Graffiti – Dayna J Collins

#the100dayproject – COMPLETED

It is hard to believe that 100 days ago I embarked on a project where I committed to make a piece of art every day for 100 days. That’s a lot of days and a lot of art. I wrote about the project on Day 50, so if you want more info just click on the link.

Very first piece for #the100dayproject: acrylic painting on a scrap of brown paper bag.

In a nutshell, over the past 100 days I created art using scraps of brown paper bags. The mediums I used included oil and cold wax, acrylic paint, and collage. Some of the materials I used in the pieces: black and white photographs, Stabilo Woody Crayons, pencils, vintage ephemera, book scraps, paper frames, and charcoal. Techniques and designs included splatter painting, drawing, stripes, circles, stencils, scraping, tearing, gluing, squeegees, and mark-making.

Last piece for #the100dayproject: Acrylic painting on a scrap of a brown paper bag, with strips from discarded books, and a B&W photo found at a flea market.

What I learned during the past 100 days:

True art is in the doing and there is no shortcut for that.
I like to work fast to keep the inner critic quiet.
It was freeing to work on such an unimportant substrate as a brown paper bag.
I kept pushing myself to be bolder and to make more startling moves on my daily pieces.
It was amazing to create so many pieces, and although each piece was different, they created a unified body of work.
Some days it was this project that propelled me to go into my studio. Sometimes I stayed.
Several new ideas emerged from this project and I am letting them percolate for future projects.
A very exciting byproduct was how two of the paper pieces I created inspired bigger paintings!

Here is a random assortment of pieces from the second half of the project:

Right now I am celebrating the completion of the project . . . .

. . . . but I have some ideas brewing for moving forward with these pieces.

I have this wacky idea of offering some of these completed pieces for sale and giving first notice to those who are on my mailing list. Haven’t signed up yet? Want to? Here’s a LINK.

Day of the Dead + Urban Scavenger: A Bit of Backstory

I have two pieces in the current Day of the Dead show at RiverSea Gallery in Astoria (on the Oregon Coast) and I want to share a bit about how the pieces were created. But first, the show. Tabor Porter is the curator and he invited his friends to participate. It is a small and intimate show in the Alcove of the gallery. Here is how Tabor describes the show:

The Day of the Dead reminds us to live our lives to the fullest; because death is always an integral, ever-present part of life. The present day Pandemic poignantly reminds us of that. So as we commemorate the death of our loved ones in celebration, we remind ourselves and others how important their lives were. In doing so we remind ourselves how important ours can be. This group of artists that I consider my friends endeavor to show us their relationship with this day of mourning and celebration.

The two pieces I created for the show are 4 inches wide and 48 inches tall, making them difficult to photograph. But here goes:

If you are interested in seeing the Day of the Dead show at RiverSea Gallery, the show will be up through November 10, 2020.

Now for the back story. I’ve been collecting random papers and ephemera for years and in more recent years, I have become an urban scavenger, pulling posters and fliers from telephone phones and buildings. As I was thinking ahead to Day of the Dead, I knew I wanted to incorporate some graffiti posters into my pieces, so as the pandemic put the state in lock down, Howard and I masked up and ventured to Portland in search of old, weathered, beat up, out-of-date fliers. The streets were empty and we were able to scavenge lots of fodder.

Let me tell you this about being an urban scavenger: you need gloves, tools to pull the bunched up posters from the telephone pole, and even if there isn’t a pandemic, you might want to wear a mask. The material is sometimes wet (don’t pull the posters from the bottom of the pole because sometimes it is a bit yellow, if you know what I mean), stinky with creosote, and buggy. So when we got all of the papers home, I aired them out in the garage and outside for several weeks.

Then once the paper was dryish and aired out, I had to handle every single piece to pull out all of the staples and nails. Again, gloves are a must.

Once the processing was complete, I sorted and loosely organized the materials into bins and boxes.

I used the pieces and scraps to create my two pieces for the DOTD show at RiverSea Gallery.

“Thoughts Reaching Into the Past”
Dayna J. Collins

I have also used the scavenged posters and fliers in other ways; both for under layers in mixed media pieces as well as on book boards for my Salvage Collages.

Salvage Collage: Latest Book Board Collages . . . .

. . . . or what I did during The Great Pause Pandemic of 2020.

“The Poetry of Silence,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins

” With a Theatrical Flourish,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins

“Time of Roses,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins

“Wistful Amazement,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins

“The Bits and Bones of a Life,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins

“Paris in a Week,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins

“Rebellious Tendencies 1,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins

“Strands of Thought,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins

“Poetic Effect,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins

“Exquisite Fragments,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins

“Are You Going Skating After School,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins

“A Delightful Surprise,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins

“A Matter of Celestial Balance,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins

“A Reckless Act,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins

“A Distant Calamity,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins

“Dream of Escape,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins

“Easy to Read,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins

“Without a Doubt,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins

“A New State of Wonder,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins

“A Secret Obsession,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins

“Rebellious Tendencies 2,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins

Alien Cement Boat: FINALLY!

Years ago I clipped an article out of the Freshwater News, a local Portland boating newspaper, about an alien cement boat that had washed ashore on Sauvie Island, just a short drive west of Portland. I was immediately hooked, but tucked the article away for some day.

That day came on Friday when Howard and I decided to go for a hike and locate the alien craft. For those who are fans of Atlas Obscura (it is what we use as our guide when we travel), you can find the UFO boat listed under Unusual Things to Do in Portland, No. 24. We did some additional research about where the boat was located, and surprisingly, it wasn’t difficult to find at all.

In a nutshell, head to Sauvie Island, take Reeder Road to Collin’s Beach (clothes optional, so if you go in the summer, don’t be surprised if you don’t see clothed people), and park at entrance 3 (entrances are marked). There is plenty of parking, but you will need a $10 day pass to park. Head toward the river and turn right.

We had only walked a short distance, when Howard said, “I see it.” I hyperventilated and ran toward it, overcome with emotion and pure joy.

You get the idea.

The tri-hull concrete boat is made of ferro cement and created by Richard Ensign (an engineer in Hubbard, Oregon) in the early 1970s. The craft could hold 12 people and had a homemade wood stove on board, along with a generator to provide power. The maiden voyage took place in 1973. The last time the boat was registered with the Oregon Marine Board was 1978. When the 1996 floods occurred, the boat slipped out of its moorage and ended up on a beach at Sauvie Island, hidden by trees. This sign sharing some of the history is posted by a tree next to the orb.

It’s possible to go into the boat, but it isn’t easy and I wasn’t able to maneuver one of the three ways of entry: A hanging rope with knots, a couple of unstable logs leaned up against the back, or just flat out climbing up onto the vessel by holding and twisting; Howard chose option 3. (If you really want to enter, bring a tall ladder! I wish I had.)

I handed my camera to Howard and he took the inside photos.

Howard had such fun scrambling around inside and out, I was definitely jealous.

We didn’t rush our visit and no one was around, so we had it to ourselves (although I doubt there is a huge rush at any time!).

It was finally time to go. I gave her a final hug . . . .

. . . and decided to share my discovery with my friends so they could experience the thrill of seeing such an unusual object in the wild!

PS A guy arrived at the beach just as we were leaving. He was wearing a pretty sweet pair of sparkly see through red shorts, and it looked like he was preparing to go for a swim. We said hello and headed out for our hike to the Warrior Head Lighthouse.