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Transcript of Live An Artful Life Magazine Issue 9
Live An
Magazine9
®
Three Dimensional Storytellers!
Katheleen KendallSarah AngleKaren Rexrode
Artful Life
PeaceLove Studios Kim Tapper - Life Coach
Live An
MagazineArtful Life
PUBLISHER, EDITORTom [email protected]
PUBLISHER, ASSOCIATE EDITOR ANDGRAPHIC DESIGNLinda [email protected]
ADVERTISING540-253-9797
CONTRIBUTORSTom NeelAimeé O'GradyKim Tapper, Life Coach, ACC, CPCC
PHOTO CREDITSWe wish to thank the following people of the wonderful photos used in this issue.Tom NeelPeaceLove Studios
SUBMISSIONSLive An Artful Life Magazine welcomes ar-ticle submissions by email to [email protected]. Please include contact information.
COPYRIGHT 2016 Live An Artful Life Inc.All rights reserved. No portion of this pub-lication may be copied or reprinted without written permission from the Editor. Live An Artful Life is a registerd trademark of Live An Artful Life Inc.
Live An Artful Life IncP.O. Box 1636474 Main StreetThe Plains, VA 20198
ON THE COVER
"Searching" hand painted wood tray by Sarah Angle, 16" X 16".
®
2 | Copyright Live An Artful Life Inc All rights reserved
As we bury our Northern Virginia rain deficit in with a deluge of daily
drizzles, premiums are being placed on sunshine. So this, our delayed
9th issue, then comes at a time when good reading material should
come in handy. We hope so anyway! With each new issue we try our
best to expand our and your artful horizons through the vision and lives
of others.
The feature artist stories you find in this issue have a few things in
common. They are all about women who are all about the same age,
who creatively express themselves in more than one way and medi-
um. They've all experienced some adversity and their art is then a very
important part of their lives. A part that grounds them and they would be in a very different place
without it. All of their art though is also quite narrative. These artists are story tellers and all uniquely
three dimensional in their own special way. Three dimensional stories, which make for one wonderful
creative volume!
Kim Tapper is also back with her words of wisdom found in Life Coach, and with this issue we would
also like to introduce our newest contributing writer, Aimeé O'Grady. Aimee brings us a heart warm-
ing story of art and community with her piece on Peace Love Studios located in Pawtucket, Rhode
Island and Las Vegas Nevada. Aimeé has also been contributing valuable website content too! Which
reminds me to remind you, Live An Artful Life Magazine is more than a digital publication, our infor-
mative website stitches your issues together!
Enjoy reading and we hope sunshine eventually warms your face wherever you may be!
Live An Artful Life,
Tom
to our readers
inside9
Photo courtesy of PeaceLove Studios. Read their story on page 7.
7PeaceLove
Studios
15Kathleen Kendall
The Magic Touch 20Life Coach
4 | Copyright Live An Artful Life Inc All rights reserved
30Karen RexrodeLife Of The Assemblage
Art Gardener
“A Good artist has less time than ideas.” Martin Kippenberger
24Sarah Angle
Folk Artist Extraordinaire
"The Artful You Series"
THE CREATIVE CYCLEwith Tom Neel
May 19, 6:30 - 8:30While we are born uninhibited by creativity, for many, time and adult responsibilities eventually become a hurtle to cre- ative expression. One which brings the fear of achieving less than desirable results and a “which way do I go and where do I begin” mentality. Many retired business professionals and baby boomers especially wish to visit the fun of their youth. With a lifetime of creative experience and nearly three de-cades as a professional artist, Tom Neel is about to hand you the keys to unlock the inner creative you!
FRAMING FOR ARTISTSwith Linda & Tom Neel
June 16, 6:30 - 8:30
Li v e An Ar t f u l L i f e®
To artists, as painters, often the necessary evil is framing. But framing is not only an important part of presentation, it’s a functional part of protecting and haning your artwork and un- fortunately many artists do it incorrectly. In this session artists will learn the simple tools and proper do-it-yourself techniques and materials of framing. Learn not only what hardward to use, but the proper placement of it. Learn the best hanging wire and the proper framing knot and why. ese techniques will put you on the good side of gallery and art show manage- ment and insure safety in installations.
Space is LimitedCLICK HERE TO
REGISTERTODAY!
6474 Main Street, The Plains, VA
Hosted by
6 | Copyright Live An Artful Life Inc All rights reserved
PeaceLove Studios: An alternative to
therapy and prescriptions. Using expres-
sive arts to provide healing qualities for
people who are open to
exploring their creative side.
A place for people free of
judgement to work through
their problems.
In 2009, cousins Matt Ka-
plan and Jeffrey Sparr part-
nered to open PeaceLove
Studios, an expressive arts
studio, open to all members
of the community. The first
studio was opened in Rhode
Island, with a second loca-
tion in Las Vegas which opened earlier this
year.
The story begins with Sparr, a textile
salesman, who noticed that his anxiety
related to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
lessened when he painted. In a desperate
attempt to find anything that would allevi-
ate his pain, he followed the advice from
a friend and picked up some art supplies.
Over the years he honed his new found
skill so much so that an art show hosted
by his cousin, Kaplan, yielded a $16,000
profit in just one night. Sparr wanted
others to experience what
he had and set out to cre-
ate an environment that
would encourage people
to use their creative sens-
es through expressive arts
to optimize mental health.
The men took the funds
from the show, bought art
supplies and headed to the
Children’s Intensive Treat-
ment Unit at Butler Hospital
in Rhode Island. Over the
next several months, Sparr shared his
experience with hundreds of children and
adults. He began to make a difference.
Since 2009, Kaplan and Sparr have no-
ticed that the PeaceLove Studio members
have achieved more positive outcomes
in an environment where treatment is
not prescribed but rather they are free
to express themselves however they so
choose, with no attention paid to the qual-
peacelove Studios Shines A Light on Mental Health
By Amieé O'Grady
Jeff Sparr
ity of the finished
product. “It is the
process of creating
that is important,
not what is created
in the end,” says
Kaplan.
Corporations
have taken heed of
their approach and
turned their focus
to mental wellness and are now partnering
with PeaceLove Studios to organize cor-
porate retreats and invest more in their
employees’ total health and wellness be-
yond just the physical. CVS Health is one
such partner and Michaels is the exclusive
art supplier for the studio. Thanks to sup-
port from corporate partners and the sale
of the merchandise, PeaceLove Studios is
able to impact people’s lives. To date the
studio has reached over 20,000 individuals
through programs, community events, and
studio and event scholarships.
One year ago, the duo added a program
called Creators to the studio. The program
trains and equips frontline people, such
as social workers who work with popu-
lations in the greatest need of peace of
mind. After being
trained, Creators
are able to deliver
a 6-week series
that consists of
visual arts, story-
telling, sound and
movement with
the purpose of
helping individu-
als develop skills
to achieve mental wellness. Creators can
now be found in nine states throughout
the U.S. The goal of the Creators program
8 | Copyright Live An Artful Life Inc All rights reserved
is to continuously engage people in mental
health and expressive arts in order to help
people lead healthier lives.
During one corporate retreat hosted by
partner Alex and Ani, an attendee un-
covered some challenging emotions. The
Creator could see the spark as the woman
spoke honestly and openly about
her situation. She has since moved
on and sought further help and has
improved her mental wellness.
From a children’s workshop in
Connecticut, a Creator shared on
the PeaceLove Blog that “…some
of the participants were hesitant at
first, their creativity seemed to come
alive with passion. They had many ques-
tions about what was allowed and accept-
able and what the rules were. I had to
constantly remind them that they had the
freedom to choose whatever expressed
how they feel.
PeaceLove allowed them to be the funny
and engaging children that they are. At
the same time, it allowed for them to ex-
plore their emotions and was an outlet for
expression if they were comfortable doing
so.”
“We have created a safe space for peo-
ple to talk,” Kaplan says. PeaceLove Stu-
dios has provided the space, the materials
and the encouragement for people to ad-
dress their mental health issues and start
out on the path to wellness. PeaceLove
Studios encourages everyone to pick up a
brush or pen and explore the expressive
arts.
To learn more about PeaceLove Studios
or about becoming a Creator visit their
website at http://peacelovestudios.com/.
It's all smiles at peacelove studios creators training!
All photos courtesy of PeaceLove Studios.
10 | Copyright Live An Artful Life Inc All rights reserved
T H O M A S N E E LF I N E A R T
The Piedmont’s Premier Landscape Painter
“Poppies", oil on canvas, 30” X 48”
One of the most collected and commissioned fine artists of the Piedmont region of Virginia, with paintings throughout America and abroad. All works are beautifully framed and locally delivered or shipped. We invite you to visit our website or call for more information.
ThomasNeel.com • Studio 540-364-4401
"Feathers, Petals And Sliders"
June 8 - June 26The solo show of fun, colorful, creative,
mixed media paintings by Linda Hendrickson!
"Looney Tunes Ride", 12" X 12" Mixed Media
12 | Copyright Live An Artful Life Inc All rights reserved
L i v e A n A r t f u l L i f e ®G A L L E R Y
6474 Main Street , The Plains, VA 20198 540-253-9797LiveAnArtfulLife.com
Painting Demo!June 11, 1 - 5 PM Show Reception!
June 12, 3 - 5PM
"Sea Joy", 12" X 12" Mixed Media
"Captain's Choice Polkdot", 24" X 24" Mixed Media
Meet, talk and watch Linda Hendrickson paint at her
upcoming demo!
Kathleen Kendall
Above - "Fortune" Facing page left - "Under The Rose", right - "The Secret"
14 | Copyright Live An Artful Life Inc All rights reserved
As if in a fairy tale, I make my way to
the charming little cottage home and stu-
dio of Kathleen Kendall. I knock, the door
opens, she greets me and invites me in.
Kendall is soft spoken, pretty, petite, an
art school teach-
er and of course
an artist, which is
the reason for my
visit. Looking at
her and her art,
one might think
her life was one
of complete har-
mony. Instead,
it seems to have
been a journey of
reasonable adver-
sity and challenge. I only share this be-
cause it makes the things that she creates
that much more magical and personal.
Born and raised outside of Boston and
on Cape Cod, Kathleen explains of her
roots, “I come from a family of artists.”
One aunt was a well known sculptor Joyce
Johnson, founder of Truro Center for the
Arts [Castle Hill] on Cape Cod and her
other aunt a painter. Her grandparents on
her mother’s side were makers of beautiful
lacquered, stenciled trays and decorative
pieces, and her mother was a watercol-
orist. Indeed her brother and cousins are
artistic as well. “So I just grew up around
art.”
Kathleen share’s that she always loved
painting and that clay was really interest-
ing to her too. Today working with both
equally she says, “I really have a hard
time deciding what
to do .. so I take
turns” [between the
two]. This seems to
be a common thread
I find in multi-media
artists. That feeling
somewhat torn be-
tween two mediums
or forms of creative
expression, as if one
medium will inter-
nally be jealous of
the other. Though Kathleen claims her
“hard time”, I see the two as fluid and
flowing equally to the point of it being
"The Magic Touch"
very natural for a collector to have both
her paintings and her sculpture.
Kathleen married a Vietnam vet when
she was young. They were married 15
years and one day her husband, on his
birthday, walked out the door and she
never saw him again. She explains they
were close, so she was
hysterical for
weeks and while
there’s more
to this story,
talk about set backs. The only work she
had done during her marriage was some
graphic design work and one can see
those skills still remain honed. But alone,
she had to do something and shares, “I
didn’t decide to go to college until I was
40”. She earned an MIS degree from VCU,
a BFA from the University of West Florida
and teacher certification from UT in Austin
and after this, she eventually moved to
Virginia. That was 12 years ago.
Today along with her art, she is an art
teacher at Irving Middle School in Fair-
fax, VA. which she says really makes her
happy and is rewarding, sighting this
age group, “You can talk to the kids like
they’re adults, … You can teach them
something and you see that light go on.”
Along with giving the gift of creativity to
her students she says, “I like to be around
it [art] all the time, every spare moment I
can reflect on my own
stuff while I am
there because
you are sur-
rounded by it.”
Kathleen motions me to look around the
room while showing me examples of her
loving so many different forms of art. She
enjoys still life, she loves working in pas-
tels, tempera painting, abstract, mosaic,
16 | Copyright Live An Artful Life Inc All rights reserved
mix media, different things, but much of
her gallery paintings are influenced by the
Pre-Raphaelites which came from a trip to
visit an aunt many years ago that lived in
England. During that trip she went to see
the museum at the Royal Academy and
was taken by the Pre-Raphaelites paint-
ings she saw, bringing home books you
could only find there. It was obviously life
changing and the start of a new life as an
artist.
Kendall’s artistic voice speaks with a
rich timelessness
layered in
thought, humor,
playfulness, antiquity and story. Her art is
mindful and it seems to be the one thing
in her life that has been completely truth-
ful to her. It’s as if art seems dedicated to
her happiness and therefore, I would say
it’s as important as her own heartbeat.
She says of her work, “It’s blissful, I feel
good all the time when I’m painting. I can
sit for 10 hours straight and paint. I forget
I’m hungry, I love to paint.”
Kathleen also loves mechanical things
and mechanical people, those who love
mechanical things. A true classic motor-
cyclist years ago, she tells me of riding
Indian and Triumph motorcycles. This was
something about her I didn’t see coming,
but that bit of fearlessness shows in her
creative process.
It’s refreshing and the
mechanical side of her shows up especial-
ly in her clay pieces, many of which have
small working or hand fabricated parts.
For her paintings, there are interesting
aspects which bring them to life. While
the painting part is done in oil, Kathleen
creates designs through photoshop using
layered effects to be printed onto a tissue
type paper. This process allows her to
position and scale them to support her de-
sired narrative. She then places them over
her oil painting and through a varnishing
step, the tissue paper becomes saturated
and visually disappears into the varnish
leaving the designs and her oil painting
seen as one.
Kathleen admits she likes some of her
pieces “to feel a little odd” but not dark in
nature, and those who enjoy her work are
quickly drawn to it. This includes her little
sculptures. “I started making clay things
and I’m illustrative with my clay. I’m kind
of sentimental and my brain is probably
more like in Alice in Wonderland.” She ex-
plains, “My grandmother was British and
so I grew up in that story land of mythol-
ogy … and those things just tend to seep
into my work.” Kathleen loves magical
things.
"Abundance"
"Another Day in Paradise"
"Pearl"
18 | Copyright Live An Artful Life Inc All rights reserved
Like her paintings, Kathleen’s sculptures
all have stories and often come with work-
ing parts that help the whimsical aspect of
her storytelling. Kathleen describes them
as archaic and funny. She also textures
them to look as she describes them, “That
they’ve been at the bottom of the sea.”
They have a unique antique toy quality
about them making them fun to collect.
You can see a great selection of Kathleen
Kendall’s artwork at Live An Artful Life
Gallery. Kathleen Kendall
Small jewells from
Kathleen's bird series
How routine is your life? Do you take
the same roads, eat the same foods, and
talk to the same people pretty much ev-
ery day? If you’re like most people, the
answer is a resounding yes because we
are creatures of routines and habits. We
often thrive on
that repetition
and feel that
there is some
sense and or-
der to the world
because of our
schedules.
But if I asked
you to recollect
any of the mo-
ments in your life that were wildly fun,
fascinating, simply delicious, thrilling,
precious, or even just ones that stood
out, your answers would overwhelming-
ly come from the moments that were
unusual and off the beaten path of your
schedule. The time you and your spouse
took a spontaneous road trip to nowhere
special. That four-hour dinner you lin-
gered over, tasting every morsel. The
vacation you took with your best buds
that you still laugh about every time you
think of it. That stranger you started a
conversation with not really knowing why
but feeling compelled to talk to.
It is critical
to our growth
to break our
routines. Neu-
rologically
speaking we
now know
that the brain
is malleable
and can con-
tinue to grow
and develop new neural pathways long
after it was once thought but the key to
that growth is learning and doing things
that are new. Similar is true in business
– the cutting edge and most successful
companies are the ones that continue to
Life CoachBy Kim Tapper
Finding The Unusual in Everyday Life
20 | Copyright Live An Artful Life Inc All rights reserved
push the edges of their work and antici-
pate new trends and shifts in culture and
economy. Inventors live on that edge
too, constantly creating bridges for us
between what was once and what will be.
Psychologically, the only way we change
our lives is to change our personal hab-
its, mindsets and actions. You want to
free yourself from anger or shame? You
do the work to discover its roots and
you create new ways of thinking about
those things, new habits to help you re-
lease those unwanted negative beliefs
and replace them with positive, healthier
ones that support you in your life. Great
teachers who want to truly connect with
their students do not teach in the same
way to every single student year after
year. They keep their style and delivery
fresh and they create new ways to con-
nect to students who might need a differ-
ent teaching style.
Now here’s the best part – we can all
do this in small doses every single day!
Leaning into the edges of your life, break-
ing your routines does not have to mean
a spontaneous mid-life-crisis kind of ad-
venture every night. Nor do you have to
throw out your entire routine and cause
harm and wreak havoc on your lives, jobs
and families. You can introduce simple,
little things into your daily or weekly lives
and elicit great results. Eleanor Roos-
evelt is quoted as having said, “Do one
thing every day that scares you.” That
would surely shake up your world! But
you don’t even have to go that far if you
don’t want to. Here are ten super simple
suggestions of ways to bring a little more
adventure, tap into the unusual and grow
your life:
1. Drive home a different way and
take in the new scenic view – add to this
by putting on some music you don’t often
“Behind The Label”By Kim Tapper
Available online at A Place to Beand Mascot Books
listen to and create a whole soundscape
to this experience
2. Try one different food you’ve
never tasted or order a new meal at your
favorite restaurant instead of getting the
same thing as always
3. Wear a color you don’t normally
wear (even if it’s your underwear and no
one sees it!)
4. Buy flowers for your home or for
someone you care about – just because
- and while you’re buying them, take an
extra few moments to really notice the
many varieties of shapes and colors…what
extraordinary gifts of nature!
5. Go to a lecture or concert, may-
be something free at the local library
or art gallery. Or listen to a TEDtalk or
watch a documentary on something you
never wouldn’t ordinarily stop to learn
about
6. Start up a conversation with
a neighbor you’ve not taken the time to
know.
7. Try a different exercise activity
one day – even if it’s something you think
you’re bad at! Your body and your mind
will appreciate the change
8. Read (or write) a poem before
bed. Why not?
9. Change the order of your morn-
ing routine – maybe you eat breakfast
before you shower today. Just to shake
things up!
10. Talk to someone new today –
anyone! – at work or in your community
and open up to the many different people
all around you
Whether it’s an intellectual pursuit, so-
cial connection, or sensory experience,
doing something unusual and out of your
normal routine can help open up different
facets of your life. Make the most out of
your life by seeing things as new, experi-
encing things uniquely, opening to things
out of your comfort zone, and slowing
down time by breaking up your routine.
Time moves quickly no doubt. Slow down
by making the moments count.
Read more Life Coach articles by Kim Tapper in the back issues of
Live An Artful Life Magazine
22 | Copyright Live An Artful Life Inc All rights reserved
WWW.A P LA CETOBEVA.ORG
Years of Helping people face, navigate, and overcome life’s challenges
using the Therapeutic Arts.
Lunch Bunch
Immersion Program
Individual Sessions
Social Groups
Same Sky
Project
(540) 687-6740
Summer Camps
Sarah Angle may describe herself as shy,
but her genuine smile, hospitable open-
ness, and gifted sense of humor indicate
otherwise. This self proclaimed people
pleaser is a relaxed country girl, who
takes life as it comes,
while wrapping it all
up with a tongue and
cheek bow. Angle’s art
is a magical reflection
of someone with a built
in internal chuckle and
the talent to creatively
deliver that fun to us.
Originally from Rocky
Mt., Virginia, now living
near Richmond, Sar-
ah and her sister were
raised by their grand-
parents. Sarah loved
art and always took
art classes in school.
Her grandmother also gave them pock-
et knives as children, which for Sarah
became the gateway to whittling, a fun
word for wood carving. Tree branches and
2X4’s were at her disposal, along with a
child’s imagination and it went from there.
“My Grandmother did a lot of refinishing
furniture”, Sarah shares, so she also had
access to tools and it seems the true free-
dom to learn. “We had
a wonderful childhood,
couldn’t have asked for
a better life.” As much
as anything it would
seem that Sarah was
given that “you can
do anything” skill set.
Hopefully not a rarity
today.
Time passed, Sar-
ah married her hus-
band Don and had her
daughter and those
childhood skills re-
turned as she started
making crafts. She
only took one carving class and Sarah
says, “Really, the only thing I learned
was how to sharpen the tools. But that is
really one of the most important things.
SARAH ANGLE Folk Artist Extraordinaire!
By Tom Neel
24 | Copyright Live An Artful Life Inc All rights reserved
Above left - "Is it Quitting Time"Above right - Clock in Sarah's studioBelow left - "Eggs And Bacon"Below right - "Eating Crow"
Top left and middle - "Ka-leidoscope"Bottom - "Summer on The Farm"
All of Sarah's bowls and trays Receive five coats of a food safe varnish.
26 | Copyright Live An Artful Life Inc All rights reserved
Top left - "Keeping Watch"Top right - "Fish Bowl"Middle - "Birds and Bees"Bottom right - Sarah leaves not stone unturned, here is the bottom of "Birds and Bees".
If you have a dull tool, you’re going to cut
yourself because you’re going to press too
hard and slip.” Good lesson learned.
There are those things learned and then
there are those natural abilities. In Sarah
Angle’s case, it’s that ability to see humor,
even dare I say, in the face of some real
personal adversity. But the whimsey in
her work is so strong, I often think people
see it way before her unarguable creative
talent. It’s as if hidden away in her head
is a joyous toy box. Yet her presenta-
tion of it to us, is delivered with complex
designs, brilliant color choices and in the
case of her carved pieces, true interpre-
tive thought and dimension.
Sarah is as good a painter as she is a
carver and vice versa, but for me, her
design work stands alone. She tells me
the design part of the process is the hard-
est and once she has it, “Stand out of the
way!” She explains, “As I’ve gotten older
I’ve allowed myself to not be so critical
and to kind of disengage my brain and
allow … if I want to paint chickens ... gon-
na be pink?, it’s gonna be okay and if you
do pattern on pattern on pattern, it makes
it more interesting.” Sarah backs this up
by saying, “I’ve always liked art that was
heavily patterned. Salvador Dali, all his
little people in there, and I liked Mary En-
gelbreit and all her design, on design, on
design.” She also gives credit to color by
saying, “One thing I find is that if you use
some colors continuously, just like in dec-
orating, if you repeat them again, you can
make the patterns as odd or disconnected
as you want as long as you’re repeating
color.” All great design words of wisdom!
Sarah’s paint medium is acrylic, with col-
or usually going over a black base which
she allows to show through, creating what
she describes as a dark cartoon line. The
designs are laid out with a water soluble
pencil and if she’s not satisfied she just
washes it off and starts again.
Sarah’s work space is split between a
studio upstairs in her home and a work
shop in the basement. Tools of her trade
are abundant and her studio is filled with
the whimsy reflected in her work. It’s like
a fun supporting cast of characters cheer-
leading her on. A happy space for this
pleaser of people to shine!
Sarah Angle's work is available at Live
An Artful Life Gallery in The Plains, VA.
28 | Copyright Live An Artful Life Inc All rights reserved
Live An Artful Life ®Tee Shirts in 4 great colors!
OWN ONE TODAY!
Tee Shirt back
⇒Click Here
30 | Copyright Live An Artful Life Inc All rights reserved
True artfulness is always been about
growth. Inspired souls don’t just plant the
seed and walk away from it. They tend
to it and watch it grow. Karen Rexrode is
one such inspired soul who has tended to
more seeds than one
could ever imagine and
watched herself grow in
the process. Imagine
how many seeds you
would have tended to
if you owned your own
nursery for twenty five
years. Yes, a lot. But
there came a time in
the life of Karen Rex-
rode when other things
started to sprout around
her and within her and
it was time for change,
time for creative growth
and soul searching.
10 years ago this Northern Virginia
mother of two, once owned and operat-
ed Windy Hill Nursery Plant Farm near
the small town of Aldie. Part of a fast
growing Loudoun County, development
was surrounding the family farm and al-
most gobbled it up. But it was really the
exhausting, seven day a week schedule
and catalog business that was overtaking
Rexrode mentally and physically. Add in a
gone undiagnosed bout with Lyme Disease
and it was simply time to transition her-
self.
Karen’s father was a
photographer and she
had been bitten by the
shutter bug too. She
joined a nearby cam-
era club as a novice and
eleven years later she
had become an award
winning advanced pho-
tographer with a couple
of galleries selling her
work and all was good,
but not great. You might
say despite her success-
es, she was still search-
ing for her creative
voice.
Now mind you, when you have the hor-
ticultural knowledge a person like Karen
Karen RexrodeLife of the Assemblage Art Gardener
By Tom Neel
"Saint Catherine"
Right - altered Pez dispenser "Bird Masquarade"Far right - "Puss N Boots" assemblage
32 | Copyright Live An Artful Life Inc All rights reserved
has, it’s nearly impossible to not be well
known among those who seek the green
thumb. So Karen would do speaking en-
gagements and thus, was asked to do a
lecture at Virginia Tech. She was among
a couple of notable speakers and Kar-
en explains, “The people I was speaking
with were Amy Stewart,
who wrote the “Wick-
ed Bugs Book” and
“Wicked Plants Book”
and then the other was
Paula Gross, who wrote
a book called “Bizarre
Botanicals”. So they
[VT] wanted me to do
this kind of twisted take
on plants.” So Karen
decided to title her lec-
ture “The Dark Side”.
For reference she start-
ed revisiting her youth.
“I was like wow, I had
forgotten about all of
this! When I was a kid I watched all of
those horror flicks and vampire stuff and
now I was taking it into the plant world
with weird terrariums and doll heads with
plants growing out of them, and I was
like Gaa!! [great enthusiasm] People were
saying, I didn’t know you had that in you!”
I’m sure Audrey Jr., the man eating plant
from the Little Shop of Horrors would have
been proud.
One thing led to another though and
Karen discovered assemblage artist Mi-
chael deMeng whose work essentially
validated and inspired a
three dimensional cre-
ative direction for her
fun dark side to come
to light. Assemblage
art dates back to the
1950’s and in this ap-
plication, it largely be-
gins with found objects,
always interesting and
which can help carry the
desired narrative for a
three dimensional work
of art. These pieces such
as old cameras, watch
parts, metals, hardware,
dolls, toys and so, so,
much more, can be used in many ways,
especially other than that which they were
originally intended.
As with some of the other assemblage
artists, Karen’s art begins with a story,
often fantasy, with the end result a char-
"Saint Celilia"
34 | Copyright Live An Artful Life Inc All rights reserved
acter or theme made up of these found
objects and handmade parts. This is one
case where a picture really is a thousand
words, but she’s never just glueing stuff
together. The story and theme are im-
portant drivers to why the assemblage
is taking place in the first place. I guess
you could say, done well, that they real-
ly are the sum of their parts. Karen says
that, “The theme is of-
ten driven more by what
you find, it’s not easy.”
I mention to Karen that
this is the Easter egg
hunt isn’t it? She re-
sponds, “It’s constant
and that’s the feeding
of the machine once
you start assemblage.
You can’t move forward
if you are not feeding
the machine.”
When Karen gets an idea she says she
starts a box with objects that might work
with that idea. Multiple ideas require
multiple boxes and even when the assem-
blage begins, multiple works of art are in
a of process of completion. This can be
because of an expanding idea and story,
the search for a part that is needed or the
fabrication process. That fabrication pro-
cess most often happens by use of epoxy
clay, created in layers which requires dry-
ing time for each layer. Saws, drills, ham-
mer and Dremel tools aide creation and
assembly. Karen also uses many types of
glues, all which have their own character-
istics and advantages.
Once all of the the pieces are assem-
bled, the extensive process
of painting begins. Be-
ginning with a white base
coat, layers of transparent
acrylic color are applied. As
Karen points out, “You get
a certain luminescence to
them because the base coat
is white.” Many techniques
for adding color create in-
teresting effects of aging or
metallic finishes. Karen says,
“In the end it’s like 15 layers of paint on
an object.
Karen, in reflective thought about her
passion for horticulture and her art,
shares this, “It’s so hard to say no to one,
that it causes a problem in your head.”
[laughter] Having heard this before from
creative types and bouncing back and
forth between painting, writing and even
photography myself, I’ve never made it a
pressured choice. Rather a wonderful de-
light of choices. In sharing this with Kar-
en she agrees she’s figuring this out, but
follows it up by saying, “I’m one of those
people that gets so damn focused.”
Being focused isn’t a bad thing either
and it’s apparently worked for her so far.
In closing, she says of assemblage art,
“The cool thing about it is, if you’re skill is
good enough and your imagination is high,
you can take some pretty sundry objects
and do quite a bit with them. The interest-
ing thing on the side of that is that it’s a
very different art form that you don’t see
a lot.” We couldn’t agree more.
Karen has a show coming later this year
at Art A La Carte Gallery in October titled,
“Cautionary Taies”. It’s mostly those fairy
tales where something is going to happen,
like Little Red Riding Hood and Alice in
Wonderland.
For more information about Karen and
her passions of horticulture and assem-
blage art, please visit her blog Studiology
at Karenrexrode.typepad.com
"The Cowardly Lion"assemblage
36 | Copyright Live An Artful Life Inc All rights reserved
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