Detour! Merican-Tastic! SWAG!!

A sad fact of life is that people come and go in our lives.  We celebrate the time with good ones -regardless of how brief our time was.  So is the case with my studio neighbor, Brooke.  Her path now leads to new adventures in Michigan.  Brooke is a printmaker and illustrator  Here is a link to her website 2fortheshowdesign:  http://www.twofortheshowdesign.com/ so you can check out some of her work.

A shot of Brooke peeking out of one of Monica Correia's sculpture/installations from the PLAY show back in 2010 (at Quad City Arts Gallery in Rock Island http://www.quadcityarts.com/ ).  I believe the photo credit belongs to Susan Czechowski (printmaking Guru who teaches at Western Illinois University).

If you snoop through her site, you'll also find that Brooke has a couple of button-makers for different projects/ideas.  My four-foot assistant and I were lucky enough to borrow Brooke's button-makers for a few days while she packed up her studio.

So here are a few shots of the button components prior to assembly...

The front section is three pieces: the metal piece which provides the shape, the 'artwork', and a thin sheet of Mylar.

The back section is either just a ring (for the smaller ones), or: a ring, mirror and a bent spacer disc.

The completed piece!

Here are a couple of shots of some of the buttons I banged out during our two sessions.

The buttons I made will be some type of Swag for Merican-Tastic! later this coming summer.

Some of the 'artwork' for the buttons came from old advertisements, old comic books, and some photograms and cyanotypes I made back in 2006 while filling in for my photography/printmaking-mentor, Phil Laber while he was on sabbatical in Italy (Phil Laber's website: http://www.philiplaber.com/ ).

Here are a few examples of both types of photo-based works.  They are all rooted in the same 'family' of sketches I use to create the layers in my painted constructions.  I showed them once at the now defunct Leger Gallery (downtown Davenport) along with works from Karen Blomme and Terry Rathje in a show called Impromptu.  I never really developed these into any kind of cohesive body of work, so for the most part, they only exist in a pile in my studio and on my hard drive.  Below, is our 'promotional image' for the show. It is the brainchild of Terry Rathje.

Here are some of the images...

Time to land this plane.  Brooke, I wish you the best in your new life.  Thank you for you wit, wisdom, playful smile and sincerity.  You will be missed.....next time you're in town, reserve time for some WooDogs magic!