Creativity – Page 6 – Dayna J Collins

Funky Junkyard Birds Are For Sale . . . Thanks for asking

I’ve had a few inquiries about whether my Funky Junkyard Birds are for sale and the answer is yes. Because I don’t usually sell direct or online, I needed to figure out the best way to make this happen. The first thing I’m doing is listing all of my birds on this blog post with a photo, name, and price. If you would like to buy a bird, please email me (dayna@alleyartstudio.com) and let me know which bird you have chosen and I’ll send you a Paypal invoice. If you live local, we can work out an in person exchange and no shipping will be necessary. If I am sending you your bird, the mailing charge will be $10.

Here is the whole gang, and in alphabetical order, no less!

Funky Junkyard Birds
Allie
by Dayna J. Collins
Salem on the Edge
Downtown Salem Gallery

Funky Junkyard Birds
Barnaby
by Dayna J. Collins
$65.
SOLD

Funky Junkyard Birds
Beatrice
by Dayna J. Collins
$75.
SOLD

Funky Junkyard Birds
Beckett
by Dayna J. Collins
Salem on the Edge
Downtown Salem Gallery

Funky Junkyard Birds
Cooper
by Dayna J. Collins
Salem on the Edge
Downtown Salem Gallery

Funky Junkyard Birds
Crawford
by Dayna J. Collins
$75.
SOLD

Funky Junkyard Birds
Daisy
by Dayna J. Collins
$65.
Guardino Gallery in Portland

Funky Junkyard Birds
Evangeline
by Dayna J. Collins
SOLD

Funky Junkyard Birds
Evelyn
by Dayna J. Collins
Salem on the Edge
Downtown Salem Gallery

Funky Junkyard Birds
Finn
by Dayna J. Collins
$75.
Guardino Gallery in Portland

Funky Junkyard Birds
Gilbert
by Dayna J. Collins
$75.
SOLD

Funky Junkyard Birds
Harvey
by Dayna J. Collins
Salem on the Edge
Downtown Salem Gallery

Funky Junkyard Birds
J. L. Munkres
by Dayna J. Collins
$75.
SOLD

Funky Junkyard Birds
Lila
by Dayna J. Collins
$75.
Guardino Gallery in Portland

Funky Junkyard Birds
Lucky
by Dayna J. Collins
$75.
SOLD

Funky Junkyard Birds
Margo
by Dayna J. Collins
$65
SOLD

Funky Junkyard Birds
Maverick
by Dayna J. Collins
Salem on the Edge
Downtown Salem Gallery

Funky Junkyard Birds
Oliver
by Dayna J. Collins
$65.
SOLD

Funky Junkyard Birds
Palmer
by Dayna J. Collins
Salem on the Edge
Downtown Salem Gallery

Funky Junkyard Birds
Patterson
by Dayna J. Collins
$75.
Guardino Gallery in Portland

Funky Junkyard Birds
Pearl
by Dayna J. Collins
$65.
SOLD

Funky Junkyard Birds
Poppy
by Dayna J. Collins
$65.
SOLD

Funky Junkyard Birds
Ruby Ann
by Dayna J. Collins
$75.
Guardino Gallery in Portland

Funky Junkyard Birds
Taylor
by Dayna J. Collins
$75.
SOLD

Funky Junkyard Birds
Whitfield
by Dayna J. Collins
Salem on the Edge
Downtown Salem Gallery

Handmade Journal: The Great Pause (Part 2)

On March 23, I created a handmade journal, which I titled The Great Pause, referring, of course, to the Corona virus pandemic. Since that time, I have continued to work on the pages, gluing in more fodder, pieces of old books, and lots of scraps from my collage bins. Besides continual alterations and additions, I have been writing on the pages, in no particular order, just finding the best space to write down thoughts, quotes, poems, rants, and even daily activities during such a strange period in my life. I decided it was time to share some of the pages, calling this post Part 2. I could offer a caution that some will be offended, but it’s my journal and my feelings, so I’ll not write about why I included what I included, but just share photos of some of my pages as they continue to morph and emerge.

Stitching With Book Linen Scraps

My latest obsession has been exploring using little bits of book linen tabs, collected from when I rip books apart. I have quite a stockpile of these colorful little remnants.

I’ve been fascinated with the small size, the jewel-toned colors, and the raggedy edges since I began ripping books apart. In 2019 when I had my Salvage Collage show at Guardino Gallery, I first experimented with using the colorful little bits:

This was one of my favorite pieces from the show and when it sold, the design idea flew out the door along with the art. Until recently, when those little linen tabs started to make themselves known to me once again. Over the past week I’ve been playing and experimenting with them every time I walked into my studio; I started thinking of the little linen remnants as stitches used to hold pieces of paper together.

Stitched collage in scrapbook journal by Dayna J. Collins

And then I added some stitches in my Great Pause Covid 19 journal.

Stitched page in “The Great Pause” Covid 19 book collage journal by Dayna J. Collins

Of course, I couldn’t resist making a series of stitched collages on book boards.

Book board Salvage Collage by Dayna J. Collins

Book board Salvage Collage with “long stitches,” by Dayna J. Collins

Time to go rifle through my bin of scraps.

Handmade Journal: The Great Pause (Part 1)

In mid March, all hell started to break loose as the Corona Virus began to consume our lives in one way or another. On Monday, March 23, Governor Brown mandated a statewide stay at home order. March 23 was the day I decided to create a journal where I could record not only what was taking place around the world and in Oregon, but also for me tucked safely inside my home. What was my new life going to look like in the upcoming weeks, or perhaps months.

The first thing I did was to make a journal using an old book and then gathering lots of paper fodder. I used book pages, music, scraps from torn apart books, and pieces of random papers, post cards, and handbills from my collage stash.

Once my papers were gathered, I bound the book using waxed linen thread and began embellishing the pages with scraps and raggedy book bits. Every day I would go through my journal and add interesting pieces to several pages, put wax paper between the pages, weigh it down overnight, and then come back the next day and do it all over again to different pages. I did this process of turning the pages and adding more day after day for three weeks.

Finally, on Monday, April 13, I declared that my journal was ready, the pages prepared.

At the same time, throughout the past three weeks, I have been writing notes to myself and making lists about the pandemic: sleeping in, routines, gift of time, rhythm of the day, tooth pain, sporty sneakers, oral surgery, helpless, daily walks, fake news, megalomaniac, self care, roller coaster . . . . .

I have printed things I have read: a poignant poem, a particularly good article on adjusting to how to live during this strange time, the timeline of how our president has fumbled and mismanaged the entire pandemic since the beginning. All things I feel inspired to record, share on my pages, or use as jumping off points for processing the range of emotions I have been feeling.

For now, I’m sharing a sampling of my pages before I make any entries, do any writing, make any lists, record poems and timelines, letting the beauty of the collages and materials speak for themselves.

Did I mention when I made the first journal that I made two more at the same time!?! What was I thinking?

Obsessive Quarantining Activity

Before all hell broke loose, I registered for Nicolas Wilton’s popular 12-week ART2LIFE Creative Visionary Program. If you aren’t familiar with it, here’s how Nicolas explains it:

The program is designed for beginner to advanced artists who are interested in significantly shifting and improving their art. This program will guide you into a better understanding of your own unique creative expression. Over the 12 weeks, we will be taking a deep dive into all the 6 Art2Life Principles – Design, Value, Color, Texture, Risk and Soul.

Gaining a thorough understanding of the nuances and interconnectedness of these fundamental principles will allow you to have tremendous creative freedom in any kind of art-making you desire to pursue. Whether you paint realistically or abstractly, draw, paint, collage or any combination of the three, this intensive program will give you all the tools you need. The program is principle-based and its primary purpose is to clarify and strengthen your own authentic creative expression.

The program and the Art2life team of coaches provides you with an amazing community of supportive artists, concise ways to create a more sustainable, joyful art practice and most importantly, the fundamental art-making principles to finally bring your Art to life.

The program is intensive and to do it even nominally, requires several hours a week, and that is without doing any painting. Then, all hell broke loose when Covid-19 began gaining ground and I found myself with extra time to jump all in to the ART2LIFE Creative Visionary Program. However, this post isn’t about the program, but about how Nicholas has all of his paints in squeeze bottles, often the type that restaurants use for ketchup and mustard. One of the benefits of using the squeeze bottles is the consistency of the paint, not too thin (fluid paints don’t work for this program) and not too thick (like tube paints). Nicolas has his own line of paint that are the perfect consistency, but Nicholas is generous with information and he has shared how to get paint to the right consistency.

For the past two weeks, I have been on a mad tear sorting all of my paints, throwing out old dried up ones, and then combining like colors into a mixing bowl, whipping, stirring, adding mediums and water, and then pouring my energized and reformulated paints into plastic condiment bottles. Most of the time I mixed like colors together, even if they were from different brands, but sometimes I just mixed up an assortment of colors, like several different greens, which after mixing I dubbed “Weirdo Green.”

It has consumed me, it’s been messy, but the end result is a beautiful cacophony of colors. No more excuses not to paint.

A side benefit in the clean up process, is that I started wiping excess paint onto a large canvas and I’ve ended up with a vibrant first layer.

Daily Art Practice: Visual Painting Journal – Selected Pages

I will soon complete journal #6 in my quest to do a daily painting in my visual journal throughout 2019. We’ve been revamping a house in Astoria on the Oregon coast, so I’m about ~~a week behind~~ two weeks behind in my daily paintings, and I plan to get caught up after Thanksgiving. Yesterday I cataloged the pages I have completed since early October, so I thought I would share some of my favorites.

Daily Art Practice: Visual Painting Journal – Recent Pages

Time for an update of my year long project of painting in a visual journal every day. Here’s a selection of pages from late summer through early fall. Favorites:

Themes continue to emerge: Play, experimentation, circles, layers, mark-making, revealing, excavation, color, lines . . . . and I’m in the final three months of my project.

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.

Salem Poetry Festival

I was invited by the Salem Poetry Festival to paint while two poets read a series of their poems during the Salem Poetry Festival. Last Thursday, I arrived early at the Ike Box in downtown Salem to set up my table. I chose to bring four 11 x 14 canvases and two table easels, with the plan to paint two pieces as each poet read their poetry for about 30 minutes each.

The idea was that my painting would be in response to the poems being read. To prepare for the evening of painting, I repurposed four canvases I had bought at SCRAP, painting over someone’s previous painting to prepare it for my use; I painted two of the canvases black and two in hot pink and orange, giving me something to respond to other than a blank, white canvas.

Poet Carol Hottle kicked off the event and my first painting was in response to her reading a series of poems about a transformational experience she had, surviving a horrific auto accident.

My second painting was in response to a series of poems that reflected positive experiences, and I allowed myself to focus on the visual images Carol painted with her words.

When it was time for poet Mike Shuler to read, I listened as he read until I picked up on a poem about children joyfully playing along the banks of a river, and I couldn’t resist painting a bright abstracted landscape.

The second piece I painted was in response to Mike sharing how much he loves hiking in the Cascade Head area, a place that is near and dear to me because it is where Sitka Center For Art and Ecology is located (and where I taught two painting classes this summer).

The whole experience was positive and fun and once I started painting, I tuned out the room full of people and just focused on the flow of words and the flow of paint. At the conclusion of the evening, I invited both poets to choose a painting to take with them.

Salem Poetry Festival
Thursday, September 12, 2019
Carol, Dayna, and Mike

Abstracted Play in Oil and Cold Wax: August 2019

What a wild week. Twelve women artists came together to take my Abstracted Play in Oil and Cold Wax workshop at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. Some had taken my class previously, a few had learned from other instructors, and quite a few had never worked with oil paint or cold wax, and one was new to painting. There was some gnashing of teeth, lots of laughter, a little whining, a smidgeon of frustration, and in the end, happiness with their success and the beauty of their pieces.

I did demos every morning and afternoon . . .

The women then worked on their own pieces, working in multiples so they had lots of pieces to work on at various stages of the process.

One thing I loved seeing was the camaraderie of how the women supported each other and worked together.

I gave my Artist Talk on Saturday after lunch (they all showed up for my talk, although this photo makes it look like no one did!).

On our last day, we worked in the morning and then in the afternoon cleaned up our supplies, spread out our body of work, and did a walkabout, sharing the highlights of the week.

Here is an assortment of the work created during the week, in no particular order, some on boards, some on Arches Oil Paper, some large and some small:

It was a really fun week.

PS This was the second time I got to teach at Sitka this summer. In June, there was an opening and I was able to slip in a bonus version of this workshop, which I blogged about earlier.