Sun Series #1

Sun Series #1

Thursday, January 28, 2016

Immediate Gratification


I needed to do some art that would give me some immediate gratification as the other projects going on in my studio are a bit labor-intensive.  So I am once again making small collages measuring 5x8".
They are made of the remnants of all of the materials from previous projects.  Each one has a piece of a library catalog card somewhere in the collage.

In 2005 I did this as a discipline every day for a year. I am not quite that adamant about this time around.  Just having a bit of fun working small.  Last time all of the pieces were horizontal, as the one above is, but some are vertical like the one below.

                          I am listing them on my Etsy site, so you can see more of them there.
                                                 www.https://claremurrayadams.etsy.com

Sunday, January 24, 2016

Piano Hinge Workshop at the Morgan Paper Conservatory



Yesterday I taught a workshop at the Morgan Paper Conservatory in Cleveland.  The participants who made these amazing books incorporated a concertina fold that creates both the spine and the attachment for the pages. The book is called a piano hinge structure due to the way the covers lock together with a dowel as seen in the sample below.




It was a gray January day in Ohio but having this project to work on was fun and I hope rewarding for all.  The Morgan is a great place to learn new techniques involving paper making, printing and the book arts.  You can visit their website at http://morganconservatory.org.

Thursday, January 21, 2016

More Points of Departure

Susan's Drawing

Clare's Drawing


As part of our installation: "Divergence: Points of Departure", Susan McClelland and I decided to do some drawings to accompany the exhibit.  In both instances they are abstractions of the fiber objects we created that are suspended  from the ceiling.  Just as our fiber works are different in weight and use of materials. so it is with our drawings.  Susan's drawings are much denser and richer in tone while mine are light and airy like my sculptural works in the show.

Images of the installation as it appeared in August at Kent State Stark Campus are in the previous post from January 15th.
I will post more previews of the drawings soon.

Friday, January 15, 2016

Divergence: Points of Departure



"Divergence: Points of Departure"
Installation at Kent State University Stark, September 2015
Susan McClelland and Clare Murray Adams

Susan and I have been friends for a long time and we both have used fiber as a material in our art processes although often in very different ways.  We decided to do a collaboration with  fiber as the main material and to make it sculptural in nature.  The parameters included starting with an embroidery hoop as an armature, sharing materials but not working on each others pieces and sharing a color palette.  We live a good 70 miles apart so we would get together occasionally and look at what we had made, discuss, and decide how to move forward.  My earlier pieces were more flat but but got more dimensional as I started deconstructing the hoop...cutting it apart and reordering the pieces.  Susan's pieces were consistently more dense than mine because of the kinds of materials she uses...plastics that she sews and adds fabric and other materials to.  We both made some of the "tendrils' that the pieces hang from and that help create the overall environment of the installation.

We will be showing this work again at Stocker Art Gallery at Lorain County Community College from February 24 until March 23 , 2016.  We are adding a few floor pieces to the installation as well as some drawings that the installation inspired.  As with many installations they take on a a new look depending upon the space in which the work is displayed.  We are excited to see the second permutation of the work next month.  I will post some more images in late February of the installation at LCCC.  Until then I will be posting some of our drawings.


Monday, January 11, 2016

Back to Work...Finally!

Divergence 1
8x10"
watercolor, charcoal, ink and stitching on paper

Wow!  This is the longest break I have taken from my blog since I started it  a little over a year ago.
I hope you are still out there!
The holidays were busy and a trip to New York City intervened making time to photograph art and get it to my blog a little challenging.  But I think I am back into a working routine.  At least I hope so.

Susan McClelland and I are showing our "Divergence" collaboration again in February at Lorain County Community College and we wanted to add to the installation by creating some drawings related to the three dimensional pieces that we will be showing. So the next few blogs will be the drawings for the show.

The exhibit entitled "Divergence: Points of Departure" is scheduled for February 24-March 23, 2016 at Stocker Gallery on the campus of Lorain County Community College.  I will include some pictures of the installation as it looked at Kent State Stark Campus in August 2015 in my next post and more details about the upcoming show and reception.
Thanks as always for your interest in my work and my blog.