Associate Professor of Art,
Michael Sellmeyer of Montgomery College, gave a talk about his
paintings, drawings, collages, and prints. His talk included his work
processes and evolution of his art through different media.
The speaker for the April Senior Artists Alliance Meeting at the Davis Library, Bethesda, MD
was Associate Professor of Art, Michael Sellmeyer, who teaches
foundation classes in two dimensional design and color theory at Montgomery College,
Rockville Campus. He is known for his modern view of the world and is
considered a passionate artist and instructor. He encourages creativity
in artists, both experienced and less experienced. His creative mind
translates into dynamic paintings, prints, and collages. Though
creative, he manifests as a "down-to-earth" presenter.
He
began the presentation by informing the audience that he would include
his work processes and the evolution of his art through different media
and via many different job experiences. After the presentation, this
writer asked him how he would sum up how he works. He responded by
stating that he uses collaboration with the media and, if it's not
working, he changes what he's doing.
He has a graphic design degree and took his thinking in illustration/design with him to graduate school at the Univ. of Wisconsin at Madison.
He found that representational work was a deadend for him. He was
interested in imagery rather than representation and "getting into" the
materials; eg., carving, and cutting wood with butter knives, using
bottle caps and pounding objects into the wood. In 1991, he dropped out
of graduate school for a year and began doing assemblage sculpture,
along with mixed media work, eg. assembling, and covering materials with
concrete and a gel media. He names a work after he makes it. At that
point, he filed for residency, got a job, health insurance and went back
to school. He did screen printing when he worked for real estate
companies. He experimented with covering screens using spray starch,
using water and other materials while the original material was still
wet to reduce the open areas, and called it "reduction printing" (making
areas smaller)
Because
he was continually looking for less expensive materials to experiement
with, he began frequenting farm stores buying cattle marking pens and
inexpensive gallons of material used to mark animals to dump over wet
paintings. In an attempt to further liberate himself as an artist, he
bought sheets of masonite and covered them with gesso using them as
floor paintings by spilling paint and then walking on them. He began
using thick gesso and smashed objects, which he photocopied and added
extra elements such as bottle caps and peanut shells to add some depth
to the work.
He
stayed away from classes at his comfort level and, for example,
explored collagraphs. He worked jobs driving fork lifts and delivery
trucks and because he was comfortable with the people he worked with,
they gave him lots of materials, eg, fake leather boxes to keep slides
in. Whenever he could, he used these unorthodox materials for
experimenting.
Then
he returned to etching. He found he couldn't wipe off all the ink. He
covered the plate with with clear contact paper, inked again, removed
the contact paper and then kicked the work down the hall to see what he
got. He transferred photocopies, and used traditional aquatints to
continue his experiementation.
Although
intending to return to graphic design, he ran into a high school
acqaintance who was teaching at a community college. He began doing
large assemblages at that point. When he realized he had a small one
bedroom apartment, he knew he had to start working on smaller pieces
again. As he moved to a larger place, he began working on four feet by
five feet works that would fit in the back of his pickup truck. He
started working on Masonite (fake panelling), which is easy to cut with a
saw and can be glued to a frame.
At
that point, he began working with lights vs. darks, a remnant of his
days as a graphic design student. He threw in hues. He still works
that way and finds that there is no way to change that
methodolgy/thinking, despite using scanners, laser printers, acrylic
inks, pencil drawing, acid baths and zinc. He never makes more than 5 -
10 prints. For safety, he built his own ventilation system.
He
began keeping a sketch book to record ideas/doodles. He can scan these
in photoshop, blow them up and do a bigger print. Then he began giving
his work titles. In 1994, he bought the best Thesaurus he could find
and uses it to look for poetic names.
He returned to experimenting with the left-over cattle markers he had, using them and then coating them with ordinary varnish.
He
answered a question about signing his work. He responded that he only
signs paintings on the back because he feels a signature on the front
"messes" it up. He signs prints on the front outside the image area.
He believes in doing the work right and it will outlive him, even when
he's experimenting. He's experimented with woodcuts, using old drawing
board from graduate school and then began using birch plywood 4 feet X 5
feet, which, in his view, carves nicely. He then experimented with
hardware mesh, hammering it, carving and then printing it with white ink
. He returned to doing large collages 10 feet X 10 feet with colored
inks. He continually recycles old parts, his own work, uses rocks, has
returned to drawing simple art work , simple charcoal drawings, other
objects which he traces around to get a shape and looks to see where it
leads him. He returned to etchings but didn't using nitric acid,
instead used electricity, water and table salt with a car battery to
bite the plate with a slow process. This doesn't need ventilation.
Sometimes he paints over old paintings that he knows will never sell.
He may put varnish on so that he can use either acrylic or oil.
He builds his own crates to ship work only in the United States.
He prices work to sell. He prices to be an "impulse buy." His
paintings sell most of the time. His etchings don't sell. He believes
in presentation. He said he is "anal" about presentation. He's never
sold a collage. He may show only one or two pieces at a time, but he
feels that's OK because his work is getting "out there." He's not
always having a single person show.
The audience gave rapt attention, asked many questions and had many comments during the presentation.
Submitted by Arlene K. Polangin
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