New Year, New Journal

I have too many flippin’ journals all going at once, so what am I thinking starting another one. I am a sucker for journals. At the current time I am actively working in several. Follow me . . . .

Color Journal: A place to keep track of colors I like, the brands of colors because not all colors are the same, what happens when certain colors are mixed together, formulas of colors I like, and the Pantone color of the year (this year it is Very Peri).
A small painting journal where I have combined paintings with art quotes on the opposite page. This has been in process for the past couple of years.
A vintage book where I wipe off excess paint from my palette, clean off my brushes on the pages, glue in leftover tidbits, and experiment with quick ideas that pop into my head.
Visual Journal: This 9×12 inch journal is my hard-working jack of all trades journal. I take notes in it when I take a class, record ideas for a painting or a show, sketch out ideas, and take notes at art meetings. This is my official visual journal and has been a key part of my art practice for many years. The journals are lined up in my studio with little tags indicating the dates covered in each journal.
Collage Journal: An old composition book where a student kept notes and did engineering types of drawing, and also glued in tests and notes. I use this journal to create collage compositions right over the writing and drawings. The glued in papers I have torn out, but gluey residue peeks through on many of the pages.
Junk Journal: I created this big chunky book out of hundreds of pieces of old papers, collage materials, and ephemera, and created three signatures (or was it four? the journal is thick). The junk part was my use of junky papers, but then I have gone back in and embellished the pages, fleshing out more complete collage compositions. I have been working on this one for months!
Covid Journal: When Covid hit in full force in early 2020, I took one of the junk journals I had made and recorded milestones and statistics for the first full year of our lockdown. Every once in a while I will go back in make a note or update the statistics. Sadly, I am entering the third year of entries.
Travel Journal: Anytime we take a biggish trip, I maintain a travel journal. My most recent travel journal was done in September when we spent a couple of weeks in New York. I used a handmade artist journal and cut and glued paper and ephemera from our daily excursions.

Which brings me to January, 2022, and the decision to what I plan to do regarding a journal in the new year. In 2019 I committed to painting a painting a day in a 9×9 inch journal and somehow I pulled it off. Sometimes I was playing catch up, but for the most part keeping that painting journal got me into my studio. Every. Single.Day. (And it took seven journals to get through the year.)

A few of my favorite paintings from my 2019 journals:

In deciding what kind of journal would be most enjoyable, I flashed back to 2012 when I used “The Open Daybook,” a perpetual calendar book, edited by David P. Earle. I remember buying this big book of a journal at Monograph Bookwerks (fine art books, objects, + ephemera), located in NE Portland, and I was so excited to use it to record what I did every day for a year. Each page has original art by 365 artists (actually 371 as some worked in groups), so the imagery and graphics were always a treat.

A few of my pages from 2012. My entries were short and sweet, but really captured in detail how I spent my days.

That year of record keeping got me to thinking about what kind of journal I would keep now, ten years later. I keep a lot of visual journals (obviously, from the list above), and I have a calendar on my desk. But what if I kept my own sort of Daybook, a cross between what I did today, but coupled with a sprinkling of collage, dabs of paint, imagery, ideas, quotes, and what is on my mind (now there’s a scary thought). I liked the sound of this combination and I just happened to have the right journal for the job (cue the dramatic music), a chunky beast of a journal, built by Leather Village craftspeople.

I wrote a private preamble on New Year’s Eve, then jumped in on January 1st.

I am off and running.

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.

13th Annual Day of the Dead at Guardino Gallery

Day of the Dead, year 13, opens Thursday, September 26, 2019, at Guardino Gallery in NE Portland. Not only is this a fabulous group show featuring over 50 artists, it is the place to be for the celebration, costumes, face painting, music, food, and inventive art. I’ve participated for many years, frequently getting into the spirit by dressing up.

My art for the show has always been assemblages and found object art. This year, I created four pieces, all nestled into vintage wood boxes. Three of my pieces are tall and narrow boxes, each with a single chair, a word, and a minimum of objects. In creating these simple pieces, I was thinking about those I have lost and the desire to sit with them for one last conversation.

lost listen linger

The other piece I created for this show is a variation on a design I created in 2017 for a community read project and then for the 2017 Day of the Dead show; this time around, rather than hanging found objects of remembrance on a branch or a piece of wood, I nestled the items in a box, attaching each piece of string with a vintage and aged thumb tack.

I love this show and I hope you’ll be able to attend the opening reception on Thursday, September 26, 6-9 pm, or visit the show, which will be up until October 27.

2017 Was a Wild Ride!

The past year has been the most exciting and exhilarating of my art career. It all stared in the fall of 2016 when I told people, I have nothing major on my calendar for the upcoming year. I plan to just play and explore. And then everything changed . . . .

I’ve blogged about most of these events, but here is an abbreviated summary of my 2017 art life.

Spare Parts Show at the Salem Public Library

Art Featured in New Book: Cold Wax Medium

Solo Show at Guardino Gallery: Waterlines

Salem Art Association Mentorship Program

Taught an Oil and Cold Wax Class at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology

Private Master Class with Pat Wheeler

Two Person Show at Borland Gallery

11th Annual Day of the Dead Show at Guardino Gallery

Artist in Residence at the Salem Art Association Art Annex

Salem Art Association Panel Discussion

What’s Your Story Workshop

Symbols Show at the Art Annex

Guest on KMUZ Talking About Art

Sitka Art Invitational

17th Annual Guardino Gallery Little Things Show

BEST IN SHOW Something Red Art Walk

It was a great year. And I’m not making any proclamations about 2018. Mum’s the word.

Day of the Dead: A Favorite Show

“Everything Accounted For,” by Dayna J. Collins, created December, 2016.

Guardino Gallery is presenting the 11th Annual Day of the Dead Show September 28-October 22nd. I have participated in this invitational group show for more years than I remember and it is one of my favorites. I always create found object art and this year I’m excited to share three special pieces. The inspiration is the assemblage piece I created last December for an invitational show at the Salem Public Library. Everything Accounted For was created as a response to the book titled Spare Parts, about four Hispanic high school students who entered an underwater robot competition and created their robot using spare parts. After reading the book and thinking about all of my spare parts, I created my piece; it is now hanging in our living room.

For the 2017 Dead of the Dead show I decided to replicate my bigger piece and I created three smaller pieces modeled after my 2016 show piece.

“The Accumulation of Years,” by Dayna J. Collins.

“A Life’s History,” by Dayna J. Collins.

“A Maze of Memories,” by Dayna J. Collins.

When I created my DOTD pieces, I packed them full with a wild assortment of my favorite small bits.

I also created two other assemblage pieces for the Guardino Gallery show.

“The Emptiness of the House,” assemblage piece by Dayna J. Collins.

“Little Need of Conversation,” assemblage piece by Dayna J. Collins.

The opening reception for the show is Thursday, September 28th, 6-9 pm. And it ALWAYS a good party.

10th Annual Day of the Dead Show at Guardino Gallery

For ten years, Guardino Gallery in NE Portland has hosted a dia de los muertos group art show. I’ve participated in many of the shows over the past ten years. This year the show moved to the Main Gallery and features over 50 artists. The show, curated by Donna Guardino and Stephanie Brockway, runs through October 23, so if you’re in Portland, I hope you’ll swing by and see an amazing show.

MY ART

THE SHOW

THE PARTY (I mean, opening reception)

BONUS: Preparing

Make up done by our daughter, Amy Kayon.

9th Annual Day of the Dead Show at Guardino Gallery

One of my favorite shows every year is Guardino Gallery’s Day of the Dead Celebraton, curated by Donna Guardino and my friend Stephanie Brockway. The show opened last night with a vibrant party and reception. There was live music, glowing altars, and face painting. A peek in the window. . . .

And a little look inside.

I submitted seven pieces of art, and by the time I left last night, three had little red dots!

The show runs through October 25th and the walls and window are filled with creative, off beat, imaginative art. Guardino Gallery is located at 2939 NE Alberta in Portland.

Day of the Dead – 8th Annual Group Show

Outside Guardino Gallery looking into the Feature Area.

Last Thursday night was Guardino Gallery’s 8th Annual Day of the Dead opening reception. Attending Last Thursday on Alberta is always fun, but Guardino’s openings are even better, especially when the guests dress up in celebration of Dia De Los Muertos.

I created several assemblage pieces for the show.

"A Steady Quiet Routine" — “A Steady Quiet Routine”

"Casual Indifference" — “Casual Indifference”

"Writing Down Numbers" — “Writing Down Numbers”

"It Belonged To a Stranger" — “It Belonged To a Stranger”

"Waiting For An Excuse" — “Waiting For An Excuse”

The show runs through October 26. Guardino Gallery is located at 2939 NE Alberta in Portland, OR.

Day of the Dead – Guardino Gallery Style

I blogged recently about the seven pieces of art I created for Guardino Gallery’s 7th annual Day of the Dead Show. The art got hung and Thursday night was Last Thursday on Alberta, a monthly street party on a very cool street in NE Portland. It is also the night that Guardino Gallery hosts their art opening for the featured artists. This year I decided it would be fun to join the party in a different way: by dressing up in a Day of the Dead Costume. Warning: the only art you’ll see in this post is face make up, costumes, and a little incidental wall art.

The Make Up

Photo Op

Cast of Characters

The Party

Home

Day of the Dead Portland Style

Guardino Gallery is celebrating the 7th annual Day of the Dead group show October 31- November 24. Opening Festivities are on Halloween from 6-9 pm and will include spirits in costume, revelry, merriment, glowing alters, live music, and face painting. A ton of cool artists are participating and I was invited to be one of the artists. I created seven Curious Elements for the show.

A Lock of Mother's Hair — A Lock of Mother’s Hair

The whole line up:

Day of the Dead 2013 Curious Elements — Day of the Dead 2013
Curious Elements