Gallerie de Street Art: Paris
The NoHo Arts District dot Com team believes in sharing the success and stories of our neighborhood folks. As we’ve always say, our neighborhood is only as good as its people. We asked North Hollywood resident and www.nohoartsdistrict.com writer Caroline McElroy about her latest accomplishment, her book Gallerie de Street Art: Paris.
Don’t miss her book signing, presentation and raffle.
WHEN: Thursday, July 9, 2015 @ 3pm
WHERE: NoHo Senior Arts Colony lounge
10747 Magnolia Blvd.
North Hollywood, CA 91601
Gallerie de Street Art: Paris is a photographic odyssey of street art and graffiti in the city of Paris. The focus is mainly in Montmartre, but the photos were also taken all around Paris.
This rebus was the end result of my former neighbor and collage student Mary Rose Shook. Shook had asked to see my photos from Paris and when she was finished looking at them she announced that I should create a book using the more “artistic” pieces and advised me to add one of my own pieces of original collage art.
When I first went to Paris, there was no set photographic agenda. Nebraska actress Angela McEwan and myself just wanted to walk around and soak up the magic that is Paris. As things unfolded, there was creative inspiration on many different levels.
Shortly before my art show opened at NoHo SAC and I was to leave for Paris, in September 2014, my brother passed and I had him cremated. McEwan and I decided that I should decorate an apothecary jar, put his ashes in it and take them to Paris with us. In the book, McEwan is seen with the apothecary jar two times.
We had mused that a play titled “Travels With My Brother” could be written from the trip with photos of the jar at mainstream tourist stops. It is now in the process of being written.
Paris has been on my artistic radar for several years and McEwan made it happen. In March of 2014 while we were sitting in a lounge having coffee with director Len Fink the subject of Paris came up. I sighed and said how much I wanted to go and McEwan said lets. It grew from there. I would like to photograph street art in Le Marias, Paris next time as well as the ruins of Paris’ history.
I think that I came to Paris with a different photographic perspective from the average tourist. My photojournalism training was pressed into service which aided in my “eye” for the “art” around the streets of Paris. Just look at the cover of the book, it’s the underbelly of the Eiffel Tower.
I am planning another trip to Paris in September of this year with McEwan and we have a few new places we plan on visiting. I’ve also bought a new Canon SX700HS camera to shoot more penetrating photos. I would like to take photos of the Merovingian Cemetery ruins and the Order of the Knights Templar’s temple ruins and other ruins that lie beneath the surface of Paris and it’s Franco heritage.
There is a language from the streets, here it is gang related graffiti which tells info to other gang members. Former Police Chief William Bratton used his knowledge of this subject matter to bring down gangs on the East Coast. I think that there is a language to the graffiti in Paris and what the terrorists did to Charlie Hebdo to whom my book is dedicated to.
You can find Caroline and her projects here:
www.facebook.com/galleriedestreetartparis
www.collagesdearte.com
www.twitter.com/musicmaven9
Collage artist Caroline McElroy credits her mother for her creative instincts and believes she first learned about form and function at her mother’s knee, where she encouraged her to grow her talent.
McElroy’s creative development highlights include: summering in Laguna Beach, California, for several years with the artistic community that worked on the Living Art show and who were the founders of the original Sawdust Festival; spent time in the creative studio of LA Freak Scene guru and sculptor Vito Paulekas, where he took her under his wing and taught her about perspective, form, and function; spent a year in the workshop of famed Junk Sculptor Duffy of California, where he taught her to weld using his philosophy of presentation, form, and function. McElroy also studied art during junior high school through college in courses such as ceramics and watercolor and a variety of art course work. The majority of her art classes would assign a college in the early stages of a class, which she threw herself into and embraced those assignments that challenged her on a creative level that no other assignments could.
McElroy grew her penchant for collaging and began to collage furniture, lamps, and walls and also continued to hone her instincts regarding form and function as it applied to creating collages from items that she collected during her travels. Some of McElroy’s accomplishment highlights are working with Joel Wachs, president of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, on a few projects in Los Angeles, California; staged art shows each spring for several years at The Southwest Museum as an instructor for the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Indian Education Program; held art shows in Montecito and Santa Barbara, California. During the nearly eight years that McElroy resided in Santa Barbara, California, she decided to begin mounting her work onto canvas, which opened up a whole new level of interest in her work. McElroy’s art is owned by doctors, PR Representative for the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, business owners, and students whose parent took an interest in her work.
McElroy has been known for labeling her work bathroom art because it gives the person using the facility something to read and/or consider. She cites influences that range from Monet to Picasso to Warhol and John Lennon. Most recently, McElroy has studied the Reggio Emilia approach to creative expression as it applies to her work, and she also teaches a collage construction class at the North Hollywood Senior Artist’s Colony.
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