"Elements of City and Sports"

Mixed media Collage using found paper and acrylic paint and oil sticks on wood panel. Size 24"x48" Created by GA Gardner.

"Earthly"

Created by GA Gardner. November 2009. Mixed Media Collage (found paper, photographs, aged metal, acrylic, on panel) 24"x24".

"Jazz" on the scene

Created by GA Gardner. Medium: Mixed Media Collage on wood panel surface. Size 24"x24". www.studiogardner.com

Introducing Red

Mixed media collage created from found images and acrylic paint on wood. Created by GA Gardner. Title: Red. Oct 2009. This piece and many others are currently on display at the DC Public Library Oct 15-Nov 20. 901 G street nw Washington DC.

Games

Mixed media Collage using found images and acrylic paint on wood panel.  Size 24"x48" Created by GA Gardner September 2009.

Idol

Idol is a collage mixed media piece created by GA Gardner from found paper and acrylic paint on wood panel.

"Native American Spirit"

In this piece GA Gardner used a combination of found paper, abstract elements and acrylic paint on wood.

Dream: Zora Neale Hurston

This is a piece that I worked on over several weeks, even months. In this piece I used x-ray copies, found paper and other mediums to create collage of Zora Neale Hurston. The piece illustrates her dream to become an anthropologist and her journey from folk life in Eatonville Florida to city life in Harlem New York.

www.studiogardner.com

Large Collage Nude

After a week of working on this piece, here it is.  This nude image is made up of clippings from various magazines. It is a 24"x36" collage on wood panel.  Above are the original sketch and the final piece.  This was one of my most labour intensive collage to date. 

Expanding the Elements

"Nature" Acrylic on wood. 

A new direction?

"Model Rain" collage mixed media piece.

"Poppy" is a collage mixed media piece.

International Woman

Collage art is very tricky to create. An artist must study light, lines, form and if that is not enough he must select from hundreds of clippings to find the most appropriate to match the tone and content of the subject.  This collage is an image of a young woman.  One of the most difficult parts of this image to conceive is that the lion image is not at her neck rather at the top of her left shoulder.  This means it is her right shoulder and arm that we see in the background.  The nose is also an area that is most discussed by viewers.  I had tried every possible clipping for the nose and after finding the head of this woman I thought it helped to create some sense of a three dimensional nose.  The lips are worth mentioning as the top lip was created from an image of ropes that tied a ship. But it was not even that simple. When I saw the image of the ropes I thought it would be perfect for the nose but the light was shining in the wrong direction. I just flipped the image around to have the light come from the correct direction, one consistent with the rest of the image.  Creating this piece was a fun and challenging experience.  The piece is called "International Woman" as it is made up of worldly images.

Jamaica Sunset

There is something about the sunset that inspires my art.  These sunset scenes were shot in Negril Jamaica at Rick's.  

Zora Collage

While preparing to work on the mural for Zora I did this collage on Zora.  This piece is 24x24" and is made up of text, photos and handwritten samples from Zora. Acrylic on wood with paper.   

Zora Textstraction

Over the past couple of weeks I have been working on a new form of fine art I call TEXTSTRACTION. This style of art uses words as the basis to add abstract elements to the art. In this information age I wanted to use art as an instrument for greater more focused information on a subject. In March I was asked to create a mural to commemorate Harlem Renaissance writer and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston. Using the Elements and introducing Textstraction I completed this piece for a restaurant that will be opening in Northwest Washington, DC.

Photos: GA Gardner creating Mural on 8x8ft wall.

Close up shot of 'Zora Textstraction' Mural.

'Murals for Zora' opening night reception.

A short video that details the Elements of Hope, and the art that went into the making of the poster on President Barack Obama.  

Elements of Hope: Barack Obama

After Obama was elected I was moved and wanted to include his image in the Element series.  I began by surfing the web for an image I wanted to work with, an image that looks most like him and one that the public is most familiar with.  Even if his head was painted as a silhouette, I wanted to find a photo that was unmistakably him.  After finding the photo I already had an Element (sky and water) that was not really working and one that I had done a year ago.  I began a free hand drawing over this painted sky and water background. I got the eyes and ears right I continued with the face. I was working on a sheet of plywood of 2x2 feet.  I knew I wanted to capture the moment, mood and the feeling of the people.  I began a literal process of cutting out images from the newspapers that captured these expressions of the common person.  I also wanted to include text that spoke of the main issue of the moment, an issue that was never really discussed by him on the campaign trail, RACE.  I wanted to include some stats, some celebs, his family, lots of people with flags that would create his portrait.  In detail, his top lip is a crowd of people from at night he accepted the position.  His lower lip the flag, and in his eyes, his daughters.  

This piece was well received by friends and was turned into a poster so that all can have a copy of  Elements of Hope.  Later the piece was featured on CNN's Larry King Live.