Keith Donovan: Collage Master

Keith Donovan is a long-time collage artist with a taste for the oblique. The Canadian who moved to Switzerland some 30 years ago (and Paris about 10 years ago), has long been a fan of de Kooning, but he's also addicted to Disney and type and packaging material. His process is ultimately hand-made, but getting there Donovan has begun to employ a variety of machines in the process of "building" his canvases. He still uses a light projector to beam images across his studio onto specially produced canvases; more recently he's been scanning images and distorting them, printing then and inserting them into his projector. The addition of digital manipulation has moved his work to the Old Masters (Breughel among them) and some other more modern masters (Walt Disney) to exceptional effects.

Keith has been making art for decades and the venture into a slightly more digital realm has permitted him to work with a variety of collaborators. A year ago he produced a series of pillows in Lyon, France during a residency at URDLA, Centre Internationale de l’Estampe using digital collages to print on canvas. His series, The Seven Deadly Sins (after Breughel) were a hit. He is now reworking a range of Old Masters in his signature collage style in his studio in Le Jouhet, France.

He is currently working towards an exhibition in Geneva, Switzerland at Galerie Foex, his long-time European dealer. (I first exhibited with Keith in 1999 at galerie eof, Paris, along with Caterina Verde in a show called "New Zoo." We also exhibited in Antwerp at Factor 44, along with the late, great artist (and friend), Tony Morgan.

Donovan is currently stretching canvases and using his scanner and camera more than ever. Take a look at more of Keith Donovan's new work here.

Days Like These : Carte de Rencontre No. 7

La Carte de Rencontre No. 7, limited edition of 1000, just published and distributed in Paris, is from a series of surrealist collages entitled, "Days Like These". Like the six preceeding it, Carte No. 7 is perforated in two, like a pair of large stamps. Distributed for free use, la carte is friendly, useful and engaging. A paper machine: "engagement marketing."



Art & Commerce
Lalande Digital Art Press is now working with cafés, restaurants, bars and clubs who want their own Carte de Rencontre, branded with their name, logo, image. Rencontre - Raconter: Taking word of mouth to a new level. Bouche à l'oreille à la carte.

La Carte de Recontre cible des publics variés : les boîte de nuist, les bars, les restaurants, les jeunes, les professionels, tous les tranches de public parisien; on peut changer les images par rapport vos marques, et les designs et messages, tous les mois (ou chaque semaine) pour mieux viser votre programme de publicité. Et la Carte de Rencontre n'est pas cher. Laissez nous vous faire une Carte de Rencontre. Contactez LALANDE et on peut commencer maintenant.

Sage

Sage, the financial software maker for businesses, asked Robert Ruscoe to star in a recent print campaign. Robert's Polyflash business, the mother company for Lalande, has long produced reports, large prints, brochures and cards of all sizes and shapes for Sage. "Their business is always mission critical," says Robert. "It's always about getting materials to them now." Apparently Sage thinks Lalande's wizard is a sage as well. Robert says he's happy to work as a model. His fees are reasonable – a nice bottle of Côte Roti will persuade him. Give him a shout.

A La Carte Postale

When I made my first post card for a 1990 exhibition in an abandoned shoe store in my home town in New York, I was slightly terrified. I had serious doubts about this enterprise. Why? I was very unsure of the marketing end of my art-making activity. Was it good enough? Too amateur? Who did I think I was to make a card? "Get over it," I told myself. "You're on your own."

I eventually chose a self-portrait standing next to one of my silhouette "baby" collages, made a photocopy, printed out a short text, and designed a page using tape and glue to hold it all in place. These were the days before scanners, digital cameras and USB keys. But I could produce decent-looking type on the Mac SE and my laster printer. When I began handing and mailing out these cards, I quickly understood the power and value of producing printed material myself. No one was going to do it for me.

That same year I wrote a feature piece for Art & Antiques magazine about artist-produced invitations, touching upon Duchamp's crumpled "readymades" sent through the mail for Julien Levy's Surrealism show, Yoko Ono's disappearing cards, Yves Klein's blue stamp for "Le Vide" at Iris Clert in Paris in 1959 (below, worth some 4000 euros) and dozens of other innovative designs that were works of art themselves. My "Immaculate Perception" collage on the invitation for the Berlin exhibition "Herzschmerz" in 2006, inaugurated Gallery Tristesse Deluxe. The image of a girl in a lemon tree went all over Berlin. [The original was purchased by French artist Eric Michel.]

Not only do these paper works – whether catalogs, post cards, posters or large-format prints – contribute to the sense of a personal history, they also reinforce an aesthetic direction. After printing more than 50 or so different cards for myself, I now work closely with artists and store owners embarking on the same trajectory. I've encouraged them to embrace the "do-it-yourself" ethic. Make postcards. Put them – and yourself – in the world. Allow people to have a compelling image and message in their pocket, on their refridgerator or bedroom wall or in their office. Give them two; they can give one to a friend.

Post cards serve as an appetizer as well as a travelling, portable art show. Send them to Beijing or Oslo, The Tate, or the Museum of Modern Art in New York (nothing mailed to MoMA is thrown out). Post cards are limited editions – tiny, inexpensive works of art. Printed in quantities ranging from 1 to 2,000, these printed rectangles, ephemeral in nature, dot one's history in a familiar and friendly way, but also generate value and interest in all directions, particularly when the original art work has already been sold. A cancelled stamp on it gives the post card a bit more history. Duchamp's invitation for Julien Levy's Surrealism show – a crumpled poster stuffed into an envelope is a sought-after collectible work of art. His "Rectified Readymade," his French pun – L.H.O.O.Q. – on the Mona Lisa from 1919 is an icon of modern art. It began its life as a post card of yet another icon.

Creative and graphic efforts that issue from the launch of an exhibition, restaurant, boutique (or even your blog) go down in history, and sometimes up in value. Those little squares of paper end up creating the biggest sensation. Ms. Glaze, a four-star chef sensation and video star as well as friend of Lalande offered me one of her amazing dishes in a digital version for this postcard promotion, "A La Carte Postale," targetting restaurants and bistros in Paris.

I tell all Lalande clients taking their first steps in printing that the post card has great power and potential – a small work that speaks when you're not around. Send me your images and comments about your post cards: E-mail or call: 01 53 68 16 10. We want to know how you became famous.

TIPOGRAFIA

Robert Ruscoe, Lalande's master printer, is an accomplished photographer as well as a digital wizard. While in Venice he produced a gorgeous portfolio of Venetian doorways, buildings and architectural details. His photograph, TIPOGRAFIA, is close to Robert's heart, being a type maniac and the kind of person who lusts after elegant decay, a specialty of Venice and its façades. Immediately, I wanted to use it as a promotional post card, and also to offer it as a signed, limited edition print. Robert is planning on producing it in an enormous semi-transparent adhesive print for the façade of our studio on Rue Labrouste in the 15th arrondisement.

LIMITED EDITION PRINT OFFER
We've decided to offer TIPOGRAFIA a limited and signed edition of 21. The full-color print measures 65 x 55 cm, and is produced on the Epson 9800, using 100 per cent cotton, acid-free Arches paper, 240 gram weight. The price is modest: Only 75 euros. Contact me to reserve your signed, limited edition print and arrange delivery in France – or anywhere in the world. It's a great work of art for yourself, or a gift for someone who loves Venice and its fantastic façades.

ARE YOU A NEW CLIENT?
For new clients, we're offering a time-limited promotion: Through the end of July, if you order 500 Full color postcards (10 x 15 cm) with black text on the back, we'll print up 100 cartes de visites (business cards) for you with whatever image you like. The postcards are 99 euros HT. For your business card, you can use a picture of yourself as a kid and your e mail, your company logo, or anything else you like. Make one for a friend as a gift. We'll need images sized to a standard business card – 9 x 5 cm. Send us a good color image, saved as a .jpg or better, a PDF, set to CMYK.

Actually, you can make other things with us – books, brochures, posters, catalogs, large prints – and we'll produce the business cards free for you as well. This offer extends until the end of July.

Like Robert's TIPOGRAFIA, if you take a great picture, you can produced limited edition prints, or post cards, or business cards, make them known, put them in the world, and become famous.

Robert Ruscoe: Lalande Wizard

Robert Ruscoe, my friend and partner at Lalande, is an Englishman who crossed the Channel to France some 25 years ago "to work on his French, make art, make a fortune and drink better wine."

He's done all of those and at the same time has become a master digital printer, ad proofer, photo retoucher and has made more than 1000 highly detailed rubber stamps. We first exhibited together in Paris Mail Art in 2003, a show curated by Christian Balmier, and have been friends ever since and partners soon thereafter.

There's very little Robert doesn't know how to do with a computer or a computer file, and more importantly, turning those computer files which confound all of us, into valuable printed material. I've never seen anyone work a Quark layout as fast as he does. He's an expert on the Xerox, the Konica Business Hub and the two Epson inkjet printers. And Robert is going nuts these days making books on a new machine he picked up that binds and glues (hard or soft cover) books of all sizes, shapes and flavors. He produced a wedding book (for himself) and just published a dozen copies of a 48-page book about his Spring trip to Venice. I'm still waiting for my copy.

This portrait (above) of Robert at the studio in the 15th is by Lalande client, the Paris-based Dutch photographer, Jeremy Stigter.

Ricardo Bloch's Lifescape Books

Lalande Digital Art Press printed half a dozen Lifescape books for Ricardo Bloch. This Paris-based, Mexican-born photographer, makes portraits of living spaces in book form, on command – apartments, houses or children's rooms. They are soft- or hard-bound, and are made in unique editions with anywhere from 36 to 100 pages. Ricardo is also working for small- and medium-sized companies to produce limited edition books on their businesses, properties (real estate), or boutiques.

Robert Ruscoe, Lalande partner and technical wizard, worked closely with Ricardo to carefully bind the books and produce a limited edition that would blow the mind of the client. For a book of nearly 400 images Ricardo wanted to produce about Denver in the late 1970s, Robert tweaked nearly every photograph to get both the "vintage" and "fresh" effects Ricardo wanted. Check out Ricardo Bloch's website to see his books, portraits and photography.

Robin Jonsson Business Post Card

Robin Jonsson is a Swedish photographer living and working in Paris. We helped him launch his fashion and design photography business with a short run of postcards.

STORMHOEK WINE LABEL

Sometime ago we made self-adhesive (autocollant) labels for Stormhoek Wines, a South African winemaker slowly distributing its white and red wines in Europe.

This image, from my series, A Perfect Friend, was printed in full color, cut to size and applied to the glass bottles – about 72 of them – in record time. They were produced for IVY PARIS as part of their group exhibition at the I V Y Paris Group Show at La Chapelle Saint-Louis de la Salpetriere. We've made wine labels for La Cave des Papilles, perhaps the best natural wine shop in Paris. It's on Rue Daguerre 75014 Paris, and one of our favorite places to buy wine.

Self-adhesive stickers can be cut and trimmed in pretty much any way you like. You can even make HELLO ... MY NAME IS... stickers for your event, kids' parties or just to remind yourself who you are. We all forget sometimes.

Collage By Stephanie Jenny

We made some posters and postcards for artist Stephanie Jenny, the adorable babe at Zango on the Rue Daguerre in the 14th. She launched her art career in June with the Portes Ouvertes along the Butte aux Cailles (in the 13th arrondisement), opening up her studio during a weekend art fest. Stephanie hung about 30 works and sold nearly a third of them, including this one. For her postcard, we isolated a section of a larger canvas, and used a digital photo of the entire piece in black and white on the back for a "stamp."

We love working with artists and offering whatever know-how and marketing we can offer so they get the exposure and traffic they're looking for. "Put your images out there," I told her. "You're the star." I suppose she thought about that for a day or so, but when she had the posters and cards in hand, she quickly laid the groundwork for a successful exhibition: Stephanie put up the 25 A3-sized posters in local shops and cafés where she lives, just off La Butte.

Well, they came, they saw, (probably drank), and they bought and some bought two! She has the eye, the scissor + glue skills, and the ebuillient temperament needed to make a go of it. Stephanie undoubtedly raising her prices for her show this September.