When Susan Carmen-Duffy, founder of Create Art 4 Good, a studio and gallery in Rochester's Hungerford Building, invited me to participate in a collaborative art project, I said yes. Yes! I've always wanted to collaborate with other artists and see what trying to mesh distinct styles and mediums can inspire.
The collaboration guidelines are simple. Two artists both start pieces and exchange them two months later; then they each have another two months to complete the piece that's been given to them. Ten artists have been invited to participate and paired into five teams. Each team will produce two new works. The finished works will join the other collaborators' pieces and Susan will exhibit them in her gallery.
Susan chose Jennifer Buckley to be my partner. Jen is a friend from my Hungerford studio days; she's also a talented potter who makes functional pottery and incredibly popular garden totems.
Jen and I met to discuss options for how a painter and potter could work together and she showed me some interesting samples. I realized I could create a substrate using tools and materials that are comfortable for me and she could complete it by adding ceramic elements. She could even add a ceramic frame to a small painting.
When she showed me some little clay pieces she makes into buttons, I knew we could make it work.
I decided to create a 20" x 20" grid of textures and patterns using a variety of acrylic texture mediums and paints on a cradled wood panel. I decided different textures and patterns would give Jen a lot of inspiration. She can cover part or all of the surface.
Here's a close up slide show so you can see the textures more clearly. I'm trying to imagine what designs and colors Jen will choose to complete this, but we'll both have to wait until the exhibition to see the finished pieces.
In Part 2, I'll show you what I get from Jen to complete and try to figure out how I'm going to do that!