Kristin’s students from Columbia Academy in Columbia, Maryland made their own collages after studying my work. The students are 7th and 8th graders, and it was wonderful seeing their painting with paper works of art!
Several of the students had a great way of incorporating text into their collages, like this owl collage.
While others focused on using different textures along with a few solid colors.
I liked how this particular piece made use of type along with the composition of a cardinal.
Overall, I was really impressed with Kristin’s class. As always, it brightens my day when I have a chance to see student work inspired by my art.
And to all the other student artists out there – keep up the great work! I am always impressed by what you are creating!
“The Contemporary Unicorn” Collage on paper. 5″x7″ Order a print
I’ve always thought rhinos were fascinating animals. They look like aliens in many ways, and for that reason, I thought I’d focus on their peculiar appearance when naming this piece. And sometimes you just want to have fun when titling your work!
I also wanted to play around with layers, so this collage has more obvious layers than my usual work. Typically my collages are pretty flat, while this one is raised in different sections. I think I’ll try to focus more on layers and texture for my next few pieces.
This is one of the paintings I completed during my freshman year of college. I decided to make a slightly abstract piece, and started off with an acrylic painting, then drew on top of it with oil pastel. I was always drawn to using oil pastels back then. I think there’s just something about the way drawn markings look that I always enjoyed incorporating them into my artwork.
“Hippo’s Day Out.” Collage on paper. 18″x24″ Order a print
Saturday, November 4, 2017 6pm – 10pm
National Airport, Historic Terminal A
I’m excited to announce that I’ve donated my “Hippo’s Day Out” collage to an upcoming charity art auction called PawCasso. The event is taking place on November 4th, and raises money for Homeward Trails Animal Rescue. You can find out more about what’s up for auction, as well as get tickets to the event, by visiting their website.
I was looking through a few old sketches I made back in college, and came across this self portrait. It made me realize that over the past few years, I’ve had a tendency to focus a little too much on collage. I think I’d really enjoy revisiting some of these other mediums that I used to work in. Perhaps I should start a new color pencil sketch series? We shall see…if anything, it’s been great getting inspired by artwork from my past. I’m looking forward to changing things up again in the future.
Bosty wanted to travel to another country, so he hopped on a plane to Mexico City. He started off his trip wandering around the streets, swinging by places like the Placio de Bellas Artes to check out the latest art exhibits.
Afterwards he did some exploring and snapped pictures of interesting buildings. He especially liked the House of Tiles (Casa de los Azulejos) with the intricate pattern of tiles on the building’s exterior.
He had so much fun learning about a new city and hearing everyone around him speaking Spanish. It was wonderful being in a place that was so different when compared to his home in the U.S.
The Centro Histórico was a great place to take in the sights. Bosty liked how this one building was decorated and ready for celebrating.
He liked how colorful the streets were, with some buildings that were painted bright colors.
And he was amazed by how many beautiful public areas were in the city, some filled with unusual and unique sculptures.
The next day he went on a day trip to Teotihuacan to visit the pyramids. He was pretty proud of himself for hiking up and down the Pyramid of the Sun.
The best part of climbing up the pyramids was seeing the beautiful view of the area. Bosty had never seen anything quite like it before. I think he might even be inspired to check out the pyramids of Giza in the future…
The following day, Bosty continued to sight-see as much as he could. He even got to see the pole flyers and their Dance of the Flyers (Danza de los Voladores), which was an exciting experience for a tourist.
He ended his trip by swinging by a couple of museums. One of his favorites was Museo Soumaya, which had an incredible art collection. Bosty couldn’t believe how many works of art they had – he could have easily gotten lost in the museum for hours, just admiring all that artwork.
Next he strolled around the Museo Jumex to see a couple of their modern art exhibits. He liked how the building sort of looked like a factory drawing.
Overall, Bosty was pleased with his excursion and really enjoyed getting to know a new place.
I made this textured oil painting back when I was a junior in college. This was part of my studio work as a painting major, and I was trying to tackle a still life and make it interesting for myself. I remember I used to try to avoid making still life works of art because I didn’t think they were very exciting. These days I’m more interested in tackling still life when it involves food of some sort.
I used my palette knife for the vast majority of this painting. You can see a lot of texture in the background, and I actually layered quite a few layers of paint for sections of the hat as well.
This photo collage was one of my art projects back when I was in college. We had to pick a shape and then take pictures of objects that contained that shape. It was an interesting exercise that got you thinking more about the shapes that make up objects around us.
I decided to pick triangles and after I took a series of pictures, I cropped them, printed them out in our computer lab, and rearranged the photos on a square piece of paper.
Overall, I enjoyed finding shapes in unexpected places. And I also liked the process of arranging the cropped images – finding a good balance of color and the variation of the similar shapes.
“The Colorful Parrot” Collage on paper. 5″x7″ Order a print
Lately I’ve been using more solid colors in my collages, so this time around, I wanted to mix in more textures. You can see that I’ve still used bits and pieces of solid colors, however the background consists of fragments of images of the outdoors, while the blue feathers and beak have a little more texture or patterns when compared to other areas of the collage. For the blue, I stumbled upon a blue tile-like pattern, and figured I’d see how it would look when I incorporated it into the piece. Sometimes I never know how a specific texture or pattern will work out until I layer it down on my artwork. I can always peel back layers if they don’t work out, so the process is always somewhat of a journey.
This piece was inspired by one of the many visits I’ve made to a zoo. Zoos are the easiest way for me to see exotic animals in-person, where I can take lots of pictures to later use as references for my artwork.
I’ve found a lot of inspiration from the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Over the years, I’ve visited the zoo numerous times, and have taken lots of pictures of the animals in their different exhibits. I thought I’d share some images of the work I’ve made that was specifically inspired by some of the animals found at the National Zoo.
“Red Ruffed Lemur.” Collage on paper. 18″x24″ Order a print
I’m fascinated by lemurs, and think that the red ruffed lemur is a beautiful creature with colorful fur and bright eyes. When I was walking by the exhibit where this particular lemur lives, I just had to take a few pictures which later inspired this piece.
“Fine Dining for Pandas.” Collage on paper. 18″x24″ Order a print
Pandas are a lot of fun to collage. This collage was inspired by feeding time for the pandas, where one of the pandas was so engrossed with eating bamboo.
“Tree Baby (Firefox).” Collage on paper. 16″x12″ Order a print
This collage was inspired by a day when one of the red pandas was pretty active, climbing around his or her home.
“Cuddling Meerkats.” Collage on paper. 18″x24″ Order a print
Meerkats are one of my favorite animals. During one of my zoo visits, several of the meerkats were clumped together and looked like they were all cuddling with each other. I just had to take several pictures of them and use those images as references for this collage.
“What Are You Looking At?” (Orangutan). Collage on paper. 16″x12″ Order a print
It’s eerie how much orangutans look like people to me. They’re so expressive, and it seems like half the time I see them at the zoo, it’s difficult to tell who is really watching who.
“Turtle that thinks she’s a Giraffe.” Collage on paper. 18″x24″ Order a print
During another zoo visit, I noticed a turtle that had an unusually long neck, and it reminded me of giraffes. From the turtle’s unusual appearance, I was inspired to make a piece modeled after that species.
I love how colorful flamingos are, and I always enjoy taking pictures of them to use as references for future works of art. I suppose I’m really drawn to their vivid pink feathers.
“The Otter Sisters.” Collage on paper. 18″x24″ Order a print
I think otters are adorable and I always get excited when I see them at the zoo.
Animals are definitely one of my favorite subjects to collage. I love how they come in so many shapes, sizes, and colors. And I really appreciate that Washington, D.C. has a zoo that is so easily accessible to the public. Being able to visit the zoo frequently, makes it a lot easier for me to tackle my animal compositions.
