STRIPES: Artwork from The 100 Day Project

STRIPES
Collages from The 100 Day Project by LisaRuth Elliott
October 3 – October 16, 2015

518 Valencia Street
San Francisco

Opening reception Saturday, October 3, 2015, 6:30 – 9 PM

blue flow
day 22/100
14.5 cm x 19.5 cm

From April 6 to July 14, 2015 I took on a daily collage making practice, part of a worldwide call to create called The 100 Day Project. For each of those 100 days I made one work on paper in a series. I chose to make collages of stripes. Each day I came back to the process of randomly creating, in a spirit of play, finishing with 100 unique pieces.

The entire collection will be on exhibit for two weeks in October 2015.

Drawing upon papers collected in my travels, found along my path, from maps, and some from magazines and other publications, I often started each piece with nothing more to go on than a particular strip of paper I found interesting, and worked with a sense of discovery from there. The process of gluing paper into a pattern of stripes was not dissimilar to the way I approach my textile work, the way I like to weave on a loom, letting my instincts guide my choices, not having a plan or preconceived notion of what I want it to look like.

Working on the project and constraining myself to an exploration of stripes, my perception of the world around me changed. Already in the first week, I began to see and photograph stripes everywhere. Soon, my friends and family started taking photos of stripes they saw in the world and sending them to me. People gave me ephemera to use: maps downsized from the local science museum’s entomology department; scraps of decorative origami paper; prints on paper made from military uniforms; the wrapping for a birthday gift became several different pieces. I was the recipient of a treasure trove of an illustrator’s unwanted scrap files.

The project—as a daily practice—opened up my creative process in ways I hadn’t known previously, when just fitting creating, or making, into my life when it was convenient, after hours. I recommend it, and hope you can come join me on Saturday, October 3 to see the 100 pieces and hear more!

#100daysofstripesbyLR   *   @sfurbanwanderer   *   #the100dayproject

phidelia
day 10/100
14.5 cm x 19.5 cm

red hot
day 79/100
14.5 cm x 19.5 cm

retracing lines
day 18/100
14.5 x 19.5 cm