NEW WORK: LITTLE STORIES: 2nd Series

I just finished another run of prints on book covers... I did these last summer and I really love the process and the ghostly effects that I get. 

This afternoon I boxed up 80 prints to send to the TWIST gallery in Nashville, TN. I have a solo show that it opening there next weekend. I am so excited and honored to be in this space.  It's a great space and I am looking forward to visiting later next month.

I also think I will be showing these in the Books Unbound Vol. 3 Show in Woodstock later this summer. I was really happy with the new diptych method I accomplished with some of the prints. The exposed binding and linking the two prints together  really does something for me. What do you think? Sometimes you just have to try something new.

This is just two of the groupings I've completed. 

I'll post more in the week to come. (I promise)

Be Well and Stay Creative!

class schedule: work in progress

This year I have a very limited teaching schedule. Last month I taught a fantastic group of women at Vintage Inspired Marketplace. we worked on altered books and had a great time making altered book. Mary and I are working on putting together another class for May or June, probably another offering of the Doll Shrine class I taught at Art-Is-You in October.

The only other class this year  is down on the New Jersey shore at Kecia Deveney's studio Lemoncholy.
I'm really excited about teaching this program.
It is a a special 2 Day Version of my popular
SOUL HOUSE CLASS
the cost for the two days is only $220
JULY 13 and 14th.
Space is limited and  reservations are needed in advance.

Check out Kecia's website for more information.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Here's some great news to start off 2013!

I hope everyone had the most blessed of holidays. Things here at Casa Reynolds have been a little hectic lately. Extra time seems to be elusive these days. I'm trying to snag up as much time as I can with the kiddos while they are on vacation and catch up with some household chores. My final paper of the semester has magically made it's way off my computer and onto my professor's cyber desktop. 

So, in this brief moment of calm, I wanted to reach out to everyone and thank them for all their love and support in the past year. I could not have made it to 2013 without you.

The hot topic for 2013 is where am I teaching. I had to scale back a ton of things in my life to make room for graduate school. Unfortunately, traveling to far-off destinations to teach workshops was one of those activities. Don't worry, it's only a hiatus, but this year's class schedule is very limited. 

Right now, as it stands, I am only teaching in two locations:
This winter here in VT and in July in New Jersey.
Both locations have very limited space, so if you are really dying to take a class with me, don't delay. Sign up early. 


Here's the scoop:
I am teaching 2 of my most requested classes: BOOKS UNBOUND and SOUL HOUSES.

BOOKS UNBOUND

This workshop will have you gluing, cutting, painting and tearing up old books to create 3 dimensional works of art. We will break all rules set into place by librarians and school teachers who told you books were meant to be kept on shelves. This class will offer you a space freely develop your own personal narrative with found objects; transforming ordinary pages of text into something mythical and profound, using something as simple as an old book as your base.  We will bravely enter into creative new territories in this process oriented class.

If you are into ALTERED BOOKS, this class is for you!

Saturday
FEBRUARY 16th
10AM-5PM
VINTAGE INSPIRED LIFESTYLE MARKETPLACE 
180 Flynn Avenue, Burlington VT
$95 

Please contact Mary @ Vintage Inspired to sign up for this class
802-488-5766

SOUL HOUSES

The symbolism linked to birds goes back to the ancient world, where birds were considered to be a supernatural connection between the gods and men. In many Asian and Middle Eastern cultures, birds can represent immortality. In East Indian and Christian mythologies birds represent the soul. These soul houses are a safe haven for your hopes and dreams. This class will introduce you to the art of assemblage as you learn to construct basic house forms that have relevance and meaning in your own world. By tapping into your true creative spirit we will transform ordinary bird houses into vessels that whisper of remembrance. You will explore your own imagination to find the ghost in old things and tell their tales in a 3 dimensional form, without fear or self-doubt. Learn to be creatively brave in this process orientated approach to creating altered art. You will learn the basics of assemblage construction as well as plot a creative journey through storytelling, personal myth and metaphor. You will take away power new ideas about process and art making.

Saturday and Sunday 
July 13 & 14th
Lemoncholy Studio click the PAYPAL link at the bottom of the page to register
Jersey Shore, NJ
$220 (for 2 days)
Email Kecia Deveney for more info 

Hopefully, that catches us up a little. I know it's been a while. Check back soon for other new interesting happenings in 2013. I'm working on a book and some new art projects and there's a little giveaway coming up soon... and a big sale... yes, a sale on all current assemblages coming for in a few weeks to celebrate my birthday!

Vanishing Vermont: Granville Revisted

Alright, these photos are from Granville, NY NOT Granville, VT. Which, as discussed in a previous post is a town just on the other side of the river from VT, so  I am going to include these pictures in the Vanishing Vermont, but yes, for all intensive purposes this IS NOT technically Vermont. 

 

 I know I said I would post more photos of the quarry first, but to tell the truth, I started sorting those files and skimmed across the shots I took of this location, not far from the Rose Inn. I have been playing with the idea of building a miniature house out of reclaimed wood, I wanted to look at internal building structures so I came back to this series of photos. And I sort of, got absorbed in this place. 

After about an hour, I was half way through all the shots, so I went for broke and edited them all. There's no color playing here or black and white. I am leaving you with what strikes me the most. The fact that this house is in partial demolition. And, according to a local, my friend I was driving around the area with, it has been in this state for QUITE a while. I took these photos in early September, right before the leaves started to turn color. The day was absolutely perfect, blue skies and warm. Which is such a striking contrast to the state of the building.

I am left thinking about, what the owner is planning on doing with the site. Why they pulled all the siding off the face, why the took out an entire wall? The post and beam construction is so lovely, especially with the slat   and plaster walls showing through. The house across the street was built in 1812, so it makes me wonder when this house was erected. Could it be able the same time? Maybe a little earlier? Who knows. On the bright and blue sky day that we visited this location, not a single ghost passed by to tell us their story or for that matter did any one in town stop to ask why I was taking photographs of this crumbling structure.


With out a history told to us, what do we know about the place? Are there clues that fill us in. Maybe. Can we ever really know what secrets lay sleeping behind this walls. Even as the skeleton of the place is exposed as severely as this? Probably not... Ours, perhaps, is only to ponder, why. What would you think if you drove by this everyday on your way to work or school. Would it make you stop and wonder why? Or would you ignore it and think, what an eye sore.  Part of me thinks that it is so incredibly tragic that all the labor, time, energy and resources, that went into building this home is being nullified. But even on top of that, this sanctuary of domestic life that has probably seen 200 years of families live and die here is been torn apart. Where is the history of those people? What is left of their stories? Certainly, at some point, not their old home. Their story will lay wasting in a pile of rubble and broken bits, to be scooped up and added to a landfill. 

 

Vanishing Vermont: More Wells Lamson Quarry

As promised here's some more of the photos from the quarry. There's one more group I have to go through, but hopefully I will be able to share with you soon.

These photograph really show how nature has slowly started to take back the landscape. Old machinery and building that were left behind when the quarry was abandoned in 1987 have started to rust and disintegrate. But INDUSTRY, has left his indelible mark on this hillside in it's quest to extract significant quantities of this much sought out natural resource. Nature will never be able to repair the gaping hole in this hillside. 

Some of the photos you can partially  see the how the landscape has been altered. (I will post more of these next week.) The chasm that has been carved here is awe-inspiring and breath-taking. Yet, I am reminded of the many lives of quarry workers that were lost to this pit and to this labor. A labor of extracting stone that would become strong buildings and memorials. 

Somehow, in the sereneness and solitude of this landscape, their is an unmarked and unspoken remembrance of their lives and struggles.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog. 

Please remember that I retain the rights to all original photography posted. While I am honored and flattered that you

might enjoy the work enough to want to use or repost other places, please do not do so with out permission. All photos copyright L Reynolds 2012

Thanks! Lorraine

The Chicken Coop

On our property we have an old chicken coop that is falling down. In fact there is no roof and only three walls.  It's been this way for as long as we have own it. here and there I have been salvaging wood from it for a while. Some of those pieces have been transformed into barn board people. 

I'm trying to find a way to incorporate this structure into my studio work.... not sure how that is going to happen.

Working on this in my brain... 

Wondering what will come out of it.

New Listings on Etsy

ETSY if you aren't familiar with it, is a great online marketplace for people to buy and sell handmade items. I have had a little shop online with them for since 2007: pretty much from the very beginning. Its been an on and off again affair for me. Sometimes it does well and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes I have time to list items and sometimes I don't. Like any relationship, I think you really get out of it what you put into it.

I have neglected the shop for a while, but have decided to give it one more try. In the weeks to come, I will be listing more and more items. I'm starting with putting up the remaining Searching for the Punctum prints that I showed at VCFA and at the Art Hop. I sold quite a few of these already, but they do make lovely and fairly inexpensive gifts. 

I have them priced @ $38 each (plus shipping) with discounts for purchases of multiples of 3 or more.  This is a special introductory ETSY price. And will only last until CHRISTMAS.

Everything ships with in 3 days via first class mail.


Here's the link for my shop. GLIMMERING PRIZE.
All of these one of a kind prints have been listed in the last day. You can click through the image to their listing on ETSY as well.

 

 

I will be posting some other assemblage pieces and am contemplating with making another series of barnboard people to sell on Etsy as well. 

I'll be running some cool promotions too with discount coupon codes and FREE giveaways so make sure to check back to the blog every Sunday for regular updates.

Its been a cold and drizzly day, so I didn't mind staying in by the fire and getting it this internet stuff done.

Now I think its time to take a break from the computer, start thinking about making some dinner and catching up with the rest of my chores. Hope you are all staying warm and dry. My thoughts and prayers going out to all of you down in the New York Metro area who are coping with the aftereffect of Hurricane Sandy.



Be well and stay creative!
Until next time