Palmyra artist visits WWAG

Palmyra resident Marge Wilkins was the guest demonstrator at the last Western Wayne Art Group meeting. Marge is well known in the local art world for the serious and sometimes quirky subjects of her pastel paintings, but perhaps her greatest claim to fame are her whimsical papier mache figures. Her amazing critters have garnered numerous awards and admiration at area art shows before finding permanent homes with appreciative new owners around the country.

Marge received her formal art training in western New York and worked as a freelance artist and in advertising art for about 20 years. It was while working with a children's program in Ogdensburg, NY about 8 years ago that she first experimented with papier mache. One little summer project became an endless fascination with the medium, and Marge began working with it seriously. 'I get such a kick out of making something out of nothing well, maybe not nothing, but recycling materials and putting 'life' back into them,' she said.

While Marge discussed the techniques and materials that can be used, she passed around photos of many of her projects showing their creation, step by step. A winged dragon began life as a wooden bowling pin, while an elephant, one of her larger pieces, started out as a wooden box and four gift wrap tubes. A diminutive cat began life as an aspirin bottle

Assembling three coat hangers (minus hooks), she demonstrated formation of the head, spine, tail, and legs of a cat figure. Securing the joints with masking tape she bent them to the desired configuration. Oval wads of ordinary newsprint gave volume to the figure; once again beginning at the joints, Marge taped the wads to the framework for stability. Once the basic form was attained, she covered the entire mass with masking tape. At this point, she began dipping narrow strips of newsprint into premixed wallpaper paste. Wringing each strip between two fingers to remove excess paste, she applied the strip to the figure and smoothed it, continuing until the entire surface was covered. This process should be repeated about 4 times (and usually more with large creations), with thorough drying between each layer, she explained.

Detailed features such as a face or toes should be added after the first or second layer. Marge demonstrated on a more advanced figure how to fashion and apply the eyes, cheeks, nose and mouth of a cat with Sculpy, a polymer clay. If Sculpy or Fimo features are to be dried in the oven (1/2 hour at 250 is usually sufficient), she recommends applying a fresh layer of papier mache to prevent the figure from igniting. When the piece is totally dry, it is ready to be primed with gesso or thinned artist's acrylic paint. She produced a third figure showing the appearance of a figure at the next stage, when it is ready for painting with acrylic, and decorations or props added. Most of Marge's creations involve elements of a joke - for example, her elephant holds a memo pad in his trunk, and one of her dogs lolls on his back on a piece of faux fur, simulating a dead skunk. At the conclusion of her demonstration, Marge recommended some good reference sources for beginners: PapierMache Today, and Papier-Mache for Kids, both by Sheila McGraw. A Google search will produce numerous websites for inspiration and instruction. Some of Marge's work can be seen on her website at

http://home.rochester.rr.com/sweetwilkinsart/Gallery2.html

Western Wayne Art Group meets the 3rd Tuesday of the month from 7-9 p.m. at Walworth Town Hall, 3600 Lorraine Drive, Walworth. Visitors are cordially invited. For more information please call Cheryl Miller at 597.2106.

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