lillie Morris Collage Works

'Bird's Eye View'

2012-01-13T13:20:00.000-08:00

I've been in my studio for the better part of the last two weeks preparing for an upcoming workshop which focuses on watercolor and collage. The next several posts are the results of my efforts.

'Phoenix'

2012-01-13T13:18:00.000-08:00

'Great Blue'

2012-01-13T13:09:00.000-08:00

'Carnival'

2012-01-13T13:03:00.000-08:00

Another study for the upcoming Watercolor/Collage workshop.

Study - Robin's Egg Blue

2012-01-13T12:57:00.000-08:00

Experimenting with watercolor and collage in preparation for an upcoming workshop.

"Elemental"

2011-10-31T09:03:00.001-07:00

"Elemental" (12 x 9) Mixed Media Collage containing: Hand tinted/textured papers, acrylic paint, snake skin and mica. This recently completed collage was done for the upcoming "Oysters on Telfair" event.....The Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art's annual fundraiser.

'Winter'

2011-05-13T11:19:00.000-07:00

The last of the four seasons.....

'Fall'

2011-05-09T09:23:00.000-07:00

Another of the four 'Season' collages I've been working on...used some copper foil in this one. A new element I've been wanting to try in my collage work.

'Summer'

2011-05-02T09:21:00.001-07:00

One of the four 'Seasons" collages I've been working on.......

'Spring'

2011-05-02T09:19:00.001-07:00

One of a series of "Seasons" collages I'm working on......

'An Acre of Grass'

2011-01-24T14:00:00.000-08:00

Inspired by the poem 'An Acre of Grass' which bears a positive message for old age and puts to rest any consideration than an old man (or woman for that matter!!) is useless. Yeats seeks inspiration from such illustrious old men such as Timon of Athens, King Lear, Blake and Angelo whose mental strength was never undermined even with diminishing physical verve. And an acre of grass suggests the atmosphere necessary for his meditation, his contemplation and his creativity.

AN ACRE OF GRASS

Picture and book remain,
An acre of green grass for air and exercise,
Now strength of body goes;
Midnight, an old house,
Where nothing stirs but a mouse.

My temptation is quiet.
Here at life's end
Neither loose imagination,
Nor the mill of the mind
Consuming it's rag and bonc
Can make the truth known.

Grant me an old man's frenzy,
Myself must I remake
Til I am Timon or Lear
Or that William Blake
Who beat upon the wall
Til Truth obeyed his call.

A mind Michael Angelo knew
That can pierce the clouds,
Or inspired by frenzy
Shake the dead in their shrouds;
Forgotten else by mankind,
An old man's eagle mind.
~William Butler Yeats

"Ginkos III"

2010-12-27T12:47:00.000-08:00

Another piece for the upcoming Women On Paper exhibit at The Etherredge Center in Aiken, SC....

"There's A Song In The Air!"

2010-12-07T12:52:00.000-08:00

......And the beautiful sing!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2010!!

Living Fossil

2010-10-27T08:57:00.000-07:00

This collage was created for an art institute benefit that takes place in October. The Ginko leaf included in the piece was picked up last fall and dried among my other 'collectables' & found objects. I did a little research about Ginko trees as I was trying to think of a title for the piece and found that the Ginko tree is interesting in a number of ways:

"Ginkgoes are often planted in cities not only because they're pretty trees but also because they thrive where air pollution is bad. It's not surprising that ginkgoes are air-pollution tolerant, because they are very primitive plants; they may have evolved when the earth's atmosphere was even more sulphurous and grimy than today, because of erupting volcanoes. In fact, ginkgoes are living fossils."

'Found' Series - (Aimsíodh XVI) - 'Close To The Edge'

2010-09-09T09:43:00.000-07:00

The last in the series......

'Found' Series - (Aimsíodh XV) - 'Caillte in Éirann'

2010-09-07T13:13:00.001-07:00

I posted this painting a bit too hastily.....after looking at it I wasn't happy with the photo of the painting, I wasn't satisfied with the title and I also felt the painting needed a few more 'tweaks'! So it went back to the studio today and I'm happier w/ the result.
the title "Caillte in Éirinn' is Irish Gaelic for 'lost in Ireland'

'Found' Series - (Aimsíodh XIV) - 'Off The Grid'

2010-08-23T14:18:00.000-07:00

'Found' Series - (Aimsíodh XIII) -"On the Edge"

2010-08-21T10:57:00.000-07:00

The latest in the 'Found' Series which keeps going....and going!!

(Incidentally....the right side of the painting is actually straight. It may not bother anyone else but it sure bugs me!! I photographed the painting multiple times and the convexity of camera lens evidently alters the image b/c I could never get the edges to be perfectly straight.)

'Found' Series - (Aimsíodh XII) "Beneath the Surface"

2010-08-18T05:19:00.000-07:00

'Found' Series - Aimsíodh XI (pr. 'Im-shee-och') 'In The Trenches II'

2010-08-14T13:00:00.000-07:00

More of the 'Found' series....a companion piece for the previous post.

'Found Series' -Aimsíodh X (pr. 'Im-shee-och') -'In The Trenches I'

2010-08-10T14:46:00.000-07:00

The 10th painting in the series........

'Found Series' -Aimsíodh VIII and IX (pr. 'Im-shee-och')

2010-08-10T06:58:00.000-07:00

Two more shell 'portraits'.....of two of the old worn shells.

'Found' Series - Aimsíodh VI and VII (pr. 'Im-shee-och')

2010-08-07T14:18:00.000-07:00

These are two more pieces in the 'Found' series. Altho' these aren't collages, I'm posting them here anyway since they're part of the series. These are little 'portraits' of two of the shells I found at Ballybunion. The shells in the previous posts all have holes in them that are a result of being washed and worn in the tide .....So these were fairly 'young' when I saved them from the surf!

'Found' Series - Aimsíodh V (pr. 'Im-shee-och')

2010-08-06T13:08:00.000-07:00

The fifth in my 'Found' series of collage paintings. This one was created using hand textured papers, acrylic paint and hemp cord. The collage, which is twice the size of the previous four paintings in the series also includes a small painting of one of the shells from Ireland that inspired the entire series. Aimsíodh is the Irish Gaelic word for 'found'.

'Found' Series - Aimsíodh III & IV (pr. 'Im-shee-och')

2010-07-22T08:26:00.000-07:00

My most recent Aimsíodh pieces... #'s III and IV in the 'Found' series. These were inspired by some old mollusk shells I found on the beach in Ballybunion, Co. Kerry Ireland.

'Found' Series - Aimsíodh I & II (pr. 'Im-shee-och')

2010-07-08T08:12:00.001-07:00

Collages based on old mollusk shells I found at Ballybunion...a beach in the north of Co. Kerry Ireland. 'Aimsíodh' is the Irish Gaelic word for 'found'.

Untitled I & II

2010-06-21T10:41:00.000-07:00

These two collages were actually done back in March and I failed to photograph them before submitting them to an Atlanta Collage Society Show. The show came down while I was in Ireland and I went up to Atlanta to get them this past weekend. I figured I'd post them even tho' they're not hot off the press! Both are mixed media collage using hand tinted & textured papers w/ dried ginko leaves.

"Two Lilies"

2010-04-20T14:26:00.000-07:00

This is another piece I've done for a local fundraiser....this will be my last donation of the year. We have some calla lilies that bloom by our pond every year. I don't know if it was because of the unusually cold winter we had or just what but where we typically have 12 - 15 (+) blooms this year we only had two.....but they were beautiful!

"JOY!!"

2010-04-13T16:10:00.001-07:00

My most recent collage was a commission for The Ronald McDonald House here in Augusta, GA. The local chapter of a teacher's sorority commissioned me to do the piece and they wanted the finished product to be a collage that was bright, cheerful and uplifting.....so this is the result. It will hang near the entrance to the garden at our local Ronald McDonald House on Green St.

"Arioso"

2010-02-27T10:01:00.001-08:00

This is the third and final piece I've created for the Art Factory fundraiser scheduled for March. It's entitled 'Arioso' because the music (which is barely visible in the background) is from "Arioso" by Jean Sibelius a Finnish composer (1865 -1957). Sibelius was a prolific composer but I'd be willing to bet that "Arioso" is one of his most recognizable pieces. Like "The Meditation from Thais"(see previous post), "Arioso" is also one of those pieces that is part of the repertoire of most classical music students. This is another piece that I played years ago while studying with my violin teacher, Eloy Fominaya.

"Gealach" (pr: gay-lock) - Irish Gaelic for 'Moon'

2010-02-22T16:14:00.000-08:00

Another collage completed for the upcoming fundraiser for the Art Factory. The title - - with the help of translation - - is self explanatory......

'THAIS'

2010-02-20T10:36:00.000-08:00

This is a piece I've done for a local fundraiser that's coming up in March. It started off being just an abstract design where I planned to use some Ginko leaves I'd saved from the fall. I'd worked on it to a point of feeling that it was 'almost' finished but needed something else and my husband, Bill, took a look at it and saw the woman's figure. She'd been waiting patiently on me! So I put a head on her shoulders and fixed her hair but she didn't get any arms.....read on & you'll understand.

Thaïs (Pronounced tah-eess) is an opera by Jules Massenet to the music of French composer Louis Gallet. The 'Meditation from Thais' is a classical piece that any serious violin student would have played. Even tho' I almost exclusively play traditional Irish music these days, I still have all my classical music and occasionally use it in my collages....my former teacher, Eloy Fominaya would be proud! (Incidentally, I use photocopies of the music...I don't destroy the originals!)

(A little background on the opera helps make sense of the piece.Thaïs, a female, is the main character of the opera which takes place in Egypt, where a Cenobite monk, attempts to convert Thaïs, a devotée of Venus (that's why she did't get arms!), to Christianity, but discovers too late that his obsession with her is rooted in lust; while Thais's true purity of heart is revealed, so is the religious man's baser nature. The work is often described as bearing a sort of religious eroticism....got this from Wikipedia so it's a fact!)

"Thinking of Ireland"

2010-02-03T08:41:00.000-08:00

Anyone who knows me very well expects the subject of Ireland to come up within about 10 seconds of being around me! The subject is frequently reflected in my artwork as well. I haven't done any 'Irish-related' artwork in quite some time so I thought I'd revisit the place. This piece was a pure joy!

'Pressure Point'

2010-01-16T13:10:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed doing yesterday's piece so much, I decided to go back into the studio today and do a companion piece. This painting contains the same elements as yesterday with the exception that I started straight in with acrylic so the watercolor media isn't in the mix.

'Vanishing Point'

2010-01-15T12:52:00.000-08:00

This is an abstract I started on yesterday with my Wednesday painting group 'Women on Paper'. It was too cold to paint outdoors so we got together at The Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art. Most everyone worked on an abstract of some sort. I was pleased enough with the start so I decided to take it into the studio today to finish it up. I started the piece working in watercolor & watercolor pencils....then today I went back into it with acrylic paint, some collage and some gesso...so it's mixed media for sure!

"Local Brevities" - which direction?

2010-01-06T12:42:00.001-08:00

Having paper, paint and newspaper left over from the painting I did for the Aiken Retrospective, I decided to do a smaller piece using the same concept....a 'companion piece' so to speak. There was a column in the 1921 Aiken Journal and Review which was entitled "Local Brevities".....it contained tidbits of news about the towns people such as engagements, honors and awards, etc...
Here's my question to anyone who reads this blog......Horizontal or Vertical?

"The Big Fire of '21"

2009-12-30T13:21:00.000-08:00

This is a piece I've just completed for a juried exhibition at the Aiken Center for the Arts. Aiken is celebrating it's 175th birthday and the exhibition is a retrospective of Aiken's history. I had to do a little Aiken research to come up with an idea for a painting.
One of my friends who lives in Aiken told me there had been a big fire at some point in Aiken's past so I decided to look into that a little further and I found out that the Big Fire of Aiken occurred in downtown Aiken on Oct, 26th 1921......I decided that lots of artists will be thinking of the equestrian history of Aiken and I liked the idea of doing something entirely different......I used old newspaper articles, hand tinted tissue paper and acrylic paint.

Christmas Joy!

2009-12-15T12:07:00.000-08:00

The last commission is done and I'm slowing down for the remainder of the Holidays! Here's my Christmas Card for this year.
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

"Flesh Colored Canvas" in it's new home!

2009-12-02T13:33:00.000-08:00

Here are photos of 'Flesh Colored Canvas" in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Mark Senn.

"Rejoice!"

2009-12-01T10:56:00.000-08:00

This collage was a commissioned piece. It's based on a quote which goes like this:

"We can complain because rose bushes have thorns or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses."
- Abraham Lincoln

I used hand tinted/textured papers, dried rose petals and Lincoln pennies....I'm pleased with the results and hope my patron will be as well.

Meditation Series #1, #2, #3, and #4

2009-11-24T07:57:00.000-08:00

Here is the series of collages done for the MCG Outpatient Cancer Treatment Center. The four pieces will go in the center's Meditation Room which is a 'chapel' of sorts.

New Blog!

2009-10-31T15:23:00.001-07:00

I've decided to separate my oils from my mixed media collage work so I've set up this blog specifically for the latter.
All of the images below were originally on my other blog (lilliemorris.blogspot.com). I copied them here and unfortunately had to sacrifice some of the text and comments from followers but I felt the two mediums were too different to share the same blogspace ('blogspace'...hmmm, is that a word? Well, you get the idea!). The works below were completed between May 2009 and Sept. 2009......Hope you enjoy the new blog!

New Life I & II

2009-10-31T15:16:00.000-07:00

MAY 11:
There's new growth popping out everywhere! I've been picking fern fronds and all kinds of vegetation to dry for collage pieces. Bill found this butterfly on our driveway this morning and I decided to get to work. Here's the result

Writer's Week Collages

2009-10-31T04:23:00.000-07:00

MAY:
I'm getting ready for a trip to Ireland that centers around a group art exhibition I've been invited to participate in. The exhibit will take place during a literary festival held in Listowel, Co. Kerry, Ireland called 'Writer's Week" (www.writersweek.ie) . Olive Stack, a wonderful artist and gallery owner from Listowel, graciously invited me to be a part of the exhibition. www.olivestackgallery.com

Over the past nine years I've visited Ireland annually and Listowel has become my Irish "hometown", so to speak. This small town in North Kerry has a rich literary history and has produced a number of well-known authors and playwrights over the years. One of the most beloved was John B. Keane who died in 2002. In deciding what to contribute to the Writer's Week exhibition I decided to do three collages based upon three of John B. Keane's most well-known plays "Sive", "Big Maggie" and "The Field...all having major themes of life, death and greed. The fourth collage pays homage to Writer's Week and the wealth of authors Ireland has produced.......the Writer's Week piece is the black & white & tan piece. These collages contain actual script from the plays, and papers that I created using a variety of techniques, as well as symbolic objects.

More Cill Rialaig Collages

2009-10-31T04:14:00.001-07:00

JUNE:
Today I'll post the remainder of the collages I completed while at Cill Rialaig in Ireland...... In most of the collages I put organic material from the area itself - - such as dried grasses or sheep's wool......They're not listed for sale here on my blog as they'll be placed in one of the galleries that carry my work.

Cill Rialaig Collages

2009-10-31T04:00:00.000-07:00

JUNE:
Today I'll post the remainder of the collages I completed while at Cill Rialaig in Ireland....... In most of the collages I put organic material from the area itself - - such as dried grasses or sheep's wool.

The image in this post that contains the 'fiddle head (scroll)" is of one of the collages I completed at Cill Rialaig. It contains traditional Irish music and a small sketchy painting of a fiddle scroll. It was untitled until last week when my friend, Kaye, came over looking for a birthday gift for her daugher-in-law, Sara. Sara is a wonderfully versatile musician.....she plays the double bass in our local symphony and also plays in a bluegrass band!! Plus, she teaches in the string program in our county school system.......When Kaye saw this piece she didn't want to look any further......we decided it was 'Sara's Piece' so now it has a proper title. I love it when that kind of thing happens. I like to think that every piece of artwork is created 'for' someone - - it's just a matter of finding out who the 'someone' is!!!

Molly's Orchid Series

2009-10-31T03:50:00.000-07:00

Thank goodness there are no 'rules' in art. If you look as yesterday's painting you'd never guess today's was done by the same artist.....but that's just who I am!

JULY 28TH :
So this is 'Molly's Orchid I, II and III'. Back in December - - December 15th to be exact - - my cousin, Molly, brought me a beautiful white orchid for a Christmas gift. It was loaded with blooms and buds and the orchid continued to bloom until this month. As the blooms began to fall off I decided to dry them as collage material. I have enough orchids for several collages and this is the first.

Flesh Colored Canvas

2009-10-31T03:33:00.001-07:00

SEPTEMBER 8TH
I've been working on this collage for the past several weeks. It's based on one of the songs recorded by, Dead Confederate, my son's band. The song, written by bass-player, Brantley Senn, is called 'Flesh Colored Canvas'. It's a very emotional piece which was largely inspired by the paintings of Jackson Pollock. The imagery from Brantley's lyrics was the dominate force behind my painting both figuratively and literally. Brantley's handwritten lyrics are actually collaged into the piece along with a small 'portrait' of Jackson Pollock and a set of bass guitar strings!! Thanks Brantley, for allowing me to 'illustrate' your song!

Flesh Colored Canvas' - by Brantley Senn

My vision's still blurred by the tricks that you turned,
I danced and fell back.
I laid open-eyed drinking heart wine,
Soaking in all that I lacked
A lover accused of standing abuse, then
Turning and running the track
A pawn in the game that muses had made
Somehow I always attract

Tainted and twisted, my drinks double-fisted
Aiming the path at a crash
Killing the time painting teeth with red wine
Spitting color to your back
A Pollock-like painting that don't keep you waiting
The feeling bleeds out of a gash
Your cutting won't peel, the washing won't heal
The meaning however abstract
This is how I changed my mind

A quick stroke of black on a
Flesh colored canvas
Emoting the sympathy left
Seven strokes red aiming ends at your head
Each for a sacrifice met
Dark blue blurs on the ends of your curves
The sadness you caused and I kept
I tie it all in with a solid gold pen
A frame to make sure it's felt

The medium bleeds but at least you can see
A mirror can reach to your back
It reminds you of me and what I stand to be
With obvious subtle attack
Lay on your side so it lasts a lifetime
Learn from this simple abstract
The painter is gone and now you stand alone
Gone with the tip of my hat
This is how I changed my mind