Category Archives: Design Awards

Uppercase Magazine Feature

I was so honored to be included in the Spring Issue of Uppercase Magazine!
I‘ve been a huge fan of this magazine since Issue 1!

“How does gardening inspire your art?” was the submission topic.
My collage, “Posadas” was featured on page 80 of issue 53, Spring 2022.

amy gorrek analog collage as seen in uppercase magazine
amy gorrek analog collage as seen in uppercase magazineamy gorrek analog collage as seen in uppercase magazineBelow is my response in writing to “How gardening inspires my art”

Walk and Look

In 2008, my husband and I moved from New York City to Norwalk, Connecticut. Suddenly we owed trees, shrubs, perennials that needed grooming, transplanting and cultivating. I was immersed and loving it!

As a new mom, I strolled the neighborhood daily with my baby daughter and would make note of plants I admired. Afterwards, I would visit nurseries and scour the internet researching these same plants. Throughout the years, I have cultivated our little land space with vegetables, perennials, trees, shrubs and annuals. I’ve learned so much.

Gardening had grown inside of me.

In early 2021, in the midst of the pandemic (and winter in New England), I began making art again. On my daily walks with my dogs, I started pinching off evergreen sprigs, and picking funky grasses, blooms, and twigs and prickly pinecones along the way. I pressed each one and began to incorporate them into my collages.

They seem to add a magical innocence, and quirkiness, to the pieces – an energy that can only come from nature. And each season offers me a wide variety of art supplies. All I need to do is walk… and look around me.

Toot-Toot-Tooting my own Horn

johnandkiras_aiga_02As I dip my toes into the deep sea of blogging, I might as well take this opportunity for some shameless self-promotion. : )

I am so extremely HAPPY to announce that my humble Studio AG was awarded in the 365: AIGA Annual Design Exhibition 30. There were over 3800 entries, and 182 examples of design *excellence* were chosen.

This charming John & Kira’s box system was created to reflect the extreme amount of tender care and absolute deliciousness that go into each and every handcrafted J&K chocolate. The letter pressed labels are printed with Mad Maude Press, and the boxes are being manufactured with Simkins Box Corp. in Philadelphia.

The packaging will forever be preserved in the AIGA archives at the Denver Art Museum in Colorado.