Year: 2010 | Megan Coyle: Artist & Illustrator

August 5, 2010January 29, 2017

Artist Talk at Goodwin House

Megan Coyle collage artist Tonight I stopped by the Goodwin House to give an artist talk to the residents for my exhibit, “The Animal Kingdom.” I did another PowerPoint presentation where I walked the audience through my process step-by-step and also shared images of the other subjects I collage. Afterward I held a Q & A session that lasted for quite a while – I received lots of questions about the specifics of my technique – the type of paper I use, the type of glue I work with, how I work with the layers, and so on and so forth.

I had a pleasant evening at the reception and made sure to take some photographs of the artwork on the walls. I always try to take pictures of my artwork once it’s installed in an exhibition just for the sake of documenting my work.

Anyway, here are a few more images from the show:

“Hungry Hippo” is the largest piece in the show (24″x18″) and is one of my personal favorites. I probably like this piece because it was inspired by a trip to the zoo where the hippo stuck his tongue out when he saw a zookeeper walk by with a bucket of veggies.

There are nearly forty pieces in this exhibit. Here you can see from the angle view that there are a range of sizes. Since the pieces are smaller than the size I work in for portraiture, it was a bit easier making a larger body of work.

Another angle view – here you can see the collage I used for the postcards.

And lastly, I put together a little spot where I have my artist statement, a stack of artist bio pamphlets, the postcards I designed, my business card, and lastly, the guestbook. I also had some brochures on commission work but they were all gone when I stopped by today.

I hope everyone is having a great week! I’ve been having quite a bit of fun these past few weeks, although I’m excited that now I can rest a little more on the weekends and take it easy. In June and July I was working about seven days a week because of the visiting artist program I was a part of, and now it’s nice not having to be in an office/studio every day of the week. Anyway, that’s all for now.

August 2, 2010January 29, 2017

Stories in Paper: Exhibit Ending

This late afternoon “Stories in Paper” will be uninstalled. I had a lot of fun having this exhibition up at the Art League Gallery – and I can’t believe the show has run its course already.

So while saying “good-bye” to the end of another show, I thought I’d post a few pictures I took of the work hanging on the gallery walls. Here’s the easel sitting outside the Art League with the poster advertising my exhibit.

The postcard collage up on the wall.

The space where I set out a guest book, booklet of more of my work, and other marketing materials.

A shot of one of the gallery’s walls (the one with my name and exhibit title on it).

Another angle.

I was really proud of the work that I had in this show – the majority of it was completed last year. I created about twenty of collages for the show, picked sixteen from the group to have in the gallery, and during installation only fourteen pieces could fit.

Farewell to “Stories in Paper” – although with each exhibit, I seem to learn more and more about marketing my work and playing around with subject matter.

August 1, 2010June 11, 2024

The Animal Kingdom: A Series of Animal Collages

Elephant by collage artist Megan Coyle — “Elephant.” Collage on paper. 9″x12″
Order a print

August 1st – September 25th, 2010
Goodwin Gallery; Alexandria, Virginia
Map and Gallery Info

Reception & Artist Talk: Wednesday, August 4th, 2010 at 7:00p.m.

“The Animal Kingdom” featured animal collages ranging from domestic animals like cats and dogs, to more exotic animals like giraffes and elephants. Megan’s exhibit examined the diverse world of colorful and familiar creatures. Most of the artwork on display was inspired by the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum and the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

The exhibition included older works that appear in the online animal gallery as well as newer works that Megan prepared specifically for this exhibition. All artwork in the exhibition was available for sale.

July 31, 2010January 29, 2017

Studio Move-out

Tomorrow I’m moving out of the Torpedo Factory studio that I’ve been working in for the past couple of months. It’s been quite an experience – and it’s amazing how much the look of the studio has changed over time. You can take a look at my pictures from when I first moved in to get an idea of what changes I made over time.

I’ll get to work for a couple of hours before I start packing things up. I’ve already made some space in my apartment to serve as my home “studio.” And although I have a nook set aside for myself, I think that in the next couple of months I’ll want to focus more on making animations. We shall see…

Above is a shot of my wall and pedestals complete with lettering that I taped to the wall. I noticed that a lot of visitors previously thought all my pieces were paintings and would just walk on by. The lettering really helped me out – it would catch their eye, drawn them in, and make them realize that it was made of paper.

A few weeks ago I moved in a small desk that you can see towards the back there – I turned it into my work desk so visitors would have a better view of me collaging when they walked in.

Some of the magnet packs I made – I sold quite a few of these at the studio. They were pretty popular – and seemed to work well with all the tourists that come in and out of the art center.

And here’s an image of my guest book, magnets, note cards, and digital picture frame that showed a slide show of my other work that wasn’t hanging in the gallery.Anyway, although I’m moving out and one more thing will be behind me, I’m really looking forward to what’s coming up these next couple of months.

July 27, 2010January 29, 2017

Materials

People are often curious about how I construct my collages, so I thought I’d share a few photos of the materials I use. Several of these pictures were included in my PowerPoint for the “Stories in Paper” artist talk.

For all my “work in progress” I use scissors, magazine pages, and Elmer’s acid-free glue sticks. Some people ask if I ever use X-Acto knives and I don’t – I’ve found that good old scissors work fine for me. I think X-Acto knives would be something I’d use if I wanted to be very precise with the shapes I cut out. Since my goal is to make each collage reminiscent of a painting, there isn’t a need to be so precise with the shapes of my magazine cut-outs. It works better if my shapes are eye-balled and looser.

I use acid-free glue sticks as I work because of how flexible they are. The glue isn’t permanent, thus I can easily lift up collage pieces and move them around. I can peel back magazine strips in certain areas to let previous layers shine through. Once I’m finished with a piece, I go back in and varnish the entire work to seal it all together and to help protect the paper.

Usually I’ll work with a couple piles of magazines surrounding me. That way my materials are at my fingertips – I can easily grab a magazine and start paging through it if I’m searching for a specific color or have an idea of a texture I’d like.

Sometimes I’ll tear out magazine pages based on their color and texture and file them away in folders. That way, if I’m working on a collage and I’m in need of a specific color, I don’t have to hunt around for long – I can simply pull out the folder filled with magazine pages of that color.

Here’s a picture of me working with a glue stick and scissors as I cut out magazine strips for a landscape piece. This picture was taken by a writer from the Gazette Packet who wrote an article about the visiting artist program that I’ve been a part of.

And here’s an older picture of myself sitting on the floor working away on a collage I completed in 2008. Sometimes the floor is just the best workspace – you can really spread out with all your piles of paper.

So that’s everything for now. I’ll revisit my process another time to focus on another aspect of it.

July 27, 2010June 15, 2024

Mr. Kangaroo

This piece was inspired by a trip that I took the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum. A lot of my animal collages are inspired by trips to the Natural History Museum when I swing by their animal exhibits – or the National Zoo. I’m really having quite a bit of fun making animal collages – after making so many figurative pieces earlier this year, it’s definitely a nice change of pace.

I’m beginning a lot of exhibition prep work for the animal exhibition that goes up this coming Sunday, August 1st. My “to do” list includes framing all the artwork, preparing an artist talk, and getting together all my postcards, business cards, etc. to set out during the show. We shall see how it goes…

July 26, 2010January 29, 2017

Stories in Paper Video

So my brother has done it again – for the opening for “Stories in Paper” he took a bus down from NYC just to spend a couple of hours at my reception before heading back up. He took a lot of video at the event and then edited it all. So if you missed the opening, or simply live too far away to come see the show, here you can get a taste of what it’s like being in the gallery space:

July 23, 2010June 15, 2024

Pelicans

Inspired by a walk through the National Zoo – these two pelicans were swimming about in the seal exhibit. Again you can see I’m drawn to the blues in water. There’s just something that’s really fun about working with reflections in water.

In other news, I was pretty excited today to receive my contract for my solo show at Krempp Gallery in May 2011. It’s in Jasper, Indiana, although I’m planning to take a road trip when the time comes to deliver about twenty to thirty collages for the show. One of my goals this year was to get an exhibit in a gallery from a state that I’m not affiliated with at all and I’m pleased that my work will be off to the Midwest before long.

Anyway, I’m off to work on getting things a little more organized around my room. I’ll be busy with quite a bit planning these next couple of weeks.

July 20, 2010June 15, 2024

Blue Rhino

This piece was inspired by one of my visits to the Natural History Museum. I decided to make him a blue rhino because I’ve found that blue is just one of my favorite colors to use in collages. There are also so many different shades and textures of blue that you can find when flipping through magazines. I suppose I’m just drawn to the variety.

So things are still a little bit busy. I’m currently working away on a few landscape and cityscape pieces for an upcoming show. And goodness – time is just flying by. I can’t believe it’s mid-July – before long I’ll be packing up the studio and leaving the art center. It’s been a great two months. I’ve learned quite a bit from it all. And so we move on…

My crazy week of artist talks and lectures is over with. You can check out the Art League Gallery’s blog post on my blog lecture from the other day. A few down, and many more to go. With each presentation, I learn quite a bit from what is working and what needs improvement. For the upcoming animal solo show, I’m doing another artist talk. Since I’ll be talking about my source of inspiration for animal collages, it will be a little different than my recent talks.

Anyway, it’s getting a tad bit late, so I should go off to bed soon. I hope everyone had a happy Monday!

July 15, 2010June 15, 2024

Orange Monkey

This little guy was hanging out at the zoo and I just had to do a collage of him. I immediately loved his inquisitive little face. I had some fun with the texture in this piece.

Anyway, things are still pretty busy. I’ve decided to do another artist talk for my upcoming animal exhibition in August. So…more things to plan for. I really am loving what I’m doing though – which explains why I keep trying to take advantage of every opportunity that walks on by.