Crater view

Pleased to show you my most recently completed paper collage of Kilauea. It’s big! I chose a warm color palette. It’s hot!

“Crater View” by Rebekah Luke. 40” x 30” hand-dyed paper on canvas. All rights reserved for the author.

Mango season not pau

Mango Collage, 22.25″ x 22.25″ hand-dyed tissue paper on canvas

Mangos and more mangos! I am experimenting with a different art medium — collage with hand-dyed tissue papers. Here is my third piece finished yesterday, a diptych composed of two panels. I plan to put both into one frame for the square shape shown.

The big mango tree in the corner of the studio garden cooperated this year by bearing luscious fruit that we are enjoying. We are able to pick the mangos before the cherry headed conures get to them. That and the color palette of tissue papers that I had on hand inspired the work.

Managing the thin, flimsy papers with glue, water, and X-ACTO knife is tedious work and messy. At times it is carving paper, either wet or dry, being careful not to poke a hole in the canvas! In the end, I love the effect of layering and the jewel toned quality of the finished collage.

My colleague Susan Rogers-Aregger taught me how to create with this medium. She learned it from Gloria Foss, our late oil painting instructor and mentor. Together they wrote Paper Dyeing for Collage & Crafts (Honolulu: Belknap Publishing & Design, 2004; ISBN 0-9723420-3-6).

Susan has scheduled her next paper-dyeing and collage workshops for February 2015 in Kaneohe, Oahu.

Copyright 2014 Rebekah Luke