Traveling West

"traveling west" mixed media, 20x20 inches, NFS (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

Well, it’s finally here – the last image of artwork that was created during my residency at The Tin Shop (in Breckenridge, CO) in September. I saved this piece for last because it ended up staying in Breck. Each artist that participates is asked to donate a piece of art to the Arts District and this is the piece that they selected to stay. It made the title even more fitting when that happened! Created on a wood panel I incorporated some aluminum in the this piece. It was added first.

work in progress, image 1, traveling west (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

Once I had that part completed I needed a way to keep from covering up part of the aluminum that I wanted to be circles so it was protected from the next layers of mortar. Cups full of sand were placed on top those areas to block them out.

work in progress, image 2, traveling west (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

Then it was on to applying the mortar and letting it dry in the sunshine.

work in progress, image 3, traveling west (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

After it dried the next phase was to add layers of color. Layers and layers and layers….

work in progress, image 4, traveling west (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

work in progress, image 5, traveling west (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

work in progress, image 6, traveling west (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

work in progress, image 7, traveling west (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

work in progress, image 8, traveling west (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

work in progress, image 9, traveling west (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

work in progress, image 10, traveling west (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

Finally it was time to add some embellishments here & there…a few pieces of tile and a twisted wire helped to balance out the piece.

work in progress, image 11, traveling west (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

A slight change in the orientation, it was sealed, glazed and complete!

Although this is the last artwork to share from my trip I still have a post or two of images taken while I traveled to share with you yet this week.  Check back soon to see those and also some photos of a project that I started back in 2009 – and just finished last week!

Stay warm,

Lynne

Buried Treasures

"Buried Treasures" mixed media on wood panels, 32x16" overall, $365 set of four (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

Featuring more art that was created during my stay in Colorado for today’s post! These pieces started out as flat wood panels that I put a blended-color coat of paint on to start.

work in progress, image 1, buried treasures (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

I had been experimenting with grout and cement and decided to add a nice layer of texture with cement on these pieces.

work in progress, image 1, buried treasures (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

It was toward the end of the day so I left it overnight to dry. The next morning I was excited to see how it would look with some layers of paint on top! I picked up the first panel and, bam, all the cement slide right off onto the table. The other three followed suit and I was back to colored panels with a layer of cement dust before I knew what happened. I am not sure if it was the layer of paint, the texture of the panel or the wood products it was made of but the cement certainly didn’t like to stick (it did, however stick on other pieces!). SO…not to be outdone by cement I pulled out my jar of acrylic gel and redesigned the pieces over again.

work in progress, image 2, buried treasures (c) 2010, lynne medsker

So take THAT cement! 🙂 As soon as that was dry I began layering the colors one after the other.

work in progress, image 3, buried treasures (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

work in progress, image 4, buried treasures (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

You may notice that the pieces eventually moved around. Although I had planned on them all “flowing” together (like the image with just the acrylic gel on them) during the confusion of losing the cement design I laid a couple of them down upside down and the hangers ended up at the bottoms! So I just went with the flow and turned them into a different design.  The final touch was a liquid layer of gold/pearl color on each panel. I really liked the turquoise and swaths of gold throughout, which is what led me to the title!

I hope you have a lovely weekend…I’ll be back with more new images on Monday!

Lynne

First Snow…

Yes, sorry, I know it’s just September and I said that “S” word that a lot of us dread. Can’t help it though, it’s the title of today’s featured art piece!

"First Snow" mixed media on illustration board, 20x30", sold (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

I made this piece shortly after I arrived in Breckenridge, Colorado, for my stay as a guest artist at The Tin Shop. I must have been inspired by the mountain views out the windows because I rarely do art that is even semi-realistic, I’m more of an abstract kinda gal. This piece is another of the mixed media pieces created on illustration board that I’ve been making lately. It’s a process I’ve really been enjoying even though it’s a bit more “planned” that a lot of my work. I have been applying some wax to the illustration board prior to covering it so that when the thin layers of paint are applied the wax covered portions repel some of the paint, leaving a mottled kind of pattern.  Since the wax is clear I’m never quite sure what I’m going to get until I put the paint down, so it’s a fun surprise! This image is of the illustration board once it’s been covered with clear contact paper and the design has been drawn on top.

work in progress, image 1, first snow (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

The first thing I did was to add a sand/gesso mixture to a few areas since that would take the longest time to dry.

work in progress, image 2, first snow (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

My original thought was to add the blue sky last but I changed my mind and put it in first since most of it was away from the sand/gesso areas.

work in progress, image 3, first snow (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

To add the sections one at a time I cut around the areas with an x-acto knife and peeled away the contact that covered that portion. Here are images of the next few steps:

work in progress, image 4, first snow (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

work in progress, image 5, first snow (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

work in progress, image 6, first snow (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

I even got more “realistic” and added lines of pine trees through the green areas of the paint. I don’t know what was up with me that day! 🙂

work in progress, image 7, first snow (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

Almost finished at this point! I went back in and added black outlines around the shapes to make them more defined and then proceeded to sprinkle and brush on the “snow” portions of the piece. Before long it was finished! I hung it on the wall in my studio area and was surprised by the many nice comments it got. Even better than that, it was purchased and is now living in Chicago as a reminder of someone’s trip to Colorado!

Plenty of new art & photos left to post…look for more newness soon!

Lynne

Celestial

Monday greetings to everyone! I am home and in the midst of unpacking and reorganizing things. My road trip through Colorado, Wyoming & South Dakota was wonderful and I have literally hundreds of photos I am sorting through. Be prepared for travel/photo posts in the near future! For now I am going to share some more new art images created during my residency in Breckenridge. During one of last week’s posts I mentioned new artwork that I was particularly excited about. Today’s the day to feature it on the blog! It began as a cement mixture that had some paint pigment added into it and then was spread onto a two-panel set, one measuring 10×10 inches and the other 10×20.

work in progress, image #1, celestial (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

After it was applied to the panels I went back with a tool and swirled it and made designs into the wet cement before it began to dry. Then it sat to dry for a day or two. Having some pigment already in the cement kind of threw me for a while, but eventually I just jumped in and started adding layers of colors.

work in progress, image #2, celestial (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

With the light colors in the cement black seemed to be a good starting point but then I felt like it was too much black and needed more color. On to the next layers, this time with a very liquid mixture of acrylic in a bright red hue, which settled in and blended with the black very nicely.

work in progress, image #3, celestial (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

Still not quite there but making some progress. I must have gotten caught up in the process during the last steps because I didn’t take any more progress photos until the piece was finished! As you can see the next layers included iridescent copper along with a few other shades of pink/red, additional layers of black to make it more intense and a splattering of thinned-down copper as a final touch.

"celestial" mixed media on wood, 10x30 overall size, $275 (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

I’m not certain that the photograph does the piece justice but you can get a general idea of how it turned out, anyhow! It’s fun having all this new work to share and to think about where I will display it, what shows it will be in, etc.  The future looks exciting through my eyes right now!

Peering ahead,

Lynne

…and now we continue!

"flow" mixed media on illustration board, 8x10, $75 (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

As I mentioned in Monday’s post, here are the rest of the finished images that I completed last week during my residency at The Tin Shop in Breckenridge, Colorado.

"M" mixed media on illustration board, 8x10, $75 (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

"shine" mixed media on illustration board, 8x10, $75 (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

"push" mixed media on illustration board, 8x10, $75 (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

Be sure and check back again tomorrow and Friday for new posts!

Lynne

New art for a Monday…

I am very excited to be taking a long, winding, scenic route from Colorado back to the midwest over the next few days. I’ll be traveling through areas of Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota before I finally jump on to an interstate on head east. I have my camera ready, spare memory cards, extra batteries charged and a big smile on my face thinking of all the beautiful & fun things I’ll discover along the way. I have been in Breckenridge, Colorado as the resident artist at “The Tin Shop” since the 2nd of September. This was my second visit here and it was, again, an awesome experience to be able to leave “normal life” behind for a while and focus on art and creativity. I’ve felt very “in balance” with myself and hope that it will continue when I return home. Life is always evolving and I feel like there are many positive changes happening! As I mentioned yesterday, I’ll be offline for a few days but I wanted to keep some posts going while I am gone. These are some work-in-progress images, as well as some completed pieces that I worked on a few days ago. The rest will be in my next post so stay tuned!

These are more of the mixed media work on illustration board. This time I cut the board into smaller sizes to make several smaller pieces instead of the large 20×30″ ones. Here are the 8 pieces after I have them covered with contact paper and the designs marked out on them:

work-in-progress image #1 (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

The next image is about 2/3 of the way through the cutting, peeling & painting of individual areas on each piece:

work-in-progress, image #2 (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

Now for some finished products!

"storm" mixed media on illustration board, 5x7, $45 (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

"currents" mixed media on illustration board, 5x7, $45 (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

"magma" mixed media on illustration board, 8x10, $75 (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

"ozone" mixed media on illustration board, 8x10, $75 (c) 2010, Lynne Medsker

These felt different to make after having spent many days working on very textural, organic art on wood. But it was a fun departure!

Till next time,

Lynne

Words & Letters

"alphabet scraps #2" Digital Collage (c) 2009, Lynne Medsker

Seems like my life has been consumed with letters, words, sentences and paragraphs this week.  It’s exhausting!  After my stay as guest artist at The Tin Shop in Breckenridge, CO this past April I moved “applying for residency programs” up on my list of priorities.  I would be delighted if I could get accepted to one each year or two!  The time to dedicate to my art and explore new surroundings is such a blessing to me! The downside of making that a priority is all the thinking, writing and paperwork required for each submission.  Some are more detailed than others (multiple, collated copies or specific required information) but they all take quite a bit of time and effort for me to prepare.  Although I can chat on my blog, Facebook or Twitter quite easily (often more frequently than I should!) I struggle to perfect my formal writing tasks.  It is usually a multi-day process, with several revisions, before I am pleased enough with my efforts to set them forth into the world for others to read.  I try to make my proposals specific to the location and facility that I am applying to so that each seems thoughtful and unique instead of submitting a plain, generic request.  Add to that there is the selection process of what media I will apply for and what images to submit as samples of my work to consider.  If you’ve followed this blog at all you know I skip around from one media to another on a frequent basis.  Trying to narrow the focus of a submission is tough!   I am always second guessing myself on what they might be looking for, what media would stand out best and how to present it.  Frequently you need to include one or more public programs during your stay as well – another decision to make! I guess the upside of sending out several applications each year is that I can vary the proposals enough that I cover everything I’d like to do at one location or another. 🙂  As I was looking through some of my images for the submission I mailed out today, I ran across these two images.  I had posted some similar work when I was in Breckenridge but didn’t include these.  Since it seems all I’ve done is look at words & letters lately they were a natural choice to include in this post!

"alphabet soup, close up #1" Digital Collage (c) 2009, Lynne Medsker

I had just read somewhere a few days ago that visual expression and verbal/written expression come from totally different parts of the brain and many people are dominate in one area but not the other.  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that one comes more easily to me than the other!  My secondary goal with these submissions is to actually get them sent BEFORE the postmark deadline, I tend to procrastinate and frequently make last-minute trips to the post office on the very last possible day.  This time I was three whole days early, so progress is being made!  I am looking forward to a month-long break before beginning on the next round of submissions (Three!!) that I’ll start working on in September.  Hey, maybe now I can make some art instead of just writing about it!

Lynne

All finished…

Here are the images of the last four mixed media pieces I created during my stay here in Breckenridge as a guest artist:

untitled 5x7 mixed media (c) 2009, Lynne Medsker

untitled 5x7 mixed media (c) 2009, Lynne Medsker

 

untitled 5x7 mixed media (c) 2009, Lynne Medsker

untitled 5x7 mixed media (c) 2009, Lynne Medsker

I’ve got all my supplies packed and ready for pick up today…the studio seems empty & hollow now.  It continues to snow, although at a more gentle pace, and the outside world is covered in white.  I will put on my snow boots and venture out with my camera this afternoon one last time.  I have a selection of photos tucked into a folder waiting for me to get creative with them this evening if the mood strikes.  My ride to the airport will be here around 10:30 in the morning then it’s a long day of travel (plus the time difference) and I will arrive home tomorrow evening if all goes according to plan.  I may not post again until after I’m home & settled (am I ever really settled?!).  Talk to you then…

Lynne

Wrapping things up…

Well, my time here at the Tin Shop is winding down, and I find myself facing the end of my residency time.  Bittersweet to be sure…I’ve had such a wonderful experience being here and have loved the scenery and surroundings as well as the awesome people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting.   In a recent post I showed images of some work in progress, I now have both those pieces completed.  Here are the finished products:

"peak 7" mixed media (c) 2009, Lynne Medsker

(untitled) mixed media (c) 2009, Lynne Medsker

Not only have I finished work some of it has already left Colorado.  I shipped out all the pieces for the “Art on Record” show and also sent a box full of completed artwork to the frame shop back home so they can get started with the framing.  My studio space here is starting to look a bit “naked” as things slowly leave.  

 I have continued working on the “junk journals” and finished some blank ones to leave here as gifts for Jenn & Gretchen, who have been so wonderful to work with. I also have the cover of the first journal finished now…I am keeping the first two for myself, for one reason they were very much “trial & error” projects and also just for sentimental reasons.  Here are some samples of the completed journals:

finished cover, junk journal 1 (c) 2009, Lynne Medsker

 

junk journal 3 (c) 2009, Lynne Medsker

junk journal 4 (c) 2009, Lynne Medsker

 

junk journal 5 (c) 2009, Lynne Medsker

junk journal 6 (c) 2009, Lynne Medsker

 I have some smaller (5×7″) mixed media pieces that I am finishing up that I think I can just pack & ship home with my art supplies.   This is what they looked like when I was cutting out the shapes, I’ll get photos of the completed pieces tomorrow before I pack them…I ran out of daylight for photography by the time I had them completed this evening.

work in progress, 4-17-09

work in progress, 4-17-09

work in progress, 4-17-09

work in progress, 4-17-09

As I was preparing some of my supplies for the trip back home I took several photos of sheets of paper that I had brought with me, much of it handmade.  I loved the texture & patterns and after taking photos of it laying flat I realized it would be even better to photograph against the window with the light illuminating it from behind.  SO, once all my supplies have left on Saturday I will have those images to play with in Photoshop.   I’m thinking of combining them with some of the images from my road trips…maybe something new to add to my “Art & Nature” series?

Until tomorrow…

Lynne

Road trips…

For a change of pace (and because I’d always be sorry if I didn’t) I rented a car on Monday and spent Monday and Tuesday just driving around the winding roads and through the little towns and scenic byways around Breckenridge for a while.  What fun!  I love to just drive and see what comes my way and I wasn’t disappointed either day.  I was so lucky to be able to just strike out on my own, any traveling companion I would have had would have gone crazy by the time a few hours had passed!  My formula for a good day out is “drive-stop-shoot photos-drive-stop-shoot photos” and that’s just what I did.  Although I surely didn’t stop and take every single image that I thought would be cool I know my percentage had to have been 70-80%!  Thank goodness for driveways, pull-offs and wide berms because I was on & off the road more times than I’d like to count.  And an even bigger thanks to the fact that the roads out here aren’t heavily traveled (or at least not the ones I was on!).  Here are a few of my favorite images from the two days of travel:

It was a perfect little “vacation within a vacation” to spend the time traveling around.  I can’t believe what a small amount of the state I actually got to see, even after being on the road 14 hours.  Of course that could partly be from all the stop & going too!  I would love to come back out here and explore some of the other regions…there is just such a variety of landscapes and terrains it’s like visiting several places all at once. 🙂  If you just can’t get enough travel photos I have a larger selection posted on my Facebook page.  Here are the links (you don’t have to be a Facebook member to see the photos):

Road trip, Day 1: 

Road trip, Day 2:  

Tonight I am tucked in my cozy little apartment as it once again becomes a “winter wonderland” outside.  They are predicting anywhere up to three feet of snow between now and Saturday!  I’ll have some more pictures to post if that is the case.  The snow plow is already running up & down the street, I am SO impressed with the snow removal here – they are truly experts at it.  Perhaps we should send some mid-west folks out here to train! 🙂  Speaking of Midwest, I hear that it’s spring back home with some nice warm sunny weather.  

Wherever you happen to be I hope you are safe & happy.  More posts soon!

Lynne