Libby Hoagland

Portable Art Projects for Travel

Posted on: January 9, 2016

LibbyI love to travel, but can really suffer if I’m away from my studio for any length of time. Last February, I spent several weeks away and took a small box of tools and supplies for cutting and making linoleum block prints. It was great. I worked a few hours almost every morning and returned to Portland with some wonderful black and white images. Most importantly, I never got that antsy feeling of wanting to get back home to my studio.

This December I spent two weeks in Mexico with my family, and once again I took a portable art project so that I could work a couple of hours in the morning. This year I stocked up on beautiful hand-made, hand-dyed papers. I packed some bristol board and gluesticks along with that. Each morning I sat outside in the patio and made compositions of torn paper. The jungle, with its amazing big-leafed flora, exotic bird calls, super-saturated colors all around — all this influenced my work. I didn’t bring scissors. Tearing, rather than cutting, the handmade paper allowed other elements — the fibers in the paper and  the moisture in the air that morning — to play a role in the outcome of the shapes I had to work with.  Tearing, rather than cutting, is an imprecise technique that invites other forces to co-create and results in vital, organic shapes that could not be pre-determined by me. And spending two weeks tearing paper rather than mixing and applying paints gave me a lot of insights into new ways to fill a square.

Libby Hoagland

Libby Hoagland

Libby Hoagland

Categories: Creative Process Tagged With: benefits of tearing, benefits of using imprecise tools, linoleum block print, portable art projects, torn-paper collage, travel and art

  • Home
  • Artwork
    • Featured New Work
    • Between Worlds
    • Daily Life
    • Color Play
  • Artist Statement
  • Blog
  • Contact

Recent Posts

Icons for a Sustainable World

IMAGINARY PORTRAITS: ICONS FOR A SUSTAINABLE WORLD There are many narratives we can tell to explain[Read More...]

The River

With 3 months to go till 2016, I spent a few hours the other day re-visiting projects underway to se[Read More...]

Cosmos and Logos

I'm pleased to announce the publication of Cosmos and Logos, a periodical on  Myth, Religion, and Fo[Read More...]

Archives

  • March 2018
  • January 2016
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • June 2015

Categories

  • Acts of Daring
  • Creative Process
  • Literary Creative Nonfiction
  • Nature of World: Collaboration

Libby Hoagland • 503.421.5515 • libby@libbyhoaglandstudio.com

© 2021 Libby Hoagland. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under U.S. copyright laws, no part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the artist.
MENU
  • Home
  • Artwork
    • Featured New Work
    • Between Worlds
    • Daily Life
    • Color Play
  • Artist Statement
  • Blog
  • Contact