Continuing the Conversation- Artist as Collector

Philadelphia area artist Bill Brookover is this week's guest blogger for the Artist as Collector Series.

Fran Gallun, Untitled
collage and mixed media on paper,
10"  x 7 1/4" 

I’m lucky to have been a friend of Fran Gallun’s for over 30 years. We are part of a small group of friends who have watched our kids grow from diapers to kids of their own. Over the years I’ve watched Fran’s work evolve from large square canvases of still lives and scenes from her studio, to installations of sacred spaces, to small collages evoking the landscape of Israel and the spirituality of Judaism.

Several years ago my wife and I bought one of Fran's large still life canvases; we have been watching this recent phase of her career with great interest. She uses strips of intensely colored paper laid done onto equally intensely colored backgrounds. They evoke landscape, layers of history, and layers of time through their sheer beauty. 

We visited her open studio last month and, when we saw this small collage, we decided the time was right to own a piece. Its small size made it affordable for us. We’ve recently moved into a new house and can’t wait to see it framed and in conversation with the still life from decades before.

Fran Gallun is represented by the Rosenfeld Gallery in Philadelphia; her work is currently on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art at Congregation Rodef Shalom.

Bill Brookover is a photographer, printmaker and teaching artist based out of Haddonfield, NJ.

Bill has taught silkscreen printing at Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia. since 2010. His work celebrates the beauty of everyday life in the buildings, cities, and landscapes around us.