I'm teaching a workshop? Yes, I'm teaching a workshop.

The experience of teaching Design and Graphic Design at SUNY Cobleskill as an adjunct for the past 4 years has started to really pay off. I have been doing an Altered Book Final Project for my class for 4 sessions now. It's been really great to see what students can do in just 4 sessions. I get really excited and very humbled when I see the talent that I can draw out of people.
This challenge  has appealed to me and I find now that I have some confidence and experience behind my belt. It means I have the skills and courage now to tackle teaching a local workshop. Whitney Hubbard of the Fort Plain Free Library has been urging me for awhile now to do something at her library. It's such a beautiful location, with glorious wooden floors and tall ceilings all wrapped up within this stately and unique old historical building on the corner in Ft. Plain.
I love the space! It's got a huge table, with I don't know how many seats plus a nice glass display case where I can display some samples of Altered Books from times past. I can't wait to let my various artist friends know that their work is on display here in town!
I set up a workshop based on 6 weeks, figuring the general population will need 6 weeks...some will miss some clases, some will be so challenged it will take awhile, and others hopefully will be in a creative rapture and be unable to quit!
I am so glad to be active and busy again in my art life. The past 8 months have been difficult while I quit my day job and took on working with my husband full time for his Antique biz. I finally have relaxed enough and figure that now I really can make enough money to survive. Now I am back at the table, back at work, and teaching even!

Come join us if you can, in Fort Plain during the month of March while we tear up some books!

The poster

A Black History Month Special featuring Denise Allen

Please note: All images used in this post are copyrighted by Denise Allen. All right reserved. Permission to use these images MUST be cleared through the artist.


It isn't too often that an exhibit that entices me so much comes to the little town of Canajoharie! This month we are all blessed with an exhibit of dolls, story quilts, paintings, and mixed media by the talented local artist Denise Allen.

Second Floor space at The Brotherhood filled with  artwork

I first heard of Denise a few years ago from Chris. Denise shops our Fort Plain Antiques store and buys up all sorts of vintage linens. A passion for linens is something I can appreciate. I like to use them and hoard them. I have my grandmothers hand crocheted work…I use tidbits in my work. Already I had respect for this woman and I was intrigued about what she was doing with all these forlorn linen pieces that I also adore. I couldn't wait to see how she used them and what she did with them.


I have heard many good things about Denise…. She is doing good things for our community! One such good deed is the donation of her time and effort on behalf of Tyson Fowler. (see the entire story here) She sadly lost a son during the 911 catastrophe and has made a story quilt documenting the experience. The proceeds from the sales of  the 911 Prints will be donated to the Tyson Fowler Fund. I love how she has taken her grief full circle to help someone living....There's depth to this person and her ability to give to those in need through her work shows it.
She makes story quilts, these incredibly rich tapestries of brute honesty. She has exhibited in some pretty high profile places and I am so humbled.  I have more seriously been wanting to catch up with her and meet her ever since I saw her work in person at The Brotherhood Antiques store where she has some things on display and for sale. And so it was with great excitement  my pal Travis Button and I went down to The Brotherhood in Canajoharie to see this exhibit!

Detail of Quilt, Above

It's on the second floor of the building in this hauntingy beautiful open and raw space. The bones of this building are exposed and it provides a great foil for the most intricate and decorated work of Denise Allen. The front windows provide an almost primitive style light and atmosphere perfect for absorbing these intense pieces of artwork.

1154 Dean Street, $650
This is my personal fave. Collage built on a wooden door. Swoon!

I was very slow as I went through each piece trying to take in all the multitudes of materials that Denise has mastered and used in her work.

So many materials are used!

There is no limit to the types of  items that may appear in one of her compositions. A work with fabric for a base will have painted surfaces, embroidery, attached objects, handwriting and even cardboard fastened to it to help tell a tale.

Cool! Figures extending beyond the boundaries of the picture plane!

Her talent is extraordinary in that these various items work together in harmony to tell the story so well, you forget to see the individual parts I was mesmerized and happy to be able to spend time up close and personal with these works in such a cool setting.

The Negro Cooks, Recipe Collage Cookbook Cover, $380
I love this  blue and white pottery made of fabric! It's  really ingenious

 Cheers to Joe Fowler of The Brotherhood for supplying such a groovy space for such a great cultural thing for our community. (and especially for me! I love to see this in our town! Collage On!)

These dolls have such stature

Isn't her attire so lovely??

These intense pieces of art are really involved and active. It's easy to get lost in her neighborhood and look to see who is there! Her ability to show expression on the faces of the dolls is also quite extraordinary.

Joe The Mechanic, $450

They have such feeling, and their elaborate costumes had me wondering which little tidbits she got from our store?

Church Gossip, $450

 I am so glad Denise has shared her work in this exhibit! This type of web weaving isn't something you see often. This is some seriously good stuff. They call it folk art, but I just call it creative genius!

Mother Butler, NFS

Denise's 911 prints will be for sale at the Tyson Fowler Fundraising Event on Sunday at Canajoharie High School. See you there!

I had a video in mind

I was so excited when I got my iPad and I thought it was going to change my internet world and how I react with it. I started my first Video Blog Post...and found that it was a lot harder being your own producer/actress than I had thought! I did a bunch of footage and as I looked it over I just kept finding flaws.  I really wanted to post it here, and held on stubbornly so I could come up with the "right" video.

Then came my life bounding in with it's utter immediacy. Things in my world are about to change so dramatically that it has tipped and upset my delicate balance. You know how hard it is to get collage work done when the focus is lost. I have had a complete loss of life focus! Chris has been needing help at his antique store for quite awhile now and we hold back knowing that it means finding someone he can trust in addition to committing hours for someone. Money is tight and we really just haven't had the means to do this. So we mutually decided that it would be best if I give it a try and help him myself. This is a pretty big undertaking. I am talking about quitting my day job (of 14 years) and also leaving my printing related career (of 29 years) and moving into being an antique dealer. The skill sets are quite different, that's for sure. Even though I am a Mac techician by day, I deal with the same folks from my company day after day. In my new capacity I will be dealing retail with the public, setting up store displays, promoting the business on line, etc. It's a lot different than what I am used to, since this job has a flexible schedule and basically I am working for myself.

I am so excited I could burst. But this moment is still a month away and I am in the middle of the prep that is required to make the Leap! We have taken care of our financials...and that's all ready for this new mode and now I am trying to clean up my computer at work and get ready to give my notice. You dear reader, know even before them.

Please accept my excuses and lack of blogging for what it is. I am looking forward to finally having some time to work on things for myself, such as this blog and my own internet presence, when this whole job thing switches over. Meanwhile I apologize for such sparse posting. It have been doing artwork, in fact I just finished an 8 page series of mermaid based works inspired by my trip to Maine next week. (well, really I HAVE to use up those vacation days....!!)

Collage is still at the bottom of my heart and I am narrowing down my focus on a few super big projects that I have always wanted to tackle, things that are dear to my heart but will take a lot of perseverence and effort. I think this next phase of my life will allow me this time to work and I cannot wait to see what happens next!!!

A Crash Course in Online Piracy

I was contacted via email by Katherine Long, who is part of OnlineGraduatePrograms.com, a team of designers and researchers that designed a graphic which highlights how the billions of dollars that Hollywood claims to lose due to piracy, isn't all that they make it out to be. In fact, it may be helping them. She kindly offered to share the graphic with collage clearinghouse readers and I was happy to oblige. It's really well done, and I love the way the graphic symbols match the content.
I was also amazed with the facts in it's content. Take a look for yourself, and see where your opinion lies...

Kurt Seligmann

Steve Specht here...

Kurt Seligmann was an influential American surrealist painter who passed away in 1962. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Seligmann's death, Jonathan Talbot curated an art exhibit this summer at the Seligmann Center in Sugarloaf, NY. My fellow collagist Julie Takacs and I both have pieces in this show. You can view the exhibit (and click on individual pieces for enlargement) at this website http://www.kurtseligmann.org/homage_exhibition/

(btw, I absolutely love this web design that enables you to 'click' on pieces and see them individually). Enjoy!   

two collage books

Steven Specht here...

Over the past month, I received two new collage books that are so good, I just had to share information about them on this blog. One of the books is a technical book about various image transfer techniques by my friend and fellow collage artist Jonathan Talbot and Jessica Lawrence. The book can be purchased through Jonathan's website at www.talbot1.com. This book should be useful for any level of collage artist. The second book is written by collage artist Randel Plowman, who curated the Collage Masters book (what a gem!). Randel's new book is a wonderful in that it covers some design basics in the first half of the book and then presents 50 short exercises to stimulate creative thinking as it relates to collage making. It's a GREAT book and I highly recommend it for beginnings and experts alike. I am hoping to use it in the future with my students. The book is published by Lark Crafts. Randel's blog site is listed in the blogs I follow. Enjoy!

2012 NCS Exhibit

Steven Specht here...
The 2012 National Collage Society Annual Juried Exhibition can now be enjoyed on-line at: http://www.nationalcollage.com/2012.html  Enjoy!

lapel pins

Steven Specht here...

I worked a lot this week on school-related stuff and research, so today I wanted to get some work done in my studio space. Per usual, I have multiple project going on and some cleaning and organizing to do. I had no idea I was going to be doing lapel pins today; but it worked out that I pieced these together with the materials that I was getting organized. That's cool! These pieces are approximately 2" x 3" and 1.5" x 2". I made one for my friend Tom Nettle and the other for another friend of mine who, unbeknownst to me,  has the snake as his Asian symbol. Enjoy!

"Livre rouge"

Steve Specht here again...
Here's something a little different. I will be floating this piece with a surrounding mat inside a 16" x 20" frame so that it will have room to "breathe" more. It's made from a vintage French book cover I got in a flea market in Versailles, an antique spur, cut paper and a rhinestone. I will be entering it at this year's Regional Exhibit at the Mohawk Valley Center for the Arts. Enjoy!