Collage and Memory in Jill Brantley’s “Then”

Brown Payne for the Art League

Jill Brantley’s work “Then” won the Art League’s Best in Show award for the July 2023 Open Exhibit.  For this article, I asked the artist questions about her processes, story, and inspirations for her work.

This piece, titled “Then” depicts a colorful living room, complete with a coffee table, chair, ceiling fan, and couch. Little objects including a flamingo, telephone, a weathered flag, newspaper, and picture frame ornament the living room, creating a convincingly homelike feeling. Coming through the door in a red dress and matching hat, a figure enters the cozy room with a shopping bag. All of these patterns and details each carry a special importance from the artist’s life “from the plastic cushion covers that my grandmother put on her sofa and chairs, the oh-so 50’s and 60’s shag rug, the blonde wood furniture and kidney shaped coffee table that was in my parent’s living room.” Some of the design even comes from the artist’s own personal life, with “the original curtain fabric that hung on my parent’s living room windows.” The attention to the memory of personal details shows strongly in this work, and was an important part in the creation of it. Including complementing oranges and blues and soft recognizable forms, Brantley creates a balanced composition that moves your eye throughout the piece and back again. Her use of collage gives the piece an atmospheric perspective, completing the hazy feeling of a memory. 

Brantley describes the inspiration for this work, recalling the many visits to her grandmother’s house when she was younger: “She would dress up when she went shopping and I couldn’t wait to see the purchases she returned with that were in lovely boxes from the stores that she had visited. This painting is an ode to a different era in time.” Discussing her process, Brantley begins by taking inspiration from photographs or magazines, and then personalizing the work using other materials: “I painted in various items such as the background, the couch, chair and rug, after which I began adding collage. As I am creating this type of painting, a narrative usually develops.” Brantley included details based on specific memories of her grandmother, uncle, and parents, which create the story inside this piece. The use of collage helps to propel the narrative of memory within her mind. In creating more representational assemblage artwork, Brantley realized that the role of found images was of paramount importance in her creative process: “Collage was essential in depicting childhood memories for me.” 

Collage has a special role in the process of creating based on memory, because of the act of finding, cutting up, and reassembling media. Remembering and representing memory can be difficult, so the aid of found media is integral to the act of remembrance. Inspired by collagists like Romare Bearden or Henri Matisse, Brantley hopes to create works that continue a legacy of storytelling. Recently, Brantley has started experimenting with abstraction by using inks, but finds herself still incorporating reused material and images within her work: “I have come to realize that collage is an integral part of my creative process. I can’t seem to get away from it nor do I really want to.” 

A conversation with Viviane de Kosinsky, winner of the Art League’s 2023 Landscape Exhibit Best in Show Award 

Brown Payne for The Art League

Artist Viviane de Kosinsky won  the Art League’s Best in Show award for the June 2023 Landscape Exhibit. In her piece “Untitled (Matterhorn),” de Kosinsky’s drawing of the Matterhorn peak in Switzerland illustrates the mountainous landscape with a lush palette of colored pencil. Depicting a blissful moment of interaction between the natural landscape and architecture, de Kosinsky captures the atmosphere of a cloudless alpine day. In the foreground, the light of sunrise pours over Swiss chalets, creating long shadows that stretch across the hillside road. In the background, the snowy, jagged summit of the four-faced mountain rises over the Swiss Alps. In this article, the artist discusses her inspiration and processes in creating beautiful works like this award winning piece.  

The Art League: Throughout your body of work, there are scenes from around the world–France, Italy, England–to name a few. Am I correct to assume that your travels have greatly influenced your work? 

Viviane de Kosinsky: “Yes, my own travels are the inspiration for most of my work, and I travel frequently to visit family, friends and favorite places. My drawing of the Matterhorn is based on a long hike in 2021 down a nearby mountainside and seeing the iconic mountain dominating the landscape on a cloudless day.  I was born in Geneva and still have family and friends in Switzerland.  I obtained my Master’s Degree in Printmaking in Florence, and also worked in Italy and London for a number of years.  I learned darkroom photography in Florence and have always used a camera as my memory.  It is not just landscapes nor cityscapes that I wish to capture, but the local atmosphere in daily scenes. During the restrictive Covid years I brought out my pens and pencils for my ‘armchair travel.’”

TAL: What overall atmosphere do you seek out for your subjects? Do you prefer to capture certain times of day, or certain seasons? 

de Kosinsky: “I have always been attentive to mornings and sunsets, the times of day when the light changes compared to full-on daylight, especially in locations famous for light such as the south of France or, just this April, up in Skagen, at the northernmost tip of Denmark, these all tending to be places which have historically attracted artist colonies for the same reason. For indoor scenes, my black and white  photography has been the most helpful reference, particularly for my etchings.”

TAL: A lot of your previous work is focused in printmaking or watercolor. Currently, what is your favorite medium to work with? 

de Kosinsky: “It may come as a surprise to most of my print collectors that I have always done so much drawing as well.  My art career began in Illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design.  Having a studio at The Torpedo Factory obliged me to promote just one medium, and naturally that was my full etching workshop, minus the acid baths which I had at home.  The length of time it takes to carefully draw on metal etching plates, in reverse to the final planned image, demands patience and possibly obsession with line work compared to the freedom of drawing on paper. Like a jazz musician first learning classical piano, drawing and the tremendous power of line is the foundation for many printmakers. The even bigger surprise for my followers might be that my favorite medium right now is oil painting, but always with several ongoing drawing projects.”

TAL: What do you enjoy about working with colored pencils? Do you draw while on location or from photographs?

de Kosinsky: “I enjoy the building up of an image with colored pencils and the role which color immediately plays from the beginning.  Working on a picture is like opening a window, so many nuances available, easy to interrupt and change direction, and sometimes portable.  I use Caran d’Ache colored pencils, an excellent Swiss product, which come in a selection of varying hardness, water solubility, and size. I believe the largest assortment on the market contains 180 pencils. I will do rough sketches on location or in a travel journal, but the final illustration—destined to be a unique piece, unlike multiple prints in an edition—might take weeks in my studio, therefore photographs are an essential reference as well.”

TAL: Can you let us know some artists who inspire your work? 

de Kosinsky: “There are so many artists whom I admire and study—certainly Bonnard, Seurat and Signac for color, then Ingres, Redon, David Hockney, Ferdinand Hodler and the early Renaissance masters for line, too many to mention. So often sculptors produce amazing drawings, and great painters have so few.”

By Haven Ashley

Winner of Best-in-Show Award for The Art League Gallery’s November 2020 Feast! Exhibit, “Fruit Bowl” is a bubbly tablescape by fiber artist Susan Callahan. Using hand-printed textiles, the artist created a delightful spread of summer fruit, cheerful blossoms, and a tantalizing three-layer cake, stitching together a variety of fabrics to form a soft mosaic of ruby, rosebud, and lemonade yellow.

“I love working with pink. It’s joyous. It feels like a sunny afternoon, the pinks and yellows. It’s inviting,” Callahan said, remarking on her appetizing tableau. “I’m proud of this piece. I don’t say that a lot. I’m just really thrilled to have been chosen as best-in-show. I think that fiber art is sometimes misunderstood, and I’m honored to represent this media.”

Callahan brings heart to the hearth, approaching her work with a special understanding of the symbolic relationship we share with food—she is a professionally trained chef.

“As a chef, I believe that food is the center of life. Especially so around the holidays, when we want to gather and enjoy food together. This year has been so difficult. I worry about my friends and family that work in the restaurant industry.”

Callahan has been finding ways to stay hopeful and, like many of us, has turned to cooking and baking as a reprieve. “I’ve been obsessively perfecting certain recipes,” she commented, describing her recent triumphs: a classic bagel, a ripe and robust strawberry jam, and a piquant pumpkin hot sauce. Sounds like a feast to us!