A Few Photos from the Opening of Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske: A Mixed Media Collaboration

Jenny Shea with her babe, Myself, and Jo-Annie with her babe 

I am so behind on this but here they are; a couple of photos from the February 3rd opening of my current show at the Banff Public Library. There was a great turn out, considering there were four other major events happening that night in the Bow Valley. Jenny & I were so happy to welcome our friends to see our latest work. We received lots of great feedback and we sold four pieces at the opening. Jenny brought her new little boy, Luka, who was able to meet my friend, Jo-Annie's little girl, Olive. Fun was had by all! If you would still like to see the show, it will hang at the library through February 29th.

Mixed Media - Article in the Banff Crag & Canyon

A Fine Catch

By Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske

Mixed Media

12 x 9"

$125

I would like to thank Camara Miller for the awesome article that follows...

Mixed Media

By Camara Miller

As local artist Tiffany Teske walks around her newly opened collaborative show at the Banff Public Library, she contemplates aloud about the possibility of wax and photo transfers on metals — techniques she has never tried before.

Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske: a Mixed Media Collaboration opened at the library on Friday and once the pieces were on the wall, Teske and copper-artist Jenny Shea were already inspired to work together again.
“(Jenny and I) are really just scratching the surface,” Teske said.

The two met a couple of years ago and immediately decided to collaborate.

“I’m drawn to metal,” Teske said, describing the inspiration that comes from working with another artist in unfamiliar territory, and in this case, developing a curiosity about working with metal.

Although the show has many solo pieces, the collaborative works had each artist making the background for a few compositions, then swapping to add onto the backdrop. Teske, specializing in photography, would then switch canvases with Shea who was creating a copper-work foundation. The pieces might have made another trip back to the original artist before each was complete.

For Shea, the process was a new experience.

“It was fun because I would see a story in one of Tiffany’s photographs and try to finish the story in my own way,” Shea said.

Teske emphasized that it really came down to trust. Both admit it wasn’t ideal to work in separate workspaces, but was the best way to work since both have young families.

While no initial themes were discussed, the show exhibits nature with a modern take on the classic subject. However, another theme that stands out is one of community. The library is an accessible venue and Shea commented that the opening last Friday led to some fantastic conversations about the works.

“Everyone will see something different in the pieces,” Shea said

The feeling must come naturally when you think about how the images were made. While the workspace arrangements may not have felt ideal, it developed some interesting art under the circumstances. One would begin the story, the other would interpret the beginnings and it would be passed back and forth. Instead of one uniform intention behind the show, it was a collage compiled by moods if the artist or stories from their own life.

Check out the exhibit at the Banff Public Library until Feb. 29.

Article in the Rocky Mountain Outlook about My Current Show at the Banff Public Library about Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske: A Mixed Media Collaboration

Blame It On The Rain

By Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske

Mixed Media Assemblage

12x9"

$125

 The following article appears in this week's Rocky Mountain Outlook.  

Metal Meets Photography

By Michelle Macullo

Pick-up lines—we’ve all heard them. 

And when they’re not rude, they’re usually lame. ‘Don’t you know me from somewhere? Did we go to different schools together? Can I have your phone number? I seem to have lost mine.’  

But what’s the line when a self-taught metal artist Jenny Shea and a professional photographer Tiffany Teske repeatedly run into one another at art and craft fairs?

‘Hey baby, wanna make art?’

That’s exactly what they did.

And during February at the Banff Public Library Art Gallery, everyone’s invited to see Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske: A Mixed Media Collaboration. An opening reception with both artists in attendance takes place tomorrow (Friday, Feb. 3) from 7 to 9 p.m.

The exhibit features both individual and joint pieces. At its core is Teske’s ephemeral photography and Shea’s patina-kissed, landscape-inspired copper sheet work. The result is an unexpected flow and ease to it—like to people sitting down, discussing the state of the world, while finishing each other’s sentences.

“I like learning new things and not always doing my own thing in isolation,” Teske says.  “Collaborating...pushes you to try other things.”

The joint works suggest the two sat side-by-side as the pieces came to life, but such was not the case. Juggling young families and life in general, the pair decided to hand their respective portions off without instructions. Instead, they relied on “trust and mutual respect,” to guide the process.

“Here’s my stuff,” Shea asserts. “Decide what you want to do with it. Let’s do this and see what happens.

“And I knew she (Teske) was going to create something amazing.”

Shea says art has taught her to go with how she feels—allowing the linear part of her brain to come up with a rough plan, but listening to the metal and being comfortable with what it offers.

“I’ll have an idea in my head, but by the time I start working on a piece, it can change,” she explains. “I have to let it go naturally.

“Sometimes after I’m done, I’ll go to bed and decide I’m not happy with it. But I’ll wake up the next day and know that it’s beautiful. I love the surprise.”

So now that their first collaboration out in the public domain, will there be a second for the artistic power couple?

“Absolutely,” Teske smiles. “Jenny and I are only just getting to know each other and what is possible together. I can foresee more than one other date in the future.”

Shea couldn’t agree more.

“It’s nice to work with other people’s art,” Shea echoes. “I hope I get to do it again.”

 For more information or to purchase a piece, please contact the artists directly at Jenny@themagpieroom.ca (Shea) and Oldesage@hotmail.com (Teske).

Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske: A Mixed Media Collaboration is on display until February 29.

Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske: A Mixed Media Collaboration - Art Exhibition at the Banff Public Library, February 2012

Head/Heart

by Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske

Mixed Media Collage

 12 x 12"

$150

I have always enjoyed collaborating with other artists. I have never been the artist who toils away in my studio, all alone, hoarding my "secrets", and being afraid of others "copying" me. I have gotten to where I am today by learning from other people, artists, and teachers who have been willing to share their knowledge. I have gone on to have a generous attitude about sharing my knowledge and to have an insatiable appetite to learn.

Ocean Romance

by Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske

Mixed Media Collage

 12 x 12"

$150

I met Jenny Shea just over a year ago, at the Whyte Museum. We were both participating in a holiday art sale. I was instantly drawn to her beautiful pieces made with metal. Take a look for yourself at her website, The Magpie Room. She also liked my Polaroid transfers and we traded our art. I even bought one more piece of Jenny's work the next day. I had only just met her, but I was excited about somehow trying to combine our styles, for me to somehow use my images on her metal collages.

Make Memories
by Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske

 Mixed Media Collage

 12 x12"

$150

I have shown my work several times at the Banff Public Library and realized that it would be great to have a show there with Jenny. We applied, got to work, and tomorrow, February 1st, we will hang the show. It will be up until February 29th. If you are in the area and would like to come to our opening, please keep reading for all the info....

Opening Invite: 

Join artists Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske for the opening of their month-long exhibit at the Banff Public Library at 101 Bear Street in Banff. "Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske: A Mixed Media Collaboration" is the result of Jenny's metal work and Tiffany's collage & assemblage work being combined into pieces that were completed separately but by both artists. For some pieces, Tiffany created the backgrounds, then gave the pieces to Jenny to finish, and in others Jenny started, and Tiffany finished. Each artist has chosen some of the titles for their pieces. In addition to the collaborative pieces there will be many of Jenny's signature metal pieces and several encaustic collages made by Tiffany. Everything will be for sale through the artists, and Tiffany will bring some prints and items that will only be available that night.

Please join us from 7 - 9 PM to celebrate our show which will run until Feb 28th. We look forward to seeing you, and to showing off Jenny's newborn son, Luka. :)

Artistic Epiphany
by Jenny Shea & Tiffany Teske

 Mixed Media Collage

 12 x12"

$150

Always Dream Big 2, A Commissioned Collage, Goes Home...

Always Dream Big (2)

Mixed Media Collage/assemblage

9x12"

By Tiffany Teske

SOLD

I completed this piece on Friday. It is based on Always Dream Big, a similar collage that I made for my solo show at the Wild Flour this past June. I have received not one, but three requests for commissions on that piece and have decided to do a series of six pieces based on it. This one has been safely delivered to its new home. Thank you so much, Courtney!

If you are interested in seeing the other pieces I will be posting them here, but you can also leave a comment below.

And remember to always dream big!!

Canmore Artist and Artisans Guild Mini Art Sale

 If you are in the Bow Valley this weekend, come and see me in Canmore. I will be part of the Canmore Artist and Artisans Guild Mini Art Sale. It is at the CAAG Gallery, 950 8th Avenue, in Canmore, the same building as the Canmore Public Library. The show is on Saturday, December 3rd, and Sunday December 4th. I will have a selection of my visual art, bird nest pendants, spoon assemblages, and feather earrings for sale. I hope to see you!

A Dream Come True - My Article in Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine

I have been enamoured with one magazine for several years now. This love affair with Cloth Paper Scissors started slowly, smoldering as my collection of issues grew, and finally engulfed me after I gave birth to my eldest daughter, Quinlyn. I nursed her on demand, and she demanded so much that she was 26 pounds by 6 months old, and I felt literally trapped under a baby most of the time. I longed so much to work on my art, but never really had the energy, something that most people who know me will never hear me admit. I normally have oodles of energy! The time was bittersweet, since I loved my baby and most parts of being a new mother, but I missed my freedom. Making art is up there with the things that I need to do to live, like breathe and eat. I am not me when I am not being creative. I had some commitments, to a gallery show here and there, and I made what I could, but it was not nearly as much as I was used to. So, I decided if I couldn't physically make as much art as I wanted to, I would be creative in other ways, such as by cooking, photographing my baby, and by reading, reading, reading about techniques I wanted to try. The cooking and photographing came easy, as did the devouring of new techniques, but it was sheer agony not to be able to actually make much. The magazines that I spent the most time reading and rereading, next to Mothering and Vegetarian Times, were Cloth Paper Scissors and Somerset Studios. It was at that time that I made myself the goal of bring published in a magazine. As a photographer I had been featured in several newspapers. And since then, I have had work in Filament, Highline, and PhotoEd Magazines, as well as in the book, 1,000 Ideas for Creative Reuse. All awesome but my heart skipped a beat the day I received my advanced copies of the 39th Issue of CLOTH PAPER SCISSORS, the one that I wrote the Workshop article on Fuji film transfer processes for. I am so happy, proud, amazed (I am still pinching myself that I have been working with the amazing people at Interweave!!) and excited. I own every single issue of this magazine, I even has my mixed media quilt, I Need Your Kindness, appeared in the Muse Flash section several issues ago, but now I am one of only a small number of artists who have shared their knowledge in a Workshop article. CPS even challenged me to make a video of the technique to go with the article. I am on cloud nine. Thanks so much, CPS, Jenn Mason, & Barbara Delaney!

I have worked with Fuji and Polaroid film processes for over 10 years. I have always wanted to write about it...

 

I love this image of Editor, Jenn Mason, with her vintage Polaroid Land Camera from Ebay...

 

My bio, fun stuff!

 

Page one of the article, with two assemblages I made to accompany it.

February 16th - Frozen Charlotte Doll Heads

I have many little collections that serve me well when I go to make a mixed media piece or assemblage. I have a bit of a thing right now for Frozen Charlottes and German bisque doll parts. I just received a box of heads... and I realized, as my three and a half year old was helping me to unwrap and photograph them, that she accepts me just the way that I am. She doesn't question my weird habits and likes, she thinks all moms photograph doll heads by natural window light in the afternoon...