allison sommers art.

encounter with the hunting party

1.25 x 2.25 gouache on illustration board.

So here I was, minding my own business...

the hunting accident

4.5 x 3 gouache on illustration board.

Crafting that perfect alibi...

comin' in hot

click for larger.
6 x 6 graphite on Strathmore drawing paper.

Just a little drawing to send you off on your weekend... if you find yourself pleasure-air-boating, for god's sake don't let that thing get away from you.

a love supreme.

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!

ice fishing

4.5 x 6.5 gouache on illustration board.
Protecting the herd...

I'm so ready for fall and winter, and that embrace of the warm indoors against the cold outside...

Click for detail:

 

//edit: I don't know why the detail's color is so... off.  Apologies.

two hobbyists

A New Diversion

 
1.25 x 1.75 gouache on bristol board, fit into a vintage paper frame.

He neglected his dinners for days, but his tiny experiment is ready for testing-- much to the chagrin of the house servants.  I reckon they'd all leave if it weren't for the kindness of his sister.

Sweetie

3 x 5 graphite & gouache on illustration board.

I've been drawing a bit more lately-- rather, I've been enjoying actually rendering my drawings, rather than the exuberant but half-finished diddles in my sketchbook.  Poor fellow-- composed of illustration board remnants and old palette crumbs, it's no wonder he needs to dress so nattily. 

I imagine he calls his ward "swee Tea," rather than my slurry Southern "sweadea" pronunciation.  Let's hope he keeps those petit fours coming, or else Sweetie looks capable of keeping the whole house up at night, greedy beggar.

later that night...

4.5 x 6.5 gouache on illustration board.

I can't tell you what these fellows are up to-- they said absolutely nothing as they passed me in the hallway (although I admit I was peeking from behind the drapes)-- but it is no good.

Click for details:

(M. Bovary, Marat, & St. Stephen guest-star.)

cold song

What power art thou,
Who from below,
Hast made me rise,
Unwillingly and slow,
From beds of everlasting snow?

3" x 4" gouache on illustration board.

sleepwalker

5 x 7 gouache on illustration board.

the last leg

5 x 7 gouache on illustration board.

go, boy, go!

...I think he's had enough.