This piece was created for the DERELICTE group show put on by the Arts Council of Doom, October 2015. I took many different shots of broken glass cups and a broken Christmas ornament and combined them to form this image of a ragged rose.
TRASH Rose
Collage
What to do with a mat that is ugly, faded or damaged
So! You got caught with an ugly mat. (Well how ’bout that.)
Well babies, don’t you panic, because I am going to show you three ways to AWESOME-FY your hideous or damaged mat. Continue reading
Nebula
Did this for this year’s Space Madness 2: There is no cure!
Phosphate, a lost (or rather, sold!) piece
Back in the days before I had an easier-to-use phone camera, the occasional odd work of traditional art would slip by me without getting fully documented. Such is the case with Phosphate, a piece I was actually quite proud of. I made it as a challenge to myself for last year’s Earth Day Art Crawl.
That year, the inaugural year of the art crawl, we participating artists were challenged to make art which was either environmentally themed, made from recycled materials, or both. I responded by making a phosphate-polluted pond with lovely koi-like fish below the scummy surface, digging out some neglected mod podge and a frame from an old piece of art. Little did I know that mod podge would soon become a frequent element in my traditional art pieces! At the time I just wanted a good way to seal up the old frame and effectively represent the uneven surface of a pond. Here are the progress shots I did manage to get of the piece:
You can see something of the finished piece in the last image, but alas! It is partially covered up by the next pieces I was working on, my “Fleurs du Mal” collage series. I was in something of a rush and I barely finished Phosphate before it was time to run it over to the gallery. Comforting myself that I would be able to document it once the show came down, my hopes were dashed when I discovered it had sold. (Certainly a piece of art being sold is something of a nice consolation prize though.)
I hope you’re happy with your new owner, Phosphate!
Road’s End
This collage was originally intended for the December 2012 “Doomsday” show on that same date in the Mayan Calender, but another traditional piece depicting Fenris the wolf devouring the sun from the Ragnarok of Norse Mythology got in instead. (Look for Fenris coming up!) Road’s End went on to debut at the PG Gallery and Cafe soft opening in early 2013.
If you took a look through my 2010 Sketchbook Down My Street, you will have seen this same car in a less polished form. I was happy to be able to expand on my idea and do a more finished piece starring the car. I still intend to do a lineart version.
I envisioned a car with a human set of internal organs for my story “Sacrifice” examining the emotions I feel whenever I drive past a cross by the side of the road. The car is full of meat and organs which are of course, very vulnerable and subject to injury and destruction in a car wreck. Thinking of these tragic circumstances always reminds me of a passage from the Maya Origin Legend the Popol Vuh, about the death gods (Wing and Packstrap I believe) who determine that some people should die upon the road. I end the story by comparing the sad little road crosses with their touching floral tributes and stuffed animal offerings to a Maya totem containing the road (depicted in Maya art as a ribbon with footprints on it).
And this is their domain: that people should die in the road. Then there is death in the road and suffering whether one is coming or going. And this is their domain. -Popol Vuh
The next story in the book, “R_VE_ _” also opens with the theme of the road demanding a sacrifice, this time an accident with a dog I witnessed in my childhood.
I plan to do “R_VE_ _” properly as a black and white comic for an upcoming collection of one-shots including The Ruby Machine and The Stone Squirrel!
The many faces of Daedalus…how do you feel about re-using your art?
This piece is one of many versions of this linoleum block print I did for the 2012 Hand Prints show:
A friend of mine had a lot of fun taking it and coloring on it to create three collaborative pieces as well:
And lastly, I recently used them in different pieces for my December 2013 solo show:
The Sleep of Reason on Society6||Redbubble
In other words, those mudpuppies really got around! I’m not sure when I first hit upon the idea of using my own art as collage to make new pieces, but I’m currently using the same approach on my Kaguya Hime piece in progress. Part of a totally unrelated piece (Moonlit Night, in fact!) is supplying the huge swollen moon behind the princess.
I personally like finding new ways to use different elements I’ve made that lend themselves to replication (mainly my digital and block prints) because that way, as an artist I still have the option of finding a better way to finish a work of art. If something I made doesn’t stand out in its original setting but later becomes much more successful in a completely different context, I feel very gratified. I have also done this with very old art, using amateur monoprints as effective and vibrant backgrounds for newer, more skilled block prints or incorporating crude paintings from my youth into new collage art.
How do you feel about re-using a piece of art or making series based on many variations of an element you’ve created?
Humankind
I did this piece of the Ha-Adam for a 2013 show on collective mythmaking at PG Gallery in Evansville. It depicts a variation on the Jewish origin legend where “the Adam” was originally a person composed of a man and woman back to back, which would be split into Adam and Lilith.
My Name is Shingo
This is a recent 2013 work from my last solo show! I named it after Kazuo Umezu’s amazing comic because his story dealt with a machine becoming sentient. For some reason my monstrous floating daisy achieving a sympathetic connection with a huge machine reminded me of reading this comic.
Now available on Society6||Redbubble. Below is a slightly larger version for you.
Kaguya Hime
Sketch which I’m going to be turning into collage/decoupage on a wood panel for an upcoming show on Mythmaking! Kaguya Hime is a celestial princess who was a refugee from the moon in the early Japanese narrative, “The Bamboo Cutter’s Tale.”
I realize Sailor Moon and other more light-hearted stories have their genesis in this legend, but I tried to make my Moon Princess more sinister and enigmatic!
Amazing new work by Gary Logan Hobdy
I hope you’ll excuse my horrible camera photos. These are a few of the pieces from Gary’s new solo show: “Too Much/Not too Much” at PG Gallery and Cafe. The show runs until March 15 so get on down there if you’re in the Evansville area! I’m not exaggerating when I call it an “amazing” show, but see for yourself…the following are a few pics Gary graciously allowed me to share from the show.
Gary runs MiLKSOP STUDiO and is pretty much phenomenal! I don’t know if you can tell much from my photos, but he uses various collage elements in his work like music sheets, labels and graphs, and I believe he achieves his impressive linework with ballpoint pen among other things. His bold lines and bright solid colors remind me of graffiti. At the same time, he treats his subjects with a great deal of sympathy in a way I honestly find beautiful and touching. (Hopefully that won’t piss him off.)
I’ll be featuring more great local artists and shows as I go to them. I had intended to do so before because there’s no dearth of talent in my modest little city, but I haven’t had the occasion until recently. As you’ll see, I’m incredibly fortunate to work with so many amazing people.
Chordata 5 and 6
These lovely turtle skeletons (or Chordata 5 and 6 as I uncreatively call them) debuted in my November ’13 “Patchwork Dragon” solo show and have since been sold. They were very fun to make and consisted of hundreds of small individually cut pieces of paper glued onto painted wood. I used a damaged art print for the brilliant colors of the shell.
They will not be the last turtles I make! I hope to have a turtle or two in the works for the upcoming Art in the Wild group show on Saturday April 5.
11/4/2014 EDIT: Took me longer than I wished, but yes I am currently making a black-skeletoned turtle for the Patchwork Central Holiday Art Sale this coming Saturday! He looks pretty neat so far, I hope to have him done tomorrow.
Ergo Sum
“Ergo Sum,” centerpiece of my last show. It’s probably atrocious Latin, but I wanted to take the Thinking out of Being. The original incarnation of this baby is a seven foot wide painting and collage on wood! Here it is a bit bigger:
Available on my Society6||Redbubble as a print. To inquire about purchasing the original piece, email me at sandpaperdaisy (at) gmail.com
ABOVE
“ABOVE” (c) Sandpaperdaisy, 2013. Digital mixed media using pen and ink drawings.
Available at my Society6 store!
Closeups from Sketchbook Project 2010
Here is the entire book, you can read it all online. But I also noticed as I was documenting the pages that taking pieces of many of the pictures out of context yielded fascinating results. The following is a selection of extreme closeups from my book.
More fake collage
itchy… ̡̢̡̢̛̛̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎… ̔̕̚̕̚ ҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̿̿̿.re..d! ̡bå̢̡̢̛̛̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎.ll.. ̔̕̚̕ ҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̿̿̿oons… ̡̢̡̢̛̛̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎… ̔̕̚̕̚҉ ̡̢̡̢̛̛̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎… ̔̕̚̕̚҉ ҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̿̿̿… ͡҉҉
itchy red balloons by sandpaperdaisy
Fever Dream
fever dream by sandpaperdaisy
Your Love in Motion
your love in motion by sandpaperdaisy
Sandpaperdaisy Art 