To ensure NWCS members', their families', and the general public's health, and in light of the restrictions set forth by Governor Inslee, the NWCS Board has decided to cancel the in-person general membership meetings scheduled for April 17 and June 15, 2021. The programs will be available online and a link will be sent to members on that date. Please stay safe and well.
Join the fun on April 17, 2021, at 10:30 a.m., when the Northwest Collage Society premieres Kathy Ross’s recorded presentation, which features six NWCS members. Kathy will be available after the video for a “live” question-and-answer session.
Ms. Ross uses map and book fragments, as well as tea and cookie tins, to create bright and whimsical collaged sculptures. She has received numerous awards for her work, and several of her pieces are in museum or other institutional collections. She says that “the world rushes into every aspect” of her life, that maps “cover everything, charting a course that plots the intersection of [her] life with the world, and that the world isn’t “Out There,” but rather that we are “made of the same stuff” as the world and are an integral “part” of it.
NWCS members will receive a link via email for the Zoom session to be conducted on April 17, 2021. Tune in to hear Kathy’s unique and inspiring perspectives on art and life. For more information about Kathy Ross, visit her website.
Everyone loves getting snail mail. Join John Arbuckle on World Collage Day, May 8, 2021 at 4:00 p.m. for a live and interactive workshop to make your own collaged postcards. The Everett Public Library is presenting this virtual workshop in collaboration with the Northwest Collage Society. You will learn how to create an original postcard sized collage piece of mailable art using recycled materials and your creativity. For this activity kits are available for library patrons but all you need is a 4 x 6 substrate, some magazines, scissors, and a glue stick. For more information and to register, click on this link.
Alice Dubiel explores different landscape representations to express her personal experiences and cultural interactions with geography. She is interested in the conflicts which arise from our expectations about land use -- expectations shaped by idealized art and design images and our vernacular urban setting. By employing the approach of pattern and decoration, Alice attempts to create a different language, referring to many traditions, including maps, classical and middle-eastern mosaics, decorative art, textile design, indigenous paintings, and the shrine technologies of many cultures. The term biocenology characterizes this interface of cultural and natural systems because it is the study of communities and member interactions in nature; it is an exploration of systems, part of the science of ecology. Alice will speak to NWCS members about her work and her approach to art during an interactive Zoom session on June 15, 2021. For more information about Alice Dubiel, visit her website or her blog.
The Northwest Collage Society has teamed with Golden Artist Colors, Inc. to present a virtual lecture by Barbara De Pirro, followed by a NWCS mini-retreat conducted via Zoom. Barbara’s lecture will begin at 10:00 a.m. on July 24, 2021, and end at roughly 11:30 a.m. After a short break, NWCS members will be able to use a different link to meet remotely for another 90 minutes (or longer) and share their thoughts and works in progress.
Barbara’s free online event packs in a ton of valuable information about acrylics, guiding listeners through the basics while opening up new possibilities. Participants will learn the unique properties of GOLDEN Fluid Acrylic Colors, Heavy Body Acrylic Colors, OPEN Acrylic Colors, and High Flow Acrylics, and get a comprehensive overview on the many Gels & Mediums and how they can change texture, viscosity, saturation, intensity of color, and more. The lecture includes a review of Grounds that create truly, contemporary surfaces for painting, drawing, and mixed media. An array of examples will be shown, and artists will leave the session enthusiastic to explore the extensive potential of Acrylic. Attendees will have the opportunity to receive free samples mailed directly to them.
More details about the lecture and how to obtain complimentary GOLDEN products will be provided upon registration, and the Zoom link will be emailed by Barbara during the days just prior to the event. The link for the NWCS mini-retreat, which will begin immediately after Barbara’s lecture, will be sent to members via a separate email.
Register for the GOLDEN Lecture by Barbara De Pirro at the following site: Sign up for GOLDEN!
My two main methods of working are through excavation and obscuring.
In my cut book pieces I’ve removed the extraneous text leaving only specific images exactly where they were originally located. This creates a collage that was ever-present in the book and which I just assist in revealing. The pages of the textblock are sealed shut so that only the cover opens. This offers easy storage of the pieces with the rest of your library when they are not on display. I never know exactly how these biblio-excavations will visually culminate and it’s an exciting process to watch them divulge themselves.
I also work in what I consider a more traditional collage sense. Using a variety of paper based materials, slide film, photographic prints and negatives, I create both abstract and narrative work. I layer, eclipse, and obfuscate images in hopes of creating visually interesting situations.
In all my work I hope to shed light on the overlooked or discarded; those items or places that are slightly out of focus in the background. By highlighting their existence or reconfiguring them into something new I hope to breath new life into these neglected images.
Visit Ben's website and Instagram.
Shoreline Masonic Center
753 N 185th Street, Shoreline, WA 98133 (185th and Linden)
There is parking by the building for about 15 cars and across the street behind the Shoreline Historical Museum in the grassy area but NOT in the paved area. For anyone who can’t climb the 6 stairs to get in the building from the parking spaces on the building side, they can enter at the front of the building on a ramp.
