The Aviana Suite.

If you’ve been visiting here for a while, you’ve no doubt noticed my new-found passion for collage. It has captured me in way like no other visual art form, and when I’m not composing narratives in my head, I’m composing collages. Unfortunately, my skills are immature and my time limited, so right now I’m mostly day-dreaming instead of creating . . .

. . . Which is why I live vicariously through my artist friend Maridel (with whom I work in real life). I steal every water-cooler moment I can to engage her in art talk. She has a kitchen-table business making collage illustrations and greeting cards, and her grasp of the genre’s nuances fascinate me. I learn so much just from observing and listening.

Not long ago, I re-arranged a corner of my sunroom to create a studio. I suppose calling this little 10’ X 10’ space a studio is a bit pretentious, but I don’t care. I often write there, but I also collage and stamp and paper craft and paint and daydream and otherwise pursue a fascinating life inside my head. So to christen the little space I call the Magpie Dream Factory, I commissioned a work of art from the High Mistress of Cut and Paste herself.

She delivered it this week, and I’m so excited to share her work with you today. Talk about over-delivering! Called Aviana 1, 2 and 3, her work is a collage in three plates. This is the first:

The Aviana Suite.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

I love this scene for its pastoral quality and traditional aesthetic. I think her selection and juxtaposition of images are just brilliant, including the rose-strewn and bejeweled border set against a provincial landscape.

Take a look at the second plate:

This is my favorite for several reasons. First, I’m a devotee of chinoiserie, and the cloisonne birds give the scene a little contemporary bling. My eye is also drawn to the beauty of the lady of the house, and I can’t help but wonder about the bowl she’s holding (is that a full moon she’s serving?). Not to mention that I want to live in her lusciously decorated room and explore the treasure in her painted chest.

Next is plate 3:

I love the earthy palette of this plate, along with the image of the mother bird feeding her hatchlings under the stern eye of the clock. The white tower with its lights ablaze is reminiscent of the Magpie’s house and makes me feel right at home. And that farmhouse bowl of eggs in the bottom right corner? Makes me want to put on an apron and make pancakes for all of Mayberry.

I’m hardly an art critic, so I struggle to find the words to praise her work. I find it refined and elegant without being stuffy. Clever without being cute. Intelligent without being pretentious. It has lushness without excess. In the words of Goldilocks, it’s just right.

I’ve left my one-off prints safely in the care of Tulsa’s best custom frame shop, where they are being matted and hung vertically in a black bamboo frame. I just know the Aviana Suite is going to look smashing in my studio, er, dream factory and will inspire me for years to come.

Before I finish extolling the artistry that is Maridel, take a look at the Christmas card she sent this year:

The inside reads Oh, bring us some figgy pudding! -- a most fitting sentiment for this charmingly Dickensonian scene, don’t you think?

While my scanner or my review doesn’t do justice to her work, I hope you’ll give her a round of applause via the comments below.

(Oh, and never ever compare my work to Maridel’s, even if you invoke the bless her heart disclaimer when talking about the Magpie’s attempts at art. I see the difference, thank you very much.)