I had explored that approach enough to feel satisfied.  New ideas and variations had begun to beckon, and I moved on to the "twig dragons" with Denizen of the Winter Trees and Treetop Primaries in 2009-2010.

Here's the original 2009 frame for
The Wild Thing in the Weeds.

I made Wild Thing small, in the hope that I could price it in an affordable range for the art buyers who would see it first at the Kansas City science fiction convention, ConQuesT 40.  In the interest of thrift, I also framed it in a small plastic box I had been able to adapt.  The box kept the price down, certainly, but I never really liked how it looked.

Apparently the potential buyers didn't like how it looked, either, because I didn't sell it.  I did not include it in the collection I gathered for the "Great Leawood Wall" that provided so much inspiration for the reframing work I've recently described in earlier posts, regarding Windblown and Through the Arch.

However, when I was preparing for the Westwood (KS) City Hall show in March 2011, I decided to reframe it using a similar strategy to the one I'd used on Through the Arch.

Here is the current reframing of The Wild Thing
in the Weeds, prepared for the 2011 Westwood
City Hall show.

I removed the plastic part, but kept the box I'd built the piece into. I cut a mat to fit the new, larger frame--as with Through the Arch, I used an 11X13-inch shadowbox--and attached the box to the underside of the mat's inner opening.  The mat is positioned next to the glass inside the frame, with the depth of the shadowbox accommodating the box in which the piece was made.

Reframed in this way, The Wild Thing in the Weeds became a strong new addition to the lineup in the Stiles Gallery at Westwood City Hall, in Westwood, KS.  But I'm afraid I did have to raise the price.

The Wild Thing in the Weeds started the north end of the lineup in the Stiles Gallery at Westwood City Hall in March 2011.

PHOTO CREDITS: All photos are by Jan S. Gephardt, of her own original artwork and displays.

Fun at "the Flake"

I’ve been in Kansas City science fiction fandom for a long time, so I’d heard of Snowflake, a one-day “relaxacon” billed as a Cabin Fever Fan Party.  But they never had an art show, so I never went.

At least, not until I was asked to be their Artist Guest of Honor this year.  Well, sure, I said; I’m available on February 19.  I held most of my fantasy artwork out of the Antioch Library show, so I could put on a reasonable display.  

Here I am, with my display at "Snowflake 13."

Tim Keltner, Snowflake’s organizer, borrowed the display panels from ConQuesT (our major annual sf convention, held in Kansas City each Memorial Day by the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society).  

Bits and pieces of works-in-progress always seem interesting.

I brought along some of my bits and pieces of “works-in-progress,” as I have begun doing with my opening receptions for more mainstream shows.  I spent much of the morning demonstrating paper sculpture techniques and having fun conversations with people who came over to my table to watch.

About two weeks before the event, I had started making small “Snowflake Dragon” mini-paper-sculptures.  I priced them pretty low, and sold them with their own little boxes so they’d be somewhat protected without having to encase them in small shadowboxes that would raise the price.  I spent most of the afternoon happily engaged in selling them to several people.

My little "Snowflake Dragons" were a hit!

Other highlights of this mini-convention were an appearance by actor Jeff East as Media Guest of Honor, a screening of the movie Lunopolis, and several panel discussions.  In addition to Mr. East and me, Sea of Clouds novelist Allen Billings (a.k.a. Reuel Petrova) was the Author Guest of Honor, and Imperial G.E.L.F. web comic creator Keith Dickinson (as Hikaru Katayamma) was the Fan Guest of Honor.

Snowflake 13 was produced by Nexus Teknology Group and StarBase Kansas City.

Photos by Signy Gephardt--Thanks!

 

“Work: In Progress,” The Fantasy Collection

My artwork was on view September 2-19, 2010, at the Johnson County (Kansas) Library’s Central Resources Center.  The "Work: In Progress" show spans several decades, and gives kind of a past/present/future view of my work. It included some of the 2-D work from my "first art career" in the 1980s, all of the current paper sculptures, and sketchbook pages, which show some of my works in progress--a glimpse of the future.

The left-hand (southern) display case focused on my fantasy artwork, and this collection is the focus of this post.  I'll focus on the other display next time.   

The fantasy collection included three images from my “first art career” as a science fiction and fantasy artist/illustrator in the 1980s, as well as my current, mixed media paper sculptures, many of which have been shown at the ConQuesT, Conestoga, and Capricon science fiction and fantasy conventions.  All of the paper sculptures were displayed in the “Paper Dragons” show, Roeland Park, KS, March 2010.

"Stormwings" 1985, acrylic on Masonite.

This painting took 6 months to create, from first sketches through final brushstroke. Back in those days, I had to rely on images clipped from publications, for reference material. It took a week to find a grainy newspaper image of ducks taking off from a pond, that I could use for "wing" reference. Nowadays, I'd have hundreds of images available with one image search!

"Harmony" 1984, graphite on paper.

I used this drawing for our "Christmas Print" in 1984, and displayed it at numerous shows.

"Enlightenment" 1988, ink on Bristol board.

This piece was used for a "Christmas Print" in 1988. The model for the little boy was my son Ty, who was two years old at the time. The titles on the spines of the books on the shelves behind him were all titles of books written or published by people on our Christmas mailing list that year.

"The White Dragon in His Cloud" 2007, mixed media paper sculpture.

This was my first piece of paper sculpture.  I'd been thinking about the possibilities of making dragons in paper sculpture for quite some time, and a few months earlier I'd spent a fun afternoon doing somewhat nonobjective acrylic paintings.  I wasn't sure what to do with them, however, until one day I sat down and began to make my little dragon.  This piece took an afternoon (and the better part of two years) to make.

"A Nest in the Wildwood" 2009, mixed media paper sculpture.

I used painted bits for the background that date back to 2007, but the rendering on the feathers is more sophisticated than my little "White Dragon."

"The Wild Thing in the Weeds" 2009. Mixed media paper sculpture.

This piece was completed not long after "Wildwood," and I drew my materials from the same sources.

"Bone Dragon" 2009, mixed media paper sculpture. 

Kindly lent from the collection of Karin I. Frank.

This was my first exploration of some of the more abstract possibilities of paper sculpture.

 

"Denizen of the Winter Trees" 2009, mixed media paper sculpture.

I spent several months developing the prototype pattern for this dragon form. You'll also see that I created variations on it for another piece, "Treetop Primaries." This artwork also incorporates a real silver maple twig.

Development pages for "Treetop Primaries," 2009.

The "Work: In Progress" show attempted to show something of my process for creating artwork. To that end, I included four sketchbook spreads, including this one.

"Treetop Primaries" 2009-2010, mixed media paper sculpture.

Completed in 2009 (see the "Development pages" that were displayed with it) and adjusted in 2010, "Treetop Primaries" is the largest paper sculpture I had created by the time of the "Work: In Progress" show. I developed the dragon forms from the pattern originally developed for "Denizen of the Winter Trees," and also incorporated several real silver maple twigs into the design.

"The Leaf Thing" 2010, mixed media paper sculpture.

I so enjoyed working with the leaves in the background of "Treetop Primaries" that I made some more . . . then wondered what kind of fantasy creature might inhabit trees where tiny dragons live. I kept calling this piece "my 'leaf' thing" while doing the initial development, and finally decided that the creature also was a "Leaf Thing."

The fantasy collection made up half of my "Work: In Progress" show.  In the next post on "Artdog Observations," I'll show the rest of it.