Yesterday I installed my “From Fur to Feathers” exhibit at the North Charleston City Gallery, which is located inside of the Charleston Convention Center. I was pretty pleased to see how much foot-traffic the gallery gets.
Here are the two collages we installed by the front desk – “Brown Bear” is the image that was used to promote my show.
Here’s an angle of part of the space. I have just about thirty animal collages on display there.
And here’s a view of the hallway that you walk through to see the artwork. I was pretty surprised to see how much wall space I had. Anyway, it was great getting the show up. I’ll be back again once it closes to pick-up my work.
“Brown Bear.” Collage on paper. 12″x16″ Order a print
August 2nd – 31st, 2012 City Gallery; North Charleston, South Carolina Map and Gallery Info
Artist Reception: Thursday, August 2nd
from 5:00 – 7:00p.m.
Animals are one of Megan Coyle’s favorite collage subjects. While growing up, she was drawn to nature and liked visiting wildlife parks and the zoo. Now Coyle continues to visit those places, although this time she goes to find inspiration for future works of art.
“From Fur to Feathers” featured several of her animal collages, including a few new collages that were completed in 2012. It showcased a body of work that focused on the diversity of creatures that live in the natural world.
Coyle’s exhibit, “From Fur to Feathers,” was one of two solo exhibits on display for the month of August at the North Charleston City Gallery. (Note: Initially this exhibit was described as a two-person show, although it is actually one of two concurrent solo shows)
“A Piece of the Jefferson Memorial.” Collage on paper. 12″x16″ Order a print
And still trekking along with the landscape/cityscape series. I’m doing my best to get inspired by my DC surroundings. I’ve got to admit, I’m much more interested in animals and people as subjects – they are so intricate and interesting. So it’s quite the challenge working on this series. But of course the challenge is much needed – I need to explore and experiment with other subjects.
“DC Reflections.” Collage on paper. 12″x16″ Order a print
And here’s the finished version. I might do another angle of this scene for another collage in this series. We shall see…and it looks like I might do more than twenty new collages for this series. At first I was thinking of making the series all the same size, but now I’m thinking about the possibility of making a variety of different sized collages.
Yesterday I installed an exhibit of fifteen of my collages over at Beatley Library, “Animals in Paper.” The installation process was quite the experience for this show – I had to climb up a sixteen-foot ladder to latch the hooks into the molding.
Here you can get a sense of the height of the walls.
Some of the collages were tiered for a couple of the walls.
I sort of liked the way this particular one was tiered with everything shifted to one side or another.
Anyway, I’m off to start planning my upcoming exhibit in August – a two-person show in Charleston, South Carolina.
This week the “Subject to the Interpretation” exhibit at the Ward Museum ended. It was my second group exhibit at a museum, although the Ward Museum is the first museum that has accepted a couple of my collages into its permanent collection. They now own my “Flamingo Dancers” (above) and “Mallard Duck” (below). I’m happy to know that those collages now have a permanent home there – and I also like how the museum owns some work by the illustrator Charley Harper. I’m honored that my collages were in an exhibit that featured a couple of Harper’s pieces.
Here I am posed in front of my “Mallard Duck” collage in the exhibit. To the left of the piece is a picture of the Duck & Fish book cover – the Ward Museum is also selling my book in their gift shop.
And here I am checking out my book in the shop.
Above is a picture of the Ward Museum – it has a pretty interesting structure. I’m glad I was able to swing by Salisbury, Maryland to check out the show before it ended.
“Fine Dining for Pandas.” Collage on paper. 18″x24″ Order a print
July 7th – September 29th, 2012 Beatley Alexandria City Gallery; Alexandria, Virginia Map and Gallery Info
Megan Coyle’s work was on display in a solo show at the Beatley Alexandria City Gallery. The Alexandria City Gallery Program exhibits the artwork of local artists in fifteen city galleries.
As a child, Coyle was always drawn to animals and colorful illustrations. Growing up in the D.C. area made it easy for her to visit the Smithsonian museums. She especially enjoyed visiting the animals at the zoo and seeing the animal exhibits at the Natural History Museum. Coyle continues to visit those places, but now she does it to study and gather inspiration for future works of art.
“Animals in Paper” featured several of Coyle’s new animal collages alongside a few older works of art. Her newer pieces included several 18″x24″ animal collages depicting species that didn’t appear in her previous work. The artwork explored the colorful diversity of animals in nature – with mammals, reptiles, and birds.
Inspired by color and the unique characteristics of different species, Coyle has created familiar images of animals big and small. All the collages were constructed entirely from magazine strips using a technique she calls “painting with paper.” If you were able to stop by for a visit, you could get a closer look at all the layers used for these paper creations.
“Urban Sunsets.” Collage on paper. 12″x16″ Order a print
Here’s the first collage I’ve done for my new scapes series. I’m planning to create twenty new collages in all, which will be inspired by D.C./Northern Virginia area sights. Once the series is complete, I’ll display the work in an exhibit next year.
“Urban Sunsets” is inspired by D.C. sunsets, with an office-building skyline. More scenes to come soon…
Today I installed my exhibit over at Shirlington Library – “Made from Magazines.” It features ten of my animal collages and includes some of my newer work alongside older pieces.
When you first walk in, you see these two pieces hanging above a table with books propped upright.
I like how the space includes white and red walls. It’s a nice contrast.
This piece is close to the front window.
Anyway, I’m off to get prepared for a couple more exhibits that I have coming up. I have another installation going on next weekend. Whew – busy, busy!
