Yellow Bird

Yellow Bird by collage artist Megan Coyle
Yellow Bird by collage artist Megan Coyle
“Yellow Bird.” Collage on paper. 9″x12″
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Another day, another collage. And it’s another one inspired by a trip to the zoo. I love the bright colors you can find in nature and other creatures.

So the craziness of all the exhibitions I’ve had going on this summer has calmed down a bit. The past couple of months I was practically working away on art or art-related things about seven days a week. Now that I have my summer lectures, presentations, and the majority of my shows under my belt, I’ve been a little lazy these past couple of days. I suppose you can say I’m resting up from all the work I was doing.

Pretty soon I may take a bit of a break from working on original works of art. I want to get started on storyboarding a children’s book or perhaps planning out an animation. I’ll still work on a few small pieces here and there, although there won’t be as much work posted here.

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a lovely week!

Bosty goes to Brighton

Bosty by collage artist Megan Coyle

Bosty has been off on another adventure with a trip to England. His first stop? Brighton to run down the beaches. He also spent a good amount of time jumping into the water and doing the doggy paddle to cool off from the summer heat. Here he is taking a stroll down the beach in the early morning.

Bosty by collage artist Megan Coyle

He dropped by Brighton Pier several times to run around on the boardwalk and greet strangers. Especially the ones walking dogs.

Bosty by collage artist Megan Coyle

Out and about on the beach chasing after seagulls and other critters. This seagull seems to be having a staring contest with Bosty.

Bosty by collage artist Megan Coyle

Attacking his head or whispering sweet nothings? Whichever it is, Bosty seems a little concerned.

Bosty by collage artist Megan Coyle

And after a day of running, splashing in the water, and playing with seagulls, Bosty watched the sunset. All in all, it was just another dog day in summer.

Artist Talk at Goodwin House

Megan Coyle collage artistTonight I stopped by the Goodwin House to give an artist talk to the residents for my exhibit, “The Animal Kingdom.” I did another PowerPoint presentation where I walked the audience through my process step-by-step and also shared images of the other subjects I collage. Afterward I held a Q & A session that lasted for quite a while – I received lots of questions about the specifics of my technique – the type of paper I use, the type of glue I work with, how I work with the layers, and so on and so forth.

I had a pleasant evening at the reception and made sure to take some photographs of the artwork on the walls. I always try to take pictures of my artwork once it’s installed in an exhibition just for the sake of documenting my work.

Anyway, here are a few more images from the show:

Megan Coyle collage artist

“Hungry Hippo” is the largest piece in the show (24″x18″) and is one of my personal favorites. I probably like this piece because it was inspired by a trip to the zoo where the hippo stuck his tongue out when he saw a zookeeper walk by with a bucket of veggies.

Megan Coyle collage artist

There are nearly forty pieces in this exhibit. Here you can see from the angle view that there are a range of sizes. Since the pieces are smaller than the size I work in for portraiture, it was a bit easier making a larger body of work.

Megan Coyle collage artist

Another angle view – here you can see the collage I used for the postcards.

Megan Coyle collage artist

And lastly, I put together a little spot where I have my artist statement, a stack of artist bio pamphlets, the postcards I designed, my business card, and lastly, the guestbook. I also had some brochures on commission work but they were all gone when I stopped by today.

I hope everyone is having a great week! I’ve been having quite a bit of fun these past few weeks, although I’m excited that now I can rest a little more on the weekends and take it easy. In June and July I was working about seven days a week because of the visiting artist program I was a part of, and now it’s nice not having to be in an office/studio every day of the week. Anyway, that’s all for now.

Stories in Paper: Exhibit Ending

Megan Coyle Stories in Paper

This late afternoon “Stories in Paper” will be uninstalled. I had a lot of fun having this exhibition up at the Art League Gallery – and I can’t believe the show has run its course already.

Megan Coyle Stories in Paper

So while saying “good-bye” to the end of another show, I thought I’d post a few pictures I took of the work hanging on the gallery walls. Here’s the easel sitting outside the Art League with the poster advertising my exhibit.

Megan Coyle Stories in Paper

The postcard collage up on the wall.

Megan Coyle Stories in Paper

The space where I set out a guest book, booklet of more of my work, and other marketing materials.

Megan Coyle Stories in Paper

A shot of one of the gallery’s walls (the one with my name and exhibit title on it).

Megan Coyle Stories in Paper

Another angle.

Megan Coyle Stories in Paper

I was really proud of the work that I had in this show – the majority of it was completed last year. I created about twenty of collages for the show, picked sixteen from the group to have in the gallery, and during installation only fourteen pieces could fit.

Farewell to “Stories in Paper” – although with each exhibit, I seem to learn more and more about marketing my work and playing around with subject matter.

The Animal Kingdom: A Series of Animal Collages

Elephant by collage artist Megan Coyle
“Elephant.” Collage on paper. 9″x12″
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August 1st – September 25th, 2010
Goodwin Gallery; Alexandria, Virginia
Map and Gallery Info

Reception & Artist Talk: Wednesday, August 4th, 2010 at 7:00p.m.

“The Animal Kingdom” featured animal collages ranging from domestic animals like cats and dogs, to more exotic animals like giraffes and elephants. Megan’s exhibit examined the diverse world of colorful and familiar creatures. Most of the artwork on display was inspired by the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum and the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

The exhibition included older works that appear in the online animal gallery as well as newer works that Megan prepared specifically for this exhibition. All artwork in the exhibition was available for sale.

Studio Move-out

Megan Coyle Collage Artist Studio

Tomorrow I’m moving out of the Torpedo Factory studio that I’ve been working in for the past couple of months. It’s been quite an experience – and it’s amazing how much the look of the studio has changed over time. You can take a look at my pictures from when I first moved in to get an idea of what changes I made over time.

Megan Coyle Collage Artist Studio

I’ll get to work for a couple of hours before I start packing things up. I’ve already made some space in my apartment to serve as my home “studio.” And although I have a nook set aside for myself, I think that in the next couple of months I’ll want to focus more on making animations. We shall see…

Megan Coyle Collage Artist Studio

Above is a shot of my wall and pedestals complete with lettering that I taped to the wall. I noticed that a lot of visitors previously thought all my pieces were paintings and would just walk on by. The lettering really helped me out – it would catch their eye, drawn them in, and make them realize that it was made of paper.

Megan Coyle Collage Artist Studio

A few weeks ago I moved in a small desk that you can see towards the back there – I turned it into my work desk so visitors would have a better view of me collaging when they walked in.

Megan Coyle Collage Artist Studio

Some of the magnet packs I made – I sold quite a few of these at the studio. They were pretty popular – and seemed to work well with all the tourists that come in and out of the art center.

Megan Coyle Collage Artist Studio

And here’s an image of my guest book, magnets, note cards, and digital picture frame that showed a slide show of my other work that wasn’t hanging in the gallery.Anyway, although I’m moving out and one more thing will be behind me, I’m really looking forward to what’s coming up these next couple of months.

Materials

Collage artist Megan Coyle

People are often curious about how I construct my collages, so I thought I’d share a few photos of the materials I use. Several of these pictures were included in my PowerPoint for the “Stories in Paper” artist talk.

Collage artist Megan Coyle

For all my “work in progress” I use scissors, magazine pages, and Elmer’s acid-free glue sticks. Some people ask if I ever use X-Acto knives and I don’t – I’ve found that good old scissors work fine for me. I think X-Acto knives would be something I’d use if I wanted to be very precise with the shapes I cut out. Since my goal is to make each collage reminiscent of a painting, there isn’t a need to be so precise with the shapes of my magazine cut-outs. It works better if my shapes are eye-balled and looser.

I use acid-free glue sticks as I work because of how flexible they are. The glue isn’t permanent, thus I can easily lift up collage pieces and move them around. I can peel back magazine strips in certain areas to let previous layers shine through. Once I’m finished with a piece, I go back in and varnish the entire work to seal it all together and to help protect the paper.

Collage artist Megan Coyle

Usually I’ll work with a couple piles of magazines surrounding me. That way my materials are at my fingertips – I can easily grab a magazine and start paging through it if I’m searching for a specific color or have an idea of a texture I’d like.

Collage artist Megan Coyle

Sometimes I’ll tear out magazine pages based on their color and texture and file them away in folders. That way, if I’m working on a collage and I’m in need of a specific color, I don’t have to hunt around for long – I can simply pull out the folder filled with magazine pages of that color.

Collage artist Megan Coyle

Here’s a picture of me working with a glue stick and scissors as I cut out magazine strips for a landscape piece. This picture was taken by a writer from the Gazette Packet who wrote an article about the visiting artist program that I’ve been a part of.

Collage artist Megan Coyle

And here’s an older picture of myself sitting on the floor working away on a collage I completed in 2008. Sometimes the floor is just the best workspace – you can really spread out with all your piles of paper.

So that’s everything for now. I’ll revisit my process another time to focus on another aspect of it.

Mr. Kangaroo

Mr. Kangaroo by collage artist Megan Coyle
“Mr. Kangaroo.” Collage on paper. 12″x16″
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This piece was inspired by a trip that I took the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum. A lot of my animal collages are inspired by trips to the Natural History Museum when I swing by their animal exhibits – or the National Zoo. I’m really having quite a bit of fun making animal collages – after making so many figurative pieces earlier this year, it’s definitely a nice change of pace.

I’m beginning a lot of exhibition prep work for the animal exhibition that goes up this coming Sunday, August 1st. My “to do” list includes framing all the artwork, preparing an artist talk, and getting together all my postcards, business cards, etc. to set out during the show. We shall see how it goes…

Stories in Paper Video

So my brother has done it again – for the opening for “Stories in Paper” he took a bus down from NYC just to spend a couple of hours at my reception before heading back up. He took a lot of video at the event and then edited it all. So if you missed the opening, or simply live too far away to come see the show, here you can get a taste of what it’s like being in the gallery space:

Pelicans

Pelicans by collage artist Megan Coyle
“Pelicans.” Collage on paper. 12″x16″
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Inspired by a walk through the National Zoo – these two pelicans were swimming about in the seal exhibit. Again you can see I’m drawn to the blues in water. There’s just something that’s really fun about working with reflections in water.

In other news, I was pretty excited today to receive my contract for my solo show at Krempp Gallery in May 2011. It’s in Jasper, Indiana, although I’m planning to take a road trip when the time comes to deliver about twenty to thirty collages for the show. One of my goals this year was to get an exhibit in a gallery from a state that I’m not affiliated with at all and I’m pleased that my work will be off to the Midwest before long.

Anyway, I’m off to work on getting things a little more organized around my room. I’ll be busy with quite a bit planning these next couple of weeks.