Conjecture

Well, it’s finally here! The last piece of artwork from last year’s solo show “RE:Imagined, Created, Purposed”.

Beginning with a piece of foam core that would be mounted on a wood panel, I drew and cut out various shapes. Originally I thought I would use one of the panels covered with old book pages but the design seemed too busy for that so I switch to one of the panels I had painted black. 

 

One I had the design decided upon I leafed through my magazine stash and selected images that went together well. I was really excited to include the peacock feather in with the other images. 🙂

“Conjecture” © Lynne Medsker

For a little added interest I used three of the rolled magazine pages that were left from creating “Ceremonial” and “Continuum” for an accent in the upper right corner of the piece. I have more pieces left and have been thinking of other artwork I can use them in so you may see that again in the future!

Next week I’ll begin with some new work and then hop around to get caught back up from last fall and this spring. At least I won’t run out of content for a while!

Lynne

Ceremonial

Okay…back to catching up art from last summer’s solo show of recycled/upcycled art work! The next few posts are all about artwork that was created on 33 1/3 LP’s. One of my very first gallery showings, about ten years ago, was made up of the same thing so this isn’t new for me, just re-visited as it fit the theme.

The first step for all the pieces was to fasten wood pieces to the back so the hangers could be attached and so that they would stand out from the wall a bit when hung, giving them more dimension. It was also essential because some of them were made into clocks and there needed to be space for the mechanisms to fit. 

After that step was finished I began work on the individual pieces. Some had been spray painted and others were not. For today’s piece, Ceremonial, it had been painted  bright red. The time-consuming part of this creation was rolling all the magazine pages! From a distance many people have mistaken them for pencils. 🙂

Once that had been done then I began playing with the layout of the piece. I had cut a piece of scrap foam core and covered it with aluminum to use as a vertical break in the piece so I arranged the magazine rolls to one side of it until I was pleased.

Prior to attaching all the piece I colored the aluminum piece with inks to compliment the background color of the record.  Then it was time to glue the pieces down, add a few embellishments and, ta-da, finished!

“Ceremonial” © Lynne Medsker

More record art to follow soon!

Lynne

 

Carefree

Here’s the third piece of artwork created from a section of an old metal filing cabinet, titled “Carefree” –

“Carefree” mixed media (metal, copper & paint) 22×48″ SOLD

Unlike the pieces I’ve shown previously, the piece of metal wasn’t cut apart but instead I used the plasma cutter to etch & cut the design in the metal, cutting openings within the design. Here’s an image of the metal after cutting and sanding, before anything else was done to it.

The next step was to paint the entire piece black, using spray paint. 

From there it was time to start adding in all the details. I spent a lot of time sprawled out on the floor of my studio with paint pens adding each little mark! I love creating tree art, no matter what the media, so what some might see as a long, tedious task I enjoyed each moment of.

Once all the details were finished I mounted the piece on a large wood panel (also painted black) with pieces of copper sandwiched between the metal and the wood.  I am happy to report that this piece has found a wonderful home and I had the honor of being invited there to see where it had been placed. I couldn’t have been more pleased to see how it seemed like it was just made for it’s location. The light from nearby windows made it dance and change as the sun moved through the sky and the room lighting highlighted it perfectly as well. As an artist you can’t ask for more than that!

Carouse

“Carouse” mixed media upcycled/recycled artwork on 24×30″ wood panel © Lynne Medsker

Here is the companion piece to “Carnival” that was posted earlier this week. Also an upcycled/recycled art piece it incorporated various plastic lids/caps along with some old beads and bicycle spokes.

Assorted caps after washing

Close up of my cap/lid collection

Preliminary layout of piece

These two pieces, plus “Fun” all three hung together at the recycled/upcycled art show held at ArtSplash Gallery last summer.

Trio of artwork hung together © Lynne Medsker

I think they’d look great in a kids room!

Lynne

Ambience

“Ambience” cut paper over book pages mounted on 12×12″ wood panel $145 © Lynne Medsker

The first of three similar pieces that were created for last years upcycled/recycled show, Ambience began with a blank 12×12″ wood panel that was covered in old dictionary pages. Then a mandala like design was drawn onto the back of a black piece of paper and carefully cut with an x-acto knife.

Design drawn in pencil

Cutting the design with a knife

Finished cut design

Paper mounted over dictionary pages

Once the cutting was finished the black paper was mounted on top of the pages and ink, buttons and other embellishments were attached to create the finished piece.

colored ink added

Look for the other two pieces to arrive on the blog later this week!

Lynne