Brick House Pictures

I was pleased with the opening for my show Brick House.  Officially it started at 5:30 last Friday evening.  At about 5:45 I started to panic a bit because no one was coming by yet.  But from 6 to 8 there was a really nice steady flow of people and comments were positive.  And, if someone thought the work was awful they, thankfully, kept their thoughts to themselves.

The series features my own handmade paper on canvas.  Each brick is a separate piece of paper painted using a variety of painting techniques.  The grout texture is made by using the surface of the canvas along with modeling paste and sand swiped from the neighbor's sandbox.  What really makes these work is that I finally figured out how to use shadowing to enhance the texture of the papers.  Ah, progress!

Here are some pictures from the evening...

This picture gives you an idea of the scale of the work.  It also shows me looking better than usual.

I talked at length with a very interesting and interested lady about this piece.  It was sold in my mind.  However, this gallery at the college doesn't allow for immediate purchase and as of this minute I haven't heard from the lady.  I'm still hopeful; however, if you need to have this piece in your home it's yours for $350.

I like the size of this one and the colors turned out really nice.  I plan to use this one as my "show" piece and will finally have something to enter into the Kalamazoo Area Show this year.

Here's the entire wall, about 30 feet.  The comment I heard most often is "I want to touch this".  I say go ahead.  The texture of the handmade paper along with the various painting techniques encourage it.  I think most wanted to touch the pieces because they couldn't figure out the materials used.

This is the smallest painting, 24" x 18" but the most involved.  The patches are plaster, the bricks are handmade paper.

The show is up at the Center for New Media/KVCC (downtown Kalamazoo, across the mall from the Raddison) until the 28th of November.

Lorrie