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There’s No Place Like Home

Juried exhibition, the Society of Layerists in Multi Media
July 22 – August 3, 2014
Hays Art Center, Hays, Kansas

Dorothy is Still Waiting, Collage with papers, pen, and acrylic paint on paper (2014) 18” x10”

Dorothy is Still Waiting, Collage with papers, pen, and acrylic paint on paper (2014) 18” x10”

Dorothy is Still Waiting,

ARTIST STATEMENT: I’m a collage artist and a layerist who loves to work with paper, paint and drawing to create mixed media art. My primary studio practice is geometric abstraction.

It was fun to create figure collages for the exhibition “There’s No Place Like Home.” I connected the little girl from the classic movie the Wizard of Oz (celebrating a 75th anniversary this year) to contemporary cut and pasted collage. This collage is constructed with fashion magazine images and juxtaposed papers to create a narrative with a twist. It’s mixed media in mixed metaphor.

“Dorothy is Still Waiting” and “Multiples” shows Dorothy with red shoes – red shoes were required – but this Dorothy Gale is made with magazine images. I found tall, edgy models in W and Vogue. I shortened their legs, rotated their hips, and altered poses. I juxtaposed mouths over mouths and eyes over eyes and changed their expression. Each collage comes with a story and where they are and why they are upset.

“Dorothy is Still Waiting” is an ironic spoof on Dorothy Gale. She’s wearing red shoes (painted with acrylic Pyrole Red), but she’s not a little girl. She’s grown up, impatient and frustrated and I think her mouth shows it. She missed her air balloon ride. She’s got attitude. The Wizard (the fraud) left her behind. Notice there’s an air balloon show behind her – all those balloons – and not one will come back to get Dorothy and bring her back to Kansas. Moreover – we’re not in Kansas anymore. This is 2014. Notice the red shoes are high fashion – right out of the summer 2014 issue of W magazine.

Multiplied, Collage with papers and acrylic paint (2014) 23”x14”

Multiplied, Collage with papers and acrylic paint (2014) 23”x14”

“Multiples” is in black and white and color. Notice the background is painted yellow and the shoes are painted red. The movie, the Wizard of Oz begins in black and white and moves into color. It was a cinematic breakthrough. This collage shows Dorothy in black and white and color. If you look closely, you’ll notice that her face is in both greys and pinks. The background is painted yellow because she’s back on the yellow brick road.

 

The title Multiples refers to the 3 adorable images of Toto sitting by Dorothy Gale. I thought Toto was so adorable there had to be more than one – so the dogs can keep each other company while they’re waiting to return to Kansas.

 

© Nancy Egol Nikkal, July 2014

 

Studio: Media Loft, Studio 1F, 50 Webster Ave., New Rochelle, NY 10801

nancy@nikkal.com • nikkal.com • artofcollage.wordpress.com

 

 

 

 

A Guild Group Show • Silvermine Galleries

August 3 – September 14, 2014

1037 SIlvermine Rd., New Canaan, CT, www.silvermineart.org

Curated by Deana Haggag, Director of The Contemporary, Baltimore, MD.

 

Program: Tuesday, August 26, 2014 at 6:00 pm

I will be one of 4 artists invited to speak at Silvermine Galleries Walk and Talk

I am showing a new series in collage (black and white painted papers) titled TRIANGLES into DIAMONDS. The first 4 works in the series are included in A Guild Group Show (August-September 2014) at the Silvermine Galleries, New Canaan, CT.

I will speak about the new works at 6:00 pm on Tuesday, August 26, 2014 at the Silvermine Arts Center WALK and TALK program. I am one of 4 artists in the program. Visit the Silvermine Galleries Wednesday-Saturday 12 pm-5pm and Sunday 1pm-5pm. Directions: http://www.silvermineart.org/visit/hours.php

TRIANGLES into DIAMONDS is a new series about geometric shapes in a grid. I am building open and closed spaces with paper collage.

I paint papers for every collage. This series is in black and white because I want to focus on opposites and contrast light and dark, open and closed (spaces) even and uneven (edges), clean and dirty (smudged) papers. Two of the 4 works are framed; two are open and exposed. I want you to see the papers are vulnerable.

I mix Titanium white acrylic with a speck of Azo Yellow to create warmth. Pure white is cold. I mix Ivory, Carbon and Mars black acrylics with a dot of Pyrole Red to open it up. Some artists work with thin black washes. They’re weak. I want impasto -but solid blacks are opaque and impenetrable. I want open. I add a speck of black to white papers to muddy them up. I want impure. I hope that what you see is more than black and white. I want a dialog between papers: color against color, shape against shape.

© Nancy Egol Nikkal, July 2014

nancy@nikkal.com • nikkal.com • artofcollage.wordpress.com