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The Crow Girls (Fran Baskerville, Wren Katzalay, Yvonka Jager, and I) have been in cahoots the last few months. We've been creating a single artwork on paper, 22'' by 30'', for a group show at the Slide Room Gallery in Victoria, BC.

Three of us are used to working BIGGER than this, so can you imagine crowding four artists' work onto this tiny surface? 'Challenge' is not enough of a description. And yes, we did it. Think layers, and cutting the sheet in quarters, and sewing it back together again. This is basically what we did.

We started by collaging a ground onto a piece of Rising Stonehenge paper. Layers of torn sewing pattern tissue. Images and used postage stamps and newspaper. Ink and coloured pencil and graphite and acrylic paint pens. Glitter (yes, we love shiny things!). Glued together with matte medium. All in our chosen palette of black, red, sepia, buff titan, and white. Then we gave ourselves even more of a challenge. We cut the sheet in quarters, closed our eyes, and chose a quarter to work on.

A precious 11'' by 15'' piece went home with each of us. We had a title to guide us--Lost in the Ghostlands--and a theme of childhood, memory, and maps.

We met again. Pieced our artwork back into a single sheet, and worked on linking imagery and marks from one quarter to another until it flowed as a cohesive whole. I don't have a photo of the entire piece, just my quarter titled Where the Wild Wind Is. That's it there, to the right.......

The group show 'In Cahoots (Synergy)' opened last night, November 6th, and will be open through November 30th, 2015. Every piece in the show has been created through collaboration by a group of two or more artists The Slide Room Gallery is located at the Vancouver Island of Art, 2549 Quadra Street. phone 250-380-3500. Enjoy!