Sunday, August 21, 2016

Salem Art Fair: More Art Acquisition

[Another post from last month. This one happened around July 17th. I'm catching up! Just one very full month to go!]

The weekend after Oregon Country Fair I managed to squeak into the Salem Art Fair. They treat us really well, with custom omelets and such, but that's not the focus of this post...

At SGCI in Portland I had briefly met an amazing printmaker named Kelli MacConnell. I then followed her on Instagram (which you can do HERE) and fell in love with her work.

 
[Kelli MacConnell and her beautiful work]

In my life, there are a few things that are very meaning fun to me and likely to become the focus of my print work for quite some time. These things are trees and mountains. Well, Kelli is also inspired by these same things and doing an amazing job at capturing their essence in her linocut printmaking. I will have to work extra hard to make sure that my work doesn't even try to duplicate the beauty that she is capturing. And while I do this work, I can be inspired by her prints in my studio.

 
[Kelli's Douglas Fir In My Studio]

I know that it looks dangerous to hang her print uncovered in a messy print studio, but I know that it is not. I cannot afford to frame it yet so I have hung it in a central location that gets no traffic. I just learned this method of hanging from Karen in Nebraska. It uses thumbtacks in the walls and very clean rare earth magnets on the front of the work. As soon as I have a budget for framing or the skills to do it myself, this piece will be ensconced behind glass.


[Naked Gallery Closeup]

 
[Unhung Print]

I was also lucky enough to acquire another one of her prints, smaller and less iconic than the douglas fir, but absolutely gorgeous and in a style that I can only admire. This one, thankfully, is in a cellophane envelope so I don't have to hold my breath when I get near it. If I continue to collect the work of people whom I admire, soon I'll have an impressive collection!

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