an imageteller captures image celebrations.
sharing image tales broadens an artistic expression.
doing so, brings this particular creative indescribable joy.
what is your image story? perhaps I can help you tell it!
Up To Ten
spring 2024
creative elder bearded cat lady here
i am a narrative photographer. to me that means I capture a narrative that is often every day simple captures. or image groupings that tell stories. folks tell me they know when an image capture is mine. when i hear that. I feel like i have arrived.
when I apply to artist residencies I apply with a focus on collage because i have a project right now that would benefit from a focused and devoted time to it
in general my collage making is prolific
the truth is as an artist if awarded a residency, i come along with both mediums.
participating in a residency is a story. i will tell that story with photography.
that said, and because i take a zillion photos i find it tremendously challenging to share what i do in up to 10 images, but here goes
photography
my last holiday greeting
my dear feline companion amber
local black and white city scape. across the street from my favorite bakery
collage
last year ( 2023 ) i got to the other side of a medical challenge. it is represented creatively with 14 collages titled the kidney series. it hangs permanently at a local gourmet food shop.
mini stitched work. the size of a playing card. originally created to donate to a local free art gallery. the mini's work well on a note card also
recent 9x12 - people project. the box id filled with heads, faces, eyes etc...
9x12 with a binding. people project
before and after 8x8's - people project with binding. these 8x8's are like my mini collages. stitched and working within a boundary. they mimic a quilting technique called crazy quilting. quilts have a binding. i bind my paper pieces the same way. it took me years to perfect this self taught technique.
links and other examples upon request.
A Decade Ago And The Creative Subconcious Process
( A Collage I made in a workshop I taught at Dancing Rabbit EcoVillage - Fall 2015 )
It's May 2024 and I just found this commentary I wrote about the subconscious mind collage process and the above piece.
I made this collage the week after I left Illinois in 2015.
It examples the subconscious mind trying to make sense of a relationship that fell apart.
Can you believe that that was almost 10 years ago now? ( geesh )
I didn't ask this collage to be made. It arrived. and it profoundly affirmed ... "This was not your fault." It said. "He was broken. He came from a past that haunted him. He failed you and he failed himself. "
I needed to know that at the time.
Working with others - in workshops and collage circles, the collage reveal is sometimes hard to see. A bit like the above collage. This was not an easy piece to be with.
Today I am working on another residency application and I have been updating my resume.
I make many different things. Mini stitched collages. Certain work in certain dimensions for upcoming events. It's hard to keep track of it all.
( I admit that I am not the best at keeping my records/portfolio in order )
In current times I am working on a long term collage project titled The People Project.
It continues to be a work in progress. It's a project that I submit to artist residencies.
The project began in 2018. With many collages created in an 18x24 format.
I felt overwhelmed after a year of working large because of limited storage space
I shifted the theme to a 9x12 format - sorry, they are not uploading to this post. click link to view
When I began to stitch my work, or replicate crazy quilt style pieces like quilting with paper,
these 8x8 collages were born! i called them portraiture within a boundary
Both of the above sizes are now in the process of being bound. Binding is a way to finish a collage and make it easier to hang.
Below - Before and After Binding. 8x8
A 9x12 after its been bound
So far....or as of Spring 2024
2 18x24 Collages.
the 2 18x24 that spired the title of the project.
*a few others of this size could fit the theme
27 - 9x12 -ish Collages. ish, means that after these were bound they became smaller in size.
26 - 8x8 - 26
*total: 55
* forgive that these might be inexact #'s - i keep making and sometimes lose count.
Collage Constellations at Meloy Gallery
Coming to Meloy Gallery April 19th, 2024 through May
A group exhibit featuring collage art titled: Collage Constellations
14 Collage Artists will be represented.
collages above by John Arbuckle, Lisa Snow Lady, Diane Tchakirides, Karen Hanrahan, Adetola Abatan, Joan Stuart Ross, Lynn Skordal, Mary Jo Maute, Lisa Sheets.
Below are the 4 8x8 stitched collages I submitted.
Bird collages were created in 2020
Haiku Kids Art Walk At MakeShift 2024
I enjoy participating in this local and annual call for art at Make.Shift
2024 - Join us on Friday, May 3rd from 5pm-9pm as we celebrate the opening of “Haiku", the seventh annual collaboration between Make.Shift and 4th, 5th and 6th grade students at SamishWoods Montessori.
Each year, students create watercolor paintings based on a theme and artists in the
Bellingham community and beyond create response pieces in a variety of mediums. Each diptych created in
this collaborative manner tells the story of a visual dialogue between a student and an adult artist, with the
student taking the lead and providing the inspiration for the adult. This format challenges the notion that adults
are always the teachers, the leaders, and the sources of inspiration. Students really enjoy seeing the way their
paintings are interpreted and relish the chance to take the lead in the creation process.
This year’s theme is “haiku” and students each wrote a haiku and created a painting to visually represent it. For
cultural context, Mayumi Paluh visited the classroom to share with students about the history and significance
of Haiku in Japan, and about growing up in a Japanese town famous for haiku.
My Student's Name: Shylo
Shylo's Haiku and Art:
Haiku
Rain
The blossom tree sways
as the sweet wind blows softly
and the petals fall off.
My submit:
title: pink petal in the rain
size: 4x6
medium: photograph
bio: For quite sometime I thought of myself as a closet creative. To me, that meant I wasn’t officially an artist. As of late, I am out of the closet creatively. I feel like an artist each and every day! I am captivated by the image stories around me. This has me taking way too many photographs! Self taught, utilizing a simple point and shoot camera, I work intuitively. My image capturing style is described as organic, up close, and authentic. They say that my images are narrative. I like that!
artist statement: In the past i have submitted collage art to this group show, but my first thought after reading Shylo's beautiful Haiku was this photograph. taken in 2016.
please donate this photograph to the artist and family.
Karen Hanrahan
Make.Shift Art Space is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit DIY venue dedicated to providing a space for all ages art and
music in Bellingham. The 8,000-square-foot space includes 21 studios, an award-winning gallery, a live music
performance space and a low-power radio station KZAX 94.9. We are an all-ages space dedicated to a policy
of no booze, no drugs, no jerks.
Fowl Play Invitational At Smith and Vallee Gallery
Smith and Vallee Gallery is in the old school house in Edison which is in the Skagit Valley, WA. When I moved to the PNW ( in 2015 ) I felt like a stranger in a strange land. Since I was raised in the midwest I sometimes feel like I might always feel that way. The two are so different!
This is my 6th year participating in the galleries bird themed invitational. I pinch myself at how many years I've participated because sometimes i still feel new here. The gallery makes me feel like I belong and I really value that.
For Fowl Play I submitted older works. 6 bird pieces made during a time when I was still developing my stitched collage work. I had been gifted a book of vintage birds, and a priceless bird book made by a 9 year old boy in 1935. He was the father of a gal I know. These 6 resources for these particular birds are from 1900. All told 40 + pieces of collage art were made at this time. They have shown in a variety of circumstances, some have sold. I've not shown these 6 yet, which is why I felt that they would be perfect for this year. By design they hang individually but in a grid, a bit like a quilt.
I love the 30 minute trek to Edison. I visit certain places near by and snap an annual image. An "I see you" moment, mostly in the form of a drive by. its just enough of a dose of road trip, familiar and beautiful to have me feel happy. I like that.
I make sure to use the rest room at the gallery. ( art in bathrooms. love. )
and to eat a kouign-mann from Bread Farm ( omg )
Photography = a never ending opportunity to capture visual celebrations.
