gouache & string on bristol 4-ply vellum & Mi-Teintes paper on full-size album cover.
Apologies for the poor photography.
I'm very pleased to be able to show this piece finally. It's for a show coming up at Gallery 1988 LA next month entitled "Cover Band," wherein artists are invited to choose an album from Rolling Stone's top 500 albums of all time and incorporate their own work with the album art.
I was happy to get my first choice of album, A Love Supreme by Coltrane. I know it's a very typical sort of album to choose, almost too cliché, but I wanted to work with music that I felt deeply and passionately about, and this was one of the few albums on the list that "did it" for me.
This was truly a challenge! I knew from the start that I wasn't going to be able to lay gouache down on the slick surface of the album cover, and after briefly contemplating acrylic I decided to go into new territory and do a bit of paper-cutting. This was a learning experience from start to finish, from paper to glue to cutting tools etc etc. And boy, do I ever have deep respect for those who make paper-cutting their primary medium-- this was hard work! My finger-pads are still so tender.
Work in progress shots, click for detail:
Anyway, I decided on the sea theme after re-listening to the album and suddenly being struck with the image of a horseshoe crab. (I don't know, either.) I wanted to keep the composition a little fluid (ha) and still relate to the typography, and also pay tribute to the master ("beacon in the night"? oh, the fromage) without being too too serious... his submerged head cracks me up. That lighthouse is roughly based on one near where I grew up, and that combined with the album itself and the horseshoe crab (which I encountered a lot in that area), the piece evolved into something oddly personal.
Click for details:
Perhaps I spent too many hours bent over these tiny pieces of paper, but after a while the cut-out characters started making me almost a little uneasy-- it was unsettling seeing even those 2-D characters in a more tangible setting. They're definitely too mischevious and bad to unleash on the 'real' world. Be careful!
I'm speechless!!!!!
Posted by: chickengirl | September 16, 2008 at 11:37
Holy crap, that is so frigging AWESOME!!!
Posted by: Natali | September 16, 2008 at 12:11
Alison, you are always full of wonderful surprises! This is exquisite-- can't believe it's your first papercut!
Posted by: Curious Art | September 16, 2008 at 16:25
i wouldn't have the patience
Posted by: ellis nadler | September 16, 2008 at 19:44
thanks, guys!!
ellis-- I darned near didn't, either, trust me.
Posted by: Allison Sommers | September 17, 2008 at 15:48