Blue has always been one of my favorite colors. I’ve found that whenever I make a collage portrait and I’m not sure what color shirt to give the sitter, I default to the color blue. Thus when I heard about the “Blue: An Interpretation” exhibit I was excited to submit a couple of the blue collages I’ve completed over the years.
The “Blue” exhibit came down on Sunday. Several days ago I did some gallery-sitting and above are some photographs from my visit.
My “Collage Scapes” exhibit at NIH closed on Friday afternoon. I swung by to pick up my work on Saturday morning, and now the pieces are safely in storage. Here are some images of the artwork when it was on display there.
I made this series specifically for this show – my goal was to focus on a subject matter that I don’t really focus a lot of energy on these days – landscapes and cityscapes. I was pleased with the finished product and hope to explore more scapes scenes in the future.
November 5th – 21st, 2010
Nicholas Colasanto Center; Alexandria, Virginia
Map and Gallery Info
“Blue: An Interpretation” was an all member show held by the Del Ray Artisans at the Nicholas Colasanto Center. The show featured the work of several local artists working in a variety of media while exploring different depictions of blue.
If you’ve taken a look at Megan’s work, you’ve probably noticed that she uses a lot of blue. Blue is a color that has frequently appeared in her work over the years. When she heard that the Del Ray Artisans were having a “Blue” exhibition, she was excited to share a couple of her collages that relate to the theme of the show.
Megan’s “A Piece of the Ocean” and “Blue Beaver” were on display for the duration of the exhibit. Both pieces were recently exhibited in “The Animal Kingdom” solo exhibit.
Today “Collage Scapes” opens at the East Alcove Gallery at NIH. The show will run from September 10th until November 5th, 2010. It features eight of my landscape and cityscape pieces. Of those eight, seven were completed within the past couple of months – so the majority of the work is fairly new.
I decided I wanted to create new scapes for this exhibit since I have a tendency of focusing a lot on animal and portraiture collages. I wanted to change things up a bit and add a little more range to my portfolio. Landscapes and still life work is something that I don’t often do, and I’m trying to incorporate more of these subjects into my work.
With “Collage Scapes,” my goal is to capture the color in everyday settings. More specifically, I wanted to capture scenes that are familiar to me and present them in a different light.
September 10th – November 5th, 2010
The East Alcove Gallery, NIH; Bethesda, Maryland
Map and Gallery Info
Eight of Megan Coyle’s latest collage scapes were on display in one of the National Institute of Health’s clinical galleries – The East Alcove Gallery.
Landscapes and cityscapes are one of the subjects that Megan hasn’t explored too often, and she wanted “Collage Scapes” to serve as a body of work where she’d explore the world around us in nature and urban life.
Her new landscape and cityscape collages featured scenes around the Washington, DC area, as well as New York City and abroad. With subjects ranging from local memorials to townhouses, Megan focused on the color that surrounds us in everyday environments.
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.
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.
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 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.
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:
I had a blast at my opening reception for “Stories in Paper” on July 8th. Here are some photos that my dad took during the opening:
Here you can see my name on the wall along with the title of the show. I made sixteen collages for the exhibit but we could only fit fourteen in this space.
Here I am talking to a few of the visitors.
People mingling in the gallery before my artist talk.
An HDR shot of my brother filming the gallery – he came all the way from NYC just for the opening. What a surprise!
Beginning my talk – the gallery set up a projector for me so I could show slides as I discussed my work. It was especially helpful since I could show photographs of each step for my work in progress.
The crowd standing near one of the solo gallery entrances – you can see a bit of the work from the all-media membership show for the Art League.
And an action shot of my talk.
I can’t believe the reception is already over. The show was scheduled for 2010 back in 2008, so I had a couple of years waiting for this exhibit.
In other news, it’s been a few days since my last blog post – I’ve been quite busy preparing for the next couple events I have planned in my agenda. This week I’m giving a little talk and demonstration to a collage group that’s stopping by my studio, and on Thursday I’m giving a lecture on blogging.
Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!