Katie Blake

1911 -What a Life! Fine Art Collage beginnings

katiemblake — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 20:34:17 +0000

Do you know the word of Sir Peter Blake? No relation to me that I’m aware of however i’ve only recently known of his work.. Despite the rather famous cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, I just never made the connection til I began in earnest to look at the collage work of Pop Artists.

There was a show Mr. Blake put together in 2000 with the Tate Gallery in Liverpool, Peter Blake About Collage. The works gathered together for that show and specifically noted in the document by Dawn Ades, Collage: A Brief History suggested I dig for the 1911 publication called What a Life! which Ades suggests pre-dates the Picasso/Barque invention of papier colle. I’d never heard of this publication previously..but what an exciting precursor!

Happily this publication has been scanned in its entirety.

http://www.fulltable.com/vts/m/montage/evl.htm

Enjoy!

If your house was burning

katiemblake — Wed, 25 May 2011 17:28:55 +0000

I had to watch a film in the 3rd grade about what to do if my house was on fire. It was terrifying then and admittedly still haunts me today. A neighbor’s house burned when I was a little kid, they moved. Another family moved in and that same house caught on fire again, this time burning almost to the ground. I’ve been on vacation when a fire broke out across the street,we watched the blaze through our window. A few years ago the house next to my parents’ caught fire when there were multiple car and paint explosions inside their garage, and lastly the year I lived in Santa Barbara I was evacuated three times because of rampant wildfires in the area.

I guess I’ve had my share of close fires, perhaps it isn’t such a stretch that i worry often about what to take if my space bursts into flames.

As an artist have you considered this? I sometimes wonder if it isnt’ because I am an artist that I worry more than I should? My art and the artwork I have collected over the years carries the evidence of me in this world and is irreplacable.

Here is an artist Jessica Goodman’s Burning House project with this as the central concept…what would you take if your house was burning? She has a photographed many a person’s chosen items. So far my own list seems to be closest to 6 year old Brody Tors as seen in Jessica’s photo below.

Faux Life by Gustav Reyes

katiemblake — Fri, 13 May 2011 20:36:40 +0000

May I draw your attention to the mixed media work of Gustav Reyes? This piece featured at the Wantoot (Moderan American Art and Craft) is wood, cardboard, paint, pearl, magnet and plastic.

The description claims it has a detachable brooch. Quite unique, quite beautiful. I love it, but would also worry i’d loose the brooch.

Faux Life – Wantoot.

Cut to sooth

katiemblake — Mon, 02 May 2011 21:54:39 +0000

Do you know any disabled artists?

Let me introduce you to collage artist, Wil C. Kerner aka The Cutout Kid. http://wilspapercutouts.com/ Wil has Autism. After a gift of scissors from his family, it sounds like Wil took to cutting things out rather quickly. His artistic vent sounds like it is helping him to cope with identifying emotion, color, communication and heightening his social function. Wil is blessed with art in his life.

Art with a Heart Gallery in Seattle, Washington is hosting a show with collages by Wil and prints of his collages this month. http://artwithaheartgallery.com/

Mix and Match collage show

katiemblake — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 15:37:41 +0000

I submitted an entry for the show “Mix and Match” which is a juried travelling collage exhibition. Presented by GO! (Global Opportunities in the Visual Arts). Sadly I was not chosen, however I took immediate delight in receiving the list of those chosen because guess what?! They are collage artists and I can’t get enough of this medium. The artists are:

PETULA BLOOMFIELD; SUSAN GONSALEZ SMITH; PETER GORDON; CHAMBLISS GIOBBI; PETER LEWIS; RYAN SARAH MURPHY; MARGARET NOEL; and MATT PHILLIPS

Mix and Match will take place at Hampden Gallery and Fort Mallary Gallery, in Western Massachusetts, and Atelier 030202 in Bucharest Romania. If i lived anywhere near any of those locations I’d try and go see this show. Some of the artists chosen are not my cup of tea but some of the others are pretty exciting.

The worst part about not being able to see such shows in person is that I cannot experience the physicality of the inherent layering typical of collage. I wonder what it will be like when 3d scans of works which are 2d will start being main stream. It will truly change the viewing experience especially for those of us who live very far away.

After the Drips by Jerry Saltz

katiemblake — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 16:14:29 +0000

“The streams of color in most piss paintings look like the work of men. But the puddles and ponds of the canvas in “Unpainted” make me think it was made by women.” After the Drips [New York Art, published Mar 27,2011]

Killer Cake

katiemblake — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 20:26:16 +0000

This website couldn’t possibly be more awesome.

http://apocalypsecakes.wordpress.com/.

This is what they say about them and this site:

We’re doomed. Eat cake.

A variety of cataclysmic punishments from God continue to rain down upon us. Obviously, this is the time to eat several entire cakes. Use this blog to help you celebrate your time on this earth, for when you look up from your cake-smeared cakehole, the sky will fade ablack, the lakes will blaze aflame and the locusts will buzz aswarming. Eat now, little heathens; there are no cakes in the apocalypse.

Apocalypse Cakes is Shannon O’Malley, writer, and Keith Wilson, photographer. It has been featured in The San Francisco Bay Guardian, The SF Egotist, Fast Company, The Toronto Star, Io9, Nerdcore and others, and is slated for a summer 2011 Running Press book release. If you are interested in mentioning us in your media outlet, please get in touch.

Apocalypse Cakes: Recipes for The End, the book, will be released on July 28, 2011. Pre-order your copy now. Do it. Click here.

apocalypsecakes@gmail.com

In the mood for love, steak burgers tuna

katiemblake — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 18:16:33 +0000

Today is the first day of February, a month in the U.S. which is marked by a plethora of red and pink packaging, chocolates and declarations of love.

Valentine’s Day is celebrated in many forms in different countries around the world. If wikipedia has done their research right then I can repeat the message that it wasn’t invented by Hallmark but that American Greetings on History.com likes to attribute the start to The Golden Legend. Personally, I blame Geoffrey Chaucer…

No matter what reason you don’t want to celebrate romantic love you should at least know that friendship and family and co-workers around the work get their day: Dydd Santes Dwynwen; Saint Valentin; San Valentin; La Diada de Sant Jordi / Dia dos Namorados; Valentinsdag; Alla hjartans dag; Ystävänpäivä; Sõbrapäev; Dragobete; Sevgililer Günü; Dia del Amor y la Amistad; Dia del Carino; Dia dos Namorados; Amigo secreto; 자장면 jajangmyeon; 情人節; pinyin: qíng rén jié; 情人节; Araw ng mga Puso; giri-choko 義理チョコ; honmei-choko 本命チョコ; tomo-choko 友チョコ; White Day; Ai ni Kotaeru White Day; 七夕; Qi Xi; 七夕 Tanabata; Eid el-Hob el-Masri; Tu B’Av

That’s a lot of love in the world.. I’m for it. Plus i like chocolate and when people tell me they care about me. I hope you all have that in your life.

Below is a valentine I made from a memory of walking in the streets of New York City with my friends.

2010 Steak burgers Tuna collage

Dare to hair

katiemblake — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 23:02:21 +0000

I was invited to do a show of my collages at Meg Allen Salon and Spa in the Dimond area of Anchorage Alaska. The Show opens Feb 4th with Meg and her team hosting graciously inside her beautiful salon from 6-9pm. http://megallensalon.com

I had originally meant to hang a show of collages I’ve had for some time, but as the days have gone by I’ve been happily making new ones to supliment the show.

I’ve been inspired by the salon venue and have begun working on a sort of fashion show series which stars some rather beautiful gowns i’ve found in magazines over the years. My favorite so far is a composite from a day dress and a mop. They go together quite nicely and make me feel like those of us who clean the home should be elegantly outfitted while doing so…but then again that would mean designers would have to consider how to make their dresses easy to wear from material that could handle lots of bending and kneeling, not to mention all those chemicals we come into contact with..

Never the less, I suggest looking at a magnificent artist, Jess Collins, who did a small series of Goddess Because works which have also inspired my fashion collages.

Jess Collins: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jess_Collins

There’s always room for luminescent jellies

katiemblake — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 20:33:42 +0000

Not that it has to do with art so much but I have been deeply involved with this: http://alaskamarinescience.org/

I’m the Organizing Chair which means I’m getting more than 100 emails a day just at work with questions and concerns and all while trying to tie up loose ends so this thing happens with as few bumps as possible. A friend of mine in the film industry used to want me to be a producer…well if this is what producing is like I want a bigger budget so I can get more help. It’s going well and I’m proud of the work my team and I have done. If it’s any indication, we’ve had a record-breaking 840 pre-register (last year was 600) for the event..so, I hope by spending the extra several thousands of dollars on food to feed the extra couple hundred people will be well spent!

To tie this all back to art, an artist I met while in New York last October, Dee Shapiro has made an interesting and quite stunning change in her style of work. Previously known for her paintings (equally gorgeous) she is now doing these crazy-beautiful pencil drawings on paper some with ink and Flashe paint. You might be asking yourself what does that have to do with Marine Science? Well, many of her new works feel very animated, as if she is studying moon jellyfish in person or has been discovering new creatures in the ocean. Creatures who wear stripped socks maybe…. Dee Shapiro’s website: http://www.deeshapiro.com/

If you visit Dee’s website, under New Work you will see a drawing “Untitled 4″ Ink and Flashe Paint on paper 2011 that makes me think Dee has seen a creature floating about in the deep ocean, something displaying to attract a mate. There is a sort of vertical, stripped red tail in front which has a halo of Flagellates http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagellate I like to imagine this particular creature is luminescent like moon jellies are…

Dee Shapiro, Untitled 4. 2011

Just to take it one step further, check out Ernst Haeckel’s “Art Forms in Nature” http://tinyurl.com/4oqnact to see his late 19th century drawings.