This was inspired by the many colorful townhouses in DC. I created another townhouse collage a couple years ago that was inspired by the buildings in Old Town Alexandria. Anyway, I think I’ll make another one of these somewhat soon. I have a lot of fun working on colorful buildings.
And now I’m off to continue my work with this cityscape/landscape series. I have a handful left to make…
September 30th, 2012 – January 5th, 2013 Beatley Alexandria City Gallery; Alexandria, Virginia Map and Gallery Info
Megan Coyle’s work is on display in a solo show at the Beatley Alexandria City Gallery. The Alexandria City Gallery Program exhibits the artwork of local artists in fifteen city galleries.
As a child, Coyle was always drawn to animals and colorful illustrations. Growing up in the D.C. area made it easy for her to visit the Smithsonian museums. She especially enjoyed visiting the animals at the zoo and seeing the animal exhibits at the Natural History Museum. Coyle continues to visit those places, but now she does it to study and gather inspiration for future works of art.
“Animals in Paper (Part II)” features several of Coyle’s new animal collages alongside a few older works of art. Her newer pieces include several 18″x24″ animal collages depicting species that didn’t appear in her previous work. The artwork explores the colorful diversity of animals in nature – with mammals, reptiles, and birds.
Inspired by color and the unique characteristics of different species, Coyle has created familiar images of animals big and small. All the collages were constructed entirely from magazine strips using a technique she calls “painting with paper.” If you stop by for a visit, you can get a closer look at all the layers used for these paper creations.
The Air Force Memorial is one of my favorite memorials in the DC area, so of course I had to create a collage of it for my new cityscape/landscape series. I like how simple and elegant the design of it is.
And here’s the finished piece! So far, this has been my favorite collage that I’ve worked on in this new cityscape/landscape series. It came together pretty easily and I enjoyed working with this color palette.
Anyway, I’m off to work on another building collage…
Another collage inspired by city living. The next few collages that I’ll work on will include a few landmarks around DC, as well as a couple basic cityscape scenes.
September 7th – November 20th, 2012 Thompson Gallery; Weston, Massachusetts Map and Gallery Info
Reception: Friday, September 7th, 4:00 – 7:00 p.m. Gallery Talk: Saturday, September 22nd, 1:00 – 2:00p.m. Assembly Slide Show: Monday, October 15th, 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.
“Morning Coffee” was selected to be in the “Strange Glue” group exhibit at Thompson Gallery in Weston, Massachusetts. “Strange Glue” celebrated the centennial of the appearance of collage in painting. The exhibit aimed to explore collage within contemporary art practices.
Coyle’s collage was part of the first exhibit of the “Collage at 100” three-part exhibition. A little over 100 works of art were in the show.
The show was at the convention center (a part of it is pictured above).
Just about thirty collages were on display that I had to take-down and pack-up into the car.
At night we were driving by the convention center and saw this sign that was advertising different events that would take place there. And then we saw this:
I was pretty excited to see that the show was being advertised this way.
So we got out of the car and I posed a little bit in front of the sign…
Anyway, I’m a bit relieved that the long trek is now behind me. And I recently decided that this Charleston trip will be the last out-of-state exhibit for me for a while. I need to take a break from all the travel and become more of a homebody. I also need to get more rest!
Inspired by another one of my walks around the National Mall in Washington, DC. I like the architecture of the Smithsonian Castle – it’s a lot different than most buildings you see in the area. So one day I snapped several pictures of it from different angles, which helped me build this collage.