terriloui

Terri Long – Telling lost stories with found objects.

Tag: collage

Flora Fauna Furniture – my foraging art of salvage

Stepping outside, in tall boots or sandals, with a curious mind, wearing gloves and sunscreen, I begin.

In the fields near our home, I came across an office chair. It was visible in the tree line off a field, apparently a dump site. Plenty of glass, cans, general household trash. I’ve been trekking there through all seasons, fascinated by the moss and seedlings determined to inhabit, reclaim, transform the chair.

Looking for ways to work, create within the natural world, I’m inspired by decades of work by Andy Goldsworthy, Patrick Dougherty’s Stickworks, Maya Lin’s installations and monuments, Christo’s wrappings, and the Spiral Jetty guy (must look up his name again. did that, Robert Smithson)

We stay at a lodge on a remote island on the Chesapeake Bay in November, first time in Nov 2017. I’ve been fascinated by the littoral beach, shifts and erosion of the coast line and the trash and tangled lines that wash in with the tide. Choosing to replicate, interpret what I encounter, I create installations, embracing the temporary, photographing the work, then allowing nature to reclaim it. Earth Art. Mother nature, she rocks.

Sometimes when the poison ivy, greenbriar and bugs aren’t fierce, I tinker with rusted metal, salvage some choice iron, for scrap or future use. I do love discovery aspect and try not to descriminate with found objects.

Coming in clear, good reception

January weather conceded a little for our 5 to 7pm Opening Reception for Cut Up and Put Together, Jan 12th at Staunton Augusta Art Center. 

No snow or ice, temps well above freezing, but plenty of rain. And the Staunton & Valley folks were not deterred. They showed up strong, engaged, smiling and ready to see new art. Speaking for myself, but perhaps the 4 other artists too, I’m beholden to all for the community support. Gush. It was really great. Really.

After the reception, the umbrellas were back out, we enjoyed a great dinner with Charlottesville friends and DC family. Barry and I came back to gallery on Saturday to catch some images in the natural light.

Images of my collage, assemblage, sculptural works at SAAC gallery can be viewed here, Cut Up and Put Together.

And then there were Circles

As 2019 was ending, I worked at a hydroponic greenhouse. I noticed several boxes of these cardboard discs, that arrived in some shipment as packing filler. I diverted some discs from recycling and hefted them to our empty, new old home.

Use what you got, right?! When materials were scarce during the quiet, at-home times of 2020, I realized that what I had in abundance, were circles. Little brown cardboard discs, in a huge plastic bag, in a closet, awaiting a purpose.

By now, I had acquired replacement scissors and piles of colorful printed catalogs arriving by snail mail.

And so I started again, playing, making art, playing mostly. I traced the cardboard discs, cutting up everything of interest I could find. I positioned myself in a comfy chair by the window, sorted the stacks on my new lap desk. I traced and cut, traced and cut with an antique metal Holly Hobby trashcan filling at my feet.

In 2022, I counted over 6100 circles that I had traced and cut, now sorted into old blueberry, pumpkin seed or microgreens style plastic containers. By 2023, I had probably cut about 3500 more.

In 2022 and 2023, a few circles made it onto collages shown and sold at the vast and varied Teeny Tiny Trifecta group shows at Second Street Gallery in Charlottesville.

In early January 2024, 3 days ago, I delivered plenty of multi-circle collages, rustic assemblages and sculptures for the just-about-to-open show at Staunton Augusta Art Center. Come see Cut Up and Put Together, January 12 – February 17, 2024.

Fabrications 2006 – 2016

I found a cache of my older art images and seeing them again is like seeing a lost but not forgotten friend.

I’ll never be reunited with the art lost to our Dec. 2018 house fire, but these digital versions are bringing all the best parts back to me – like a big old, grinning bear hug with my BFF.

My Fabrications came about in 2005 after saying YES YES YES to hand-me-down bags of old family linens. I was inspired by handling the doilies, placemats, linen napkins and tablecloths. Most were used, some worn or torn, all having concluded the domestic, formal era. I saw these linens as material ripe for repurposing – viable with integrity, great appeal and creative value.

I never quite learned to sew in my early years. I dabbled but mostly watched my Mom work her mending magic by hand or at her Singer sewing machine.

My artistic approach to working with these fabrics as an adult, was to disassemble then cobble together, randomly mix-and-match, in an outsider, Great Auntie-shocking, reimagined way – with a nod to my grandparents domesticity and a middle finger to cultural affluenza.

I showed the Fabrications at the Arts Center in Orange, April 2006. I hung 18 pieces in the show, sold 4, and taught a shadow-box collage workshop with 10 like-minded, collector attendees.

I showed the Fabrications closer to home in September 2016 in a little shop on Valley Street in Town of Scottsville.

Stu-stu-studio, Extended Play

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How do you condense three rooms worth of art supplies and ephemera into one room?

Slowly. With gentle, brutal focus, a huge trashcan, an 80s Pandora playlist. Shuffle, repeat. Breathe, switch to Tom Waits, repeat. Haul and purge, repeat.

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Decades worth of amassing creative tools & bits & bobs. I am now methodically sorting, purging, discerning the quick and the dead, the loved and abhorred in a blackstrap molasses move up (and down) two flights of stairs. Exhilarating and liberating when a trash bag gets tied up and permanently moved out — mentally exhausting when I hold a valued thing and replace it on another undecided pile.

Yes, Marie Kondo it gave me joy, still does, now Hell’s bells, where does it go?

I am not thinking of arson. But I ponder a summer bonfire and the phrase “a move is as good as a fire.” I’ve been in this house nearly 18 years. I move physically at the gym, not so much at home.

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MooRoom

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I hit the pause button, switch gears and attempt to inaugurate my newly painted, purty, as yet uncluttered space. Create in the midst of the chaos? No good, had to pack a ditty bag, head to a friend’s home to exhale, play, drink cider and create.

Successful playdate, I made a lanyard necklace. Encouraging feedback and I’m ready to hone technique, play, repeat.

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Lost and Found – Reception

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Such a fine September night for Terri and Rose to meet and greet. Great evening to peruse the show, nibble on shrimp, visit with friends, family and make new art connectionsOur joint show at PVCC is coming to an end, pulling down art from the walls on Wed. 11/4/15.

Thanks to Beryl Solla, gallery director who penned this introduction:

“I had the intuition that Deborah Rose Guterbock and Terri Long might be a match made in heaven. Both artists have a unique style that blends powerful imagery and a profound sensitivity to material and process. In this particular instance, both bodies of work look to nature as a rich source of imagery. I feel like I have struck visual gold.

Deborah Rose Guterbock is a versatile artist who is full of energy and vitality. Her work has significant range but is consistent in its reference to the “other”. There is a lot going on in each of her pieces. We see a kind of alchemic blend of materials, imagery and intention. This interesting mix suggests other worlds, other places and other times.

Terri Long continues to explore books as an essential component of her artwork. Her trajectory over the past decade has ranged from sculpture to collage all completed with a commitment to craft and composition. Her work shows a deft hand at combining interesting imagery with clever visual puns and a playful world view.”

Lost and Found at PVCC Sept. 18 – Nov. 4, 2015

 

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Excited to be part of a two person show opening in Charlottesville on Friday, September 18th. Recent hand surgery has made for a challenging summer and for preparing works, but all is well and I’m psyched to deliver the work in just a few days.

Materials? Discarded library books and ephemera, old text book covers, marbled end papers, leather bindings, one feather, one tiger and quite a few butterflies.

More to come.