Thursday, September 04, 2008

First Friday SE Artwalk--come see a great show!

"Antiquated," 2008 by Lea Keohane. All Rights Reserved.

Several months ago I answered a call for artists by Yelp and Adrienne Fritze of Working Artists Network. The idea was to take phone books and create art with them. The artists involved created a wide range of very interesting pieces, from clothing to paintings and more!

For my own contribution, I decoupaged pieces of a phone book onto a masonite board, then created a stencil of a 1920's telephone and stenciled it on. I wanted to incorporated one of my female characters, but I wasn't sure at first how to make her an important part of the piece. So, inspired by my friend Cara's brilliant Art Nouveau paintings, I decided to put her in a great flapper costume. The idea behind this painting is that, in the age of computers, phone books are a thing of the past. Which they certainly are in my own household! I get a pang of guilt every time new ones show up at my doorstep, as they go straight to the recycle bin.

The phone book mashup project, in conjunction with rdEVOLUTION, a project in which artists explored inter-species survival, will be on display for two months, with an opening tomorrow, Friday September 5th, at the Olympic Mills Commerce Center, at 107 SE Washington St., from
6-8 pm. If you are in Portland, this is a must-see event with new work from over 20 amazing Portland artists!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

sounds like a great show, What a great idea!

Unknown said...

sounds like fun -- wish I lived closer!

Bluesaphire said...

whoot! the phone book sounds like you had fun creating what a way to stretch the imagination with such a challenge lol! your art is beautiful by the way...good luck with the show toooo!!!

Ms.March said...

Seeing all of your amazing new paintings and hearing about all these cool shows is making me SOOOOO homesick!

LeaKarts said...

Thanks for all of the compliments! I miss you too Alisha :(