MCS Members News Featured

Artist Cynthia J. Lee
Shares here Good news! 

MY art is featured in the February, 2013 issue of
Visual Language: Contemporary Fine Art, an online art magazine.
I was invited to submit art related to water, the theme of this issue.
All of these abstract paintings were done in oil mixed with cold wax
and other media. The titles of the images (from left to right and top
to bottom) are:

"Water Dance"
"High Desert"
"Summer Memory"
"Round Pond, Cape Cod"

You can find the entire issue at: http://visuallanguagemagazine.com
(My art is on pages 64-65.)



Artist and MCS members
Eve Ozer and Laura Lein-Svencner will be featured in a new mixed media book "Incite, Dreams Realized" through North Light Book publishing company this Septemeber 2013. What for listing shortly.

 

MCS member Exhibit Jan 13th-March 7th 2013

Jan 6th Meeting

Meeting starts at 12:30 pm 

Chinese Paper Cutting  Art  and the  Artist Lucy (Ping Liu)

  Chinese Paper Cuts also called Scissor-cuts (jian zhi), it is a type of traditional folk artwork with rich local flavor popularized by numerous people. Chinese Paper cutting started during the period of the Han Dynasty, about 1800 years ago, after paper was invented in China. Starting from 14th century this art was spread to the other parts of the world. Artists developed the paper cutting art while merging with the local culture.

In the ancient times, the art pieces were made to decorate home windows and doors for a happy Chinese New Year & for a good new future.  One of the most popular paper cutting schemes is the 12 Chinese Zodiac, is a scheme that relates each year to an animal and its reputed attributes.

 In modern China, the hand cut paper art is also used as one of the valuable gifts for the important events. Chinese governors always choose Chinese hand cut paper art work as one of the gifts when they visit the other countries. It symbolizes great perspective wishes and good future. Each of the individual cutting pieces is created over several hours of very intricate hand cutting with scissors from a single sheet of paper. All parts of the design interconnect. Due to the handcrafted nature of this art, each piece may have subtle differences. No two pieces are exactly the same. These are "One of a Kind" Unique Artwork, NOT "mass produced" or cut by modern laser techniques.  Original Paper Artwork Pieces Have Been Known to Considerably Appreciate in Value Over time. People also frame them and hang them on the home or office walls. Smaller pieces are always put on the tables, desks or book shelves as beautiful decorating pictures.

About the artist:

Lucy (Ping Liu) is a Chinese Paper cutting artist. She started learning this art when she was 6 years old. She has been creating and designing this art work for many years. She is also a paper cutting art teacher.  Her art work has been exhibited in many galleries and libraries in the United States, and has received critically acclaimed reviews & her very intricate style of cutting is highly recognized. She is also a member of Chinese Fine Art Society in the United States. Her greatest motivation is that she has been very blessed in doing what she loves and loving what she does. She has many dedicate paper cutting artworks. She will demonstrate and cut a very vivid Chinese Dragon in less than 20 minutes, which even to an artist, painting or drawing this dragon within this short time is a big challenge. She also will teach us to cut a snake for the year of snake for Chinese New Year 2013 celebration!

You can see her work on exhibit at the Woodridge Public Library throughout the month of January.  

 

Midwest Collage Society Xmas party 2012

Just a quick little taste of the wonderful fellowship going on.

 Jerri our president starts us off with great guidance each meeting.

 I didn't get a head count to see how many really did show up but it was better then last year and we had more people then before.

 What a great group of artists Many thanks were given to all the members that worked so hard to put this big spread on especially Barb and Jeanne who took charge of the hospitality for this event.

 

 From the left to the right, Gale, Sally, Nancy, Tania, June and Margi

 

 Laura, Joan, Tammy, Maureen, Nadine and Jo Ann

 

 

Our token Male, Dennis who's been our driver back and forth to Freeport Museum for our last big exhibit and Eve, Dianne, Jerri and Pat. 

 

I know we didn't get everyone in on the photo's but this is a start and the few that were available for a quick photograph. 

 

What a great party everyone..can't believe it's December with the 60 degree weather we had today and all the sun. 

 

 

 

And we all got a good laugh at the gift Tania received, Our Mary  the jokester that she has a suprise of Creative Pants.   Tania took it oh so well...and we kept the laughter going for a few minutes.

December's Meeting.

Here is your Midwest Collage Society Newsflash! Lots of interesting info this month, so please read carefully.


1. Freeport Art Museum Exhibit
The MCS artwork has been picked up from Freeport and is back at Tania's and Dennis/Dianne's homes. Please contact the person who dropped off your work about when you can pick it up.


2. MCS Holiday Potluck and Gift Exchange
Our annual "Eat, Gab and Grab" meeting will be Sunday, December 2, from 12:30 - 2:45 PM at the Darien Municipal Center. There is no studio fee for this meeting. Come and reconnect with people you haven't seen and meet some of our newer members!


For the potluck, bring a dish to share (appetizer, entree or dessert) and our amazing hospitality committee will provide everything else. When you decide what you're bringing, please drop a quick email to Barb Arntzen at jarntz@wideopenwest.com to help her plan. If you find you can come at the last minute, don't worry about the RSVP. Coffee, tea, and water will be the drinks of the day. We do have some members who have some specific allergies (gluten, etc.), so if you have a dish that works for everyone, you might consider bringing that.


For the gift exchange, create (or purchase) a small piece of art or craft work and wrap it up. Each wrapped gift will be given a number, then participants will blindly draw a number to receive their gift. This is always a highlight of our meeting!


We will also take time to discuss the future of MCS, the kinds of programs and exhibits you're interested in having, and how we all can continue growing and moving forward as artists and as an arts organization.


3. April 2013 Exhibit
For our April 2013 exhibit at Downers Grove Library, we have chosen the theme Book/Art. We are asking that each piece of art have some connection to books in it - whether that's using a book page or cover in your collage/assemblage, an altered book, or a reference to books in your work. Just keep in mind that most work will need to be hung, so if you alter a book you will probably need to mount it to a backing that can have hanging hardware attached. More info will follow as we get closer to the exhibit date, but we wanted to give you ample time to create.


4. 2013 Retreat
The MCS Retreat for next fall is already set for September 25 thru 29. The cost will be $215 for four nights and 11 meals. Mark your calendars now!


5. January Meeting
We WILL be having a meeting this coming January, on Sunday, January 13. Details on the program will be sent out soon.



Hope to see you at the Holiday Potluck and Gift Exchange on Sunday, December 2!


Jerri

More Call for Art

Call for Art Bridgeport Art Center

Citra Solv  Call for Art

marketing and pricing

 Jane Hamill came into our group today and we are all fired up to Focus!! 

 The white board behind Jane came in handy for her presentations we really got a good feel for what we need to know.

 Even though Jane is a designer in the fashion world the information she presented to us works for all creative types. check out Jane's website.

 

At least there were about 26 members that came to this great meeting. Jane is a awesome speaker and loaded with tons of great information...for all that are looking to sell their product.