The Fourth Artist Collaboration

A few weeks back we collaborated with The Fourth Artist, a duo of amazing visual artists who paint, draw, collage and generally inspire each other creatively – Jackie Leishman and Patrice Dworkin. Collectively they created a large scale piece for a project we had and I loved the process so much that I wanted to share it (and them) with you.

We were working with Sothebys to style out a big beautiful room and we needed something BIG that had a lot of impact, in a quiet way. They did such an amazing job and I wanted to tell you about the piece before you see it next week in the reveal.

Mel had worked with them on a piece in her living room that we loved:

It’s the large piece behind the sofa. It’s wonderful and has a lot of negative space, but really great tension.

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Jackie and Patrice came to the space with a 4×5 canvas and a lot of art materials to play with – papers, fabrics, embroidery, paint, pencils … you name it. We gave them some direction – a lot of whites, grays, creams, some blues, hits of black and a pop of rust. They saw the mood board of the room and came with some ideas but planned on creating it live right there.

I had recently seen these pieces below and LOVED them for how light and delicate they were, so I said ‘YES. THIS’

This series is called Calabasas and they each worked on them, but they sent them back and forth to each other from The Palisades to Claremont (both LA, but an hour and a half apart).

These are from the Transition series and I want to buy all of them but these are my favorites:

They created another series called ‘Make Your Mark’ where they asked thirty-six women and girls, ages four to seventy-four, to draw an emotional response to the idea of women making their mark on the world. The text and drawings they offered, each 4×4 inches, have been reproduced, deconstructed, and transformed by the two core artists.​

So they asked me to ‘Make My Mark’ and while I resisted, sure that I would mess up (did you see the insta-story?) it was so fun. It could be with paint, paper, pencil – anything.

I had to practice, obviously. It was a VERY BIG DEAL.

Then I went for it with a light blue pencil. I just really didn’t want to dissapoint them. Sara said that she had never seen me so nervous …

They were VERY impressed with my non-impressive art. I think they secretly were glad that I didn’t do anything too big, bold or ugly. From there they spent 5-6 hours creating the piece. They had already dyed and painted paper and fabric but they wanted to be in the space, see my mark and create together.

Mel, Ginny and I all gathered around and ooh’d and ahh’d at what they had already pulled together to collage.

Watching their process and listening to them work through things, get excited, and change their mind was so wonderful. I wasn’t there all day, but while I was you could just feel their creativity vibrating in the room.

At first they worked on the table, then they took photos of it and moved it to the floor:

They met 7 years ago in a art review workshop (where people essentially show each other their art and everyone discusses it), and they hit it off – both in personality and creativity. They do their own work but also collaborate on projects.

The photo above shows my mark that intersected seamlessly (no pun intended) with a already embroidered piece of dyed paper. How beautiful is that?

I can’t show you the styled out after (you’ll have to wait til next week) but it’s absolutely stunning and arresting. It definitely Made It’s Mark.

We also used 12 pieces from the Make Your Mark series over the mantel which was undeniably the most perfect thing for this room. Here’s a sneak peek,

We’ll show you the final shot next week (and then we’ll update this post).

The piece they created was so powerful, with bolder colors that I had predicted but without them it may not have had such the impact that it did in the room.

These two women are inspiring and their work is full of passion, love and experimentation. So, Thank You, Patrice and Jackie. Please check out their work and if you are thinking about a commissioned piece in LA, I can’t recommend them enough.

I asked them for some info about their upcoming show, and here are the details below:

“Both the black-and-white series and Emily’s Mark are included in our show, Three Ways to Make It Through The Day, at Angel City Brewery, in partnership with Art Share LA. The Fourth Artist will donate a portion of proceeds from the sale of all Make Your Mark pieces from the exhibition to The Downtown Women’s Center of Los Angeles.”

The pieces are available for sale August 10th-September 11th through Art Share LA.  Buyers should contact directly: info@artsharela.org, or (213)687-4278.  After September 11th, buyers should contact: fourthartist@gmail.com.

Pricing :

Make Your Mark 1 through 12 – Mixed media on watercolor paper, 12″ x 12″ framed, $650.00 each for originals

Emily’s Mark – Mixed media on canvas, 4′ x 6′, $5,000.00

Commissions available, contact fourthartist@gmail.com.  A portion of proceeds from Make Your Mark commissions will be donated to charities that uplift women.

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