Puzzled: A Bold & Challenging Collaboration
Writer’s note: Over the years at the SWAIA Indian Market Gala Auction, a tradition has been formed to include at least one piece that is a collaboration of a number of artists. This year’s “Collaboration Piece” was the product of a lengthy process by three outstanding talents, including 2008’s poster artist Mateo Romero, 2008’s Innovation Award-winning artist Marla Allison, and painter Ryan Singer, winner of numerous awards in the painting Classification. This piece is the story of their process.
Our story begins at Winter Showcase 2008, where Marla Allison and Ryan Singer had their booths situated next to one another. Though the two are good friends, they hadn’t really ever had their paintings together in one place, and both marveled at the way in which their pictures complemented each other.
“We began talking about how fun it might be to do a collaboration, where we’d paint a piece together,” recalled Allison, 28, (Laguna/Hopi.) “Knowing that the SWAIA Auction accepted collaboration pieces led us to think that maybe we could do one for them.”
The pair excitedly decided that they would enlist a third artist to be involved, and they chose Mateo Romero.
“I was excited by the prospect. Marla Allison was a former student of mine and I had followed Ryan Singer’s work and hers for years,” said Romero. “It fell in line with ideas I have about how you work with students and eventually they evolve into a colleague and peer.”
Originally, the trio thought they might work on one painting together, but given that they all live in different locations, with Romero in Santa Fe, Allison in Laguna, and Singer in Albuquerque, they ultimately decided on a different tack – they would each paint their own piece, but use the same model and the same basic color palette to achieve their individual visions.
“We all gathered together in Tony Abeyta’s studio in downtown Santa Fe,” said Allison. “We brought in the model Leslie Elkins to pose for us.”
The model wore a traditional black muntah (mantah – spelling varies by Pueblo) tied around the waist with a sash. In each photograph, she held a pot of traditional Pueblo design (more specific – what was the pot?) The artists agreed on a color palette of earth tones, and each took a canvas of the same size and headed home to get to work.
The result were three different paintings, each done in each painter’s unique signature style. {We should show a picture of the original three paintings, which I have.} For Romero, that meant a photo-realistic image of the model with the pot resting on her head with an abstract expressionist background. Singer’s contribution featured a woman with a pot in her lap floating against a background of earth toned “bricks”. Allison’s piece included a well-proportioned image of a woman carrying a pot on her head with an elaborate pot motif in her background.
Each piece was handsome in its own right, but when the pieces were assembled together in Mateo Romero’s studio, it seemed as if the pieces lacked a unifying element that would allow them to call the piece a true collaboration.
“Our original idea was to use the same color palette, and we thought they’d work together. I was excited about it but I wondered if it was going to flow when we brought them all together” said Ryan Singer, (Navajo).
“We did the initial collaboration, but we ended up with three separate paintings, each good by themselves, but not really in keeping with the idea of a true collaboration,” said Romero.
“Having never done any kind of collaboration before, I think we assumed that the similar subject would band them all together, but when the pieces were all brought together, we realized that it didn’t really have the flow of a collaboration. We brought in some other people to look at it and they agreed that it didn’t quite work,” said Allison.
Ideas were bandied about as to how to bring the pieces together. They ranged from simple paint spatters to a full-on deconstruction where the artists would paint on each other’s pieces. But all three artists ultimately agreed that each painting was complete in its own right, and that bringing them together was a decision not to be taken lightly. Again the artists dispersed to figure out what to do next with the pieces to unify them as a whole.
“We were looking for a kind of formal solution that would bring the pieces together. As a tryptych, the piece asked a lot of questions, because they didn’t really fit together,” said Romero.
“We all thought that if we went at the pieces with each other’s paints, then maybe we could bring them together. But ultimately, we decided that we didn’t really want to paint on each other’s works.” Said Allison. “The idea was born that we should do another project, but the question was, what?”
Driving home from Santa Fe to her home in Laguna, Marla Allison had a remarkable idea. What if she fabricated three painting surfaces of the exact same size, with the surfaces cut into equal-sized squares that could be painted on, then removed, then re-arranged into wholly new paintings that would combine elements of each artist’s work into three separate paintings? Excitedly, Allison called the other artists and the Puzzle Piece was born.
Here’s how it worked: At her home and studio in Laguna, Allison carefully fabricated the painting surfaces from ¾ inch plywood. Measuring 20” x 40” she then cut each surface into 32 equal-sized pieces of 5” X 5” that could be re-assembled into one flat surface. All three completed surfaces were then taken to Mateo Romero’s studio in Santa Fe. Here, the artist made photo transfers of the subject – again, model Leslie Elkins dressed in the traditional mantah and carrying a pot on her head – onto each surface, giving each artist the exact same starting point.
Now it was time for the real painting to begin. Working together in Romero’s studio, the trio spent a weekend painting their individual pieces, each in their own styles. When the paint had dried and all artists were assembled, then the dis-assembling began. The artists cut into the works and began to take the pieces apart and re-assemble them together.
“This stage of the process was rather difficult – we had to connect all these pieces in such a way to where it actually made sense as a three unified paintings, but made with the pieces of each other’s works,” said Allison
“It was a little bit perplexing, taken someone else’s work apart and adding it with your own to make something new,” said Romero. “You can’t be heavy-handed with such a process and you have to really sit with the works and play with them in order to get somewhere.”
With 32,768 possible combinations before them in terms of different outcomes they could achieve, the trio worked for hours trying to find the right balance with each of the pieces individual and as three separate wholes.
Ultimately, after much manipulation, the trio came up with the editorial idea that really worked – a pattern of sorts which left the original painting in place on each of the panels, but showed hints of the other works as well. And then came the final idea.
“It was so exciting for us to move the piece around and play with different ideas,” said Allison. “We thought it would be fun it we were to affix each of the individual squares with Velcro, rather than glue, to give the buyers of the pieces the opportunity to mess with the paintings on their own, based on their own preferences as to how the finished work should look.”
“Now whoever gets the piece can move it around anyway they want to,” said Singer. “Now it’s really a puzzle for someone to play with.”
“The biggest charm of the piece without a doubt is the idea that each piece can be removed and moved around and changed out with others,” said Romero. “If I had a piece like that, I would certainly change it around. The buyers might decide that they like it any way they want. I think that’s exciting.”
