Quote by Kiki Smith

One's self is always shifting in relationship to beauty and you always have to be able to incorporate yourself or your new self into life. Like your skin starts hanging off your arms and stuff, and then you have to think, well that’s really beautiful too. It just isn’t beautiful in a way that I knew it was beautiful before. [...]

I like this concept.

Regarding Max Ernst

"The expressive possibilities of collage seem so simple that one is tempted to think that anyone could employ them to equal effect. Yet when one reviews the works of this early period - the printer's plate prints, say, those compositions made with the aid of old line blocks found in a printer's shop - it becomes obvious that Max Ernst's brilliant accomplishment consisted of having developed a syntax by which the employment of this found material could be controlled."
...
"Again, the crux is this: Max Ernst's careful selection of seminal imagery employed in collages and all the variants of collage, and the formal criteria which determined the composition of the printer's plate prints, rubbings, overpaintings, montages of photographic positives and paste-ups of wood engravings all indicate the primacy of control. Everywhere we look, we find invariables that oppose the seemingly unlimited availability of the material, that place considerable restrictions on its character and use."

Text from Werner Spies, introduction to "Max Ernst: A Retrospective"
I found this text on Mark Harden's Artchive

Rephotography definition

I looked up rephotography on the wiki and I am wondering how someone is classifying Richard Prince's piece as rephotography. Puzzling.
According to the wiki definition,
"Rephotography is the act of repeat photography of the same site, with a time lag between the two images; a "then and now" view of a particular area."

Rephotography is like a time lapse thing...

Rephotography - OR - Richard Prince is a Collage Artist

Sonic_Nurse.jpg (200 × 196 pixels)
Nurse painting "Sonic Nurse" on Sonic Youth music album cover.

Richard Prince recently scored big at a recent Christies auction according to Bloomberg and other accounts. His work "Piney Woods Nurse" (2002) sold for more than $6 million!! That is a nice stash of cash by all accounts. I had read these auction reports and didn't recognize his name. I visited wiki and turns out Richard Prince is an appropriation artist, and the piece "Piney Woods Nurse" consists of a base of pulp fiction origin painted over. The following is a quote from the wiki page:

"Actual covers of books were scanned to create the foundation for the paintings—the titles and the images of the nurses. They are ink jet print on canvas with acrylic overlay and are fairly large in scale.

Richard Prince used the technique of modern rephotography and this series is notable for the technique of layering digital and analogue media: the application of an analogue medium (acrylic) to a digitalized print (ink jet) of a digitalized image (scan) of an analogue print (book cover) of an analogue artwork (original art portrayed on the book cover)."

Actual book covers were scanned. And then printed. And this was okay and not a breach of copyright law? I have to ask this every single time I assess and study a collage work-- in order to try to understand the legalities of it all. This was certainly a copyrighted book that was scanned, and yet it was legal for him to output it to his home printer and rework it?? That is essentially the name of my game and is really the same thing that I recently did with a photo on flickr. The photographer was annoyed and felt I should not have used his photo that I output cut up and appropriated. I just can't see the difference here.
Oh wait! I DO see a difference. This is "Richard Prince" and I am simply Julie Sadler!! This is not a time for sarcasm actually. I am serious. Where is there a difference?

This Richard Prince wiki article mentiones "the technique of modern rephotography" which I am going to have to look into. I use a lot of photos and digital prints in my work, I wonder if this is a term for what I do...

I took heart to this report. Inside me somewhere there was this collage doubting aspect...the strange doubt that collage somehow isn't as worthy as painting...It's my own inner geek, but I think at this point it should be a mute point. Collage and appropriation art is very much in our culture and looks like it's here to stay. With Richard Prince pieces commanding $6+ million, I need to put these silly thoughts to rest.

OH BOY, this is an unfolding post. It's back to copyrights again! I went to wiki to get the image of Piney woods for this blog and was confronted with this statement by Wiki...
"This image is of a cover of an audio recording, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the album or the artist(s) which produced the recording or cover artwork in question. It is believed that the use of low-resolution images of such covers

* solely to illustrate the audio recording in question,
* on the English-language Wikipedia, hosted on servers in the United States by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation,

qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law. Any other uses of this image, on Wikipedia or elsewhere, may be copyright infringement. See Wikipedia:Non-free content for more information.

To the uploader: please add a detailed fair use rationale for each use, as described on Wikipedia: Non-free use rationale guideline, as well as the source of the work and copyright information. For an example fair use rationale, see here.

Description

Album cover from Sonic Youth's Sonic Nurse.
Source

Derived from a scan of the album cover (creator of this digital version is irrelevant as the copyright in all equivalent images is still held by the same party) Copyright held by the record company or the artist. Claimed as fair use regardless.
Article

[[{{{Article}}}]]
Portion used

Front cover only. No other artwork from the album (e.g. back cover, inner liner notes) is used.
Low resolution?

Is only as much resolution necessary to identify and show the style of artwork used for the album, not enough to be used for piracy.
Purpose of use

Illustrates the appearance of the album and identifies it by recognized features.
Replaceable?

No other image can illustrate the appearance of the album. Any other images would feature the same exact artwork.
Other information Image in this form is already widely distributed to identify the album as part of catalogs and reviews, so we degrade no market value by providing it ourselves"

Apparently wiki is covering it's own ass regarding the posting of the image and they recommend I do the same... (To the uploader: please add a detailed fair use rationale for each use, as described on Wikipedia: Non-free use rationale guideline, as well as the source of the work and copyright information. For an example fair use rationale, see here.) Was that comment for me? Am I the uploader, or is the article poster the uploader?>?
I am using the image to illustrate my article and show what piece sold for 6 mill. That's all!

Mixed Media Collage Artists

Thru the recent discovery of Katie Gutierrez, I also made the discovery of MMCA, or "Mixed Media Collage Artists". The brainchild of Debbie Overton, (whom I also discovered today) this site is a group of collage artists at varying stages of development committed to promoting a sense of community and continuity in their artwork. Several artists are members of this group and I am happy to have come across them. This is a cool site, a nice alternative to the blog scene if you are looking for collage comrades!

3/4" deep in collage

Discovered a new pocket of collage artists today. I was rambling around and came across several new (to me) artists. It amazes me that no matter how deep I search, or how crazy and inventive I make a google search, there are STILL MORE collage artists out there communicating their personal message. They seem to come in pockets...in batches. You find one interesting person and sure enough, right behind them is their network. That little blogroll on the side of most peoples' blogs is a handly little thang. I don't take advantage of my blog list like I should, I profess!
Today it was the strange search a la etsy. I was doing some research about christmas cards on the web, and I discovered Katie Gutierrez, of California. She has done some deep collage work, and by deep I mean depth, like 3/4" deep. She has incorporated plastic figurines into her recent pieces which has created a special depth. I like the idea...sort of like a collage/assemblage morph. She is a beeswax user. (!!! that sounds funny!)
She has some pieces that were just chosen to be included in a one night only (December 21st) party/show at the 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco, from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Please visit Art Now San Francisco for more details.

S.U. Nayman — Digital Collage from Turkey

Detrimental

This work is by S.U. Nayman, a turkish collagist, saw his work in the BAK magazine (I'll get back to BAK later!). This is digital collage, but it really has the feel of regular collage. Regular Collage?! Is there a special term for collage work that isn't digital?? Studio collage? S.U. Nayman's work made me look twice to decide whether it was digital or not. I liked his choice of imagery and the illustrative nature of his pieces. (The squeezing cheek butt face on this particular artwork really knocked me over, therefore I chose this piece for an example)

I usually try not to stray too much into digital collage in my blog postings, but to do so is to leave out an entire realm of artworks that are included under that broad category of "collage". It isn't exactly in my genre or specialization...so I don't ferret out digital work for comparison and closer study very often. The composition techniques are so far apart from each other. I have been working on computer graphics as a day job for printers and IT work since 1985 and altho I enjoy digital manipulation, I prefer to get my hands dirty!


Back to BAK magazine! This was a nice little online score I got off of SCENE360, a film and arts online zine. There is a lot of pages in the zine, a lot of interesting photography, some really cool artwork, and it's bilingual! I really don't know what language it is, but it's super to have an English translation side by side on the pages! Download a copy. It's a worthy publication. And then go view some of Nayman's stuff!

Decorative Collage

Green Tea
ink, acrylic, and collage on paper / 21 x 29 cm / 8.25" x 11.5"

I saw a link on Scene 360 about the artwork of Stephanie Levy. Of course, since the blurb on 360 mentioned collage, I had to go to her site and take a closer look.
Stephanie, an artist trained and raised in the United States, is currently living in Munich Germany. She does collage work using origami papers and gold leaf (I recognized some of her papers as some of the very same that I have), and she gathers interiors from various decorating magazines. Her line drawings are endearing. Her work reminds me of an illustration one might receive from a designer working on decorating your home... swatches of colors and patterns alternating with sparse interior layouts... These are refreshing works. I like the fact that she uses nothing vintage. Makes for some modern looking work! Her site includes several colorful collages worth looking into.

Blogging & Self Discipline

It's great to be back! I have enjoyed taking a few moments to gather myself, visit with family and regroup. But in the back of my mind, there was this voice that was prodding me to get back to the regularly scheduled program. The blog has helped me keep in focus, and keep in touch with the pulse of art. I had not realized how my posting here on the blog has kept me in the loop. Not in the loop with others, but more in the loop with my own head, my own thinking, and my own interests. Blogging is an elaborate form of self discipline, in my case. I like to stray, my mind likes to wander and explore, I like to make excuses on why I can't find time to do things...and by forcing myself to examine art in some manner each day, I am creating a healthy dialogue between my mind and my body! By taking a break, I feel as tho I was allowing my body to be lazy and take over--and do nothing. This probably sounds insane, but I find that my mind and body don't always like to cooperate and each one takes a turn in sabotaging the final "me". There is this part of me that just likes to DEFY, even my own self!
So, I am thankful for the blog. I have found a reason for it to be a part of my daily actions...so let's get this thing back up and rolling, shall we??

collage overload

I get searching the web, reading newsgroups and reading blogs. I get involved with looking at images on websites, and taking in their meaning. I see endless lists of artists, creatives from every nook and cranny on the planet. There is so much going on, so many talented people, and so many folks doing things....AND IT OVERWHELMS ME!
At first, it all is so exciting, new thoughts, new ideas, new techniques and plans. I feel that I have a network, and there IS a community. There are others who feel like me, do things like me! Then, it becomes so overwhelming, too many ideas, thoughts....I end up feeling so insignificant and unimportant. I am merely a drop in this large bucket. It must be important for me to feel unique. The internet makes everyone feel like they are only fingertips away...and in this experience you find out that you really are not so special. Or are you?
I have been trying to post amazing artists here, and tell about places where you can learn about collage. This is quite an exhausting task for me. I really do end up with a sensory overload problem.
To repair my wigged out senses, the only thing I can do is remove all the distraction and clutter for awhile...until I calm down. This is what is happening at the moment for me. I am in sensory overload, and I feel so very small. I have been taking some moments for myself to relate to all these new facts and ideas. I apologize for not posting a daily artist, or not commenting on things as regularly as I have in the past. I just need to rejuvenate a bit! I definitely am by no means ending my blog experience, but I am slowing down a little to reflect on these things. I don't think I can make great changes within myself, unless I take the time to understand the new information that I have taken in. I just need to sit back and take a deep breath.

"Breathe deep the gathering gloom,
Watch lights fade from every room.
Bedsitter people look back and lament,
Another day's useless energy spent.
Impassioned lovers wrestle as one,
Lonely man cries for love and has none.
New mother picks up and suckles her son,
Senior citizens wish they were young."
—moody blues

VanOrsouw Art Party @ Picture Perfect

The outside view of Picture Perfect, a local gallery in Canajoharie, NY

Last spring, I went to the awards ceremony for the Tri County Arts Council Decentralization Regrant Program. I met fellow grant winner John VanOrsouw there and learned of his project. He planned to create 100 different artworks, send them to various random residents in the Canajoharie area, and invite them all to an art get together.
I received my print in the mail last week and was really curious as to what kind of art event could occur in this little town. The event would take place on a Thursday nite in a store called Picture Perfect Gallery right across from the new Arkell Museum. I couldn't believe my eyes as I drove by the front of the building I couldn't believe my eyes. It was packed!


John Van Orsouw is the gentleman standing on the right, speaking to visitors about his work.

Upon entering, my very first impression was amazement! "What used to be a store, is now a gallery!" The counters were removed, and instead large scale pieces of art hung on all the walls, completely surrounding the gallery. There were works by Marion Preston, Richard Pugliese, and Chris Duncan in addition to John's artwork. The food spread looked incredible, and was continually stocked throughout my visit. The wine was delish...and the whole art party looked quite successful. Who would have guessed that this many cool people lived in Canjo!


You can barely see the food spread in this picture, but there were some scrumptious goodies to eat.


There was a Macbook playing a slideshow of John's work below the artwork that I noticed was actually a collage.

John's work intrigued me the most actually. I was standing in line (for wine!) next to one of his larger works and upon close examination I discovered it was a collage! He used stickers that looked like they were his of his own creation.


A close up of John's collage work

There's a lot of background work in creating stickers that you use in your own work. I really was digging that, and also took a moment to reflect on his lack of copyright infringement issues.
I use images from everywhere, and it immediately lends a variety of texture to my work. I have not tried composing all the parts of a collage myself, so seeing John's homemade stickers on his work was pretty interesting. I have read The Artful Dodger by Nick Bantock, and it looks as tho he also creates everything in his collages. Certainly, this is raising the bar for creativity! I have to re-evaluate what I do. Maybe try this all-encompassing mode. Positively, I could then ignore all the fair use copyright issues!!!


John's stickers up close

Contemporary Collage by Mia Moore

A quote from Mia Moore's artist profile—"My passion is to create works of complexity and depth by melding textures of old and new paper highlighted by varied combinations and layers of acrylic paint and stain." Mia Moore's work has a very defined Asian flavor. There is something so graceful about Eastern imagery. Maybe it is the symbology, or the graceful effect created by the calligraphic text. Whatever it is, I was enthralled with her work. I am always amazed at the unique character and flavor of each individual artists' work. Her website has a selection of beautiful collage work, in addition to some 3d assemblage.


Media: Mixed Media on Paper
Three Dimensional
Dimensions: 25" x 54"

What is art for?

Words by Charles Esche

"What makes art stand out is both the intimate form of its address and its ambiguous relation to the interests that produce it. Art, at least since Modernism's beginnings in the nineteenth century, has been able to distance itself to some degreefrom the social machine that produces it. It is able, in the name of an individual artist, to speak for itself and its selfish intent to be art and nothing more. So much so that the question - 'what is art for?'- has been historically answered by simply saying: 'art is for art'. This has the benefit of appearing to give art its own space to become itself but it is, as we see these days, an effective way to allow questions of ownership to become dominant over questions of meaning or social production whenever art takes up a role in the world outside itself. Nevertheless, 'art for art' is a concept worth retaining in extreme situations of political or economic instrumentalisation."

It was a relief to read this paragraph in the ArtReview: Digital today.
I have often gotten overwhelmed in my own creativity wondering about the meaning of all this art. I read various artist statements, with artists pointing out the parallels between their art and social or spiritual context. Sometimes I feel rather stupid for not being able to verbalize all that stuff. I do art for ART! I do it because inside there are deep thoughts that I can only express with images.
This article also brought up the point of art as being "an effective way to allow questions of ownership to become dominant over questions of meaning or social production..." I believe the author is referring to copyright and sampling and how society is working out the answers to ownership of intellectual property. It's a good read. Especially when it gets you thinking about your place in it all.

Portal

Portal
Originally uploaded by misphit

I am interested in focusing some attention on using photos in my work. This particular little piece uses 3 different photos. The center one is uncut , but underneath everything, the left hand tree is from a holga photo I took in a cemetery. The girl, she was plucked out of her front lawn and landed here.

MARTworks

It's Friday. And usually this is a lazy day in my little world. Work is slow, everyone leaves early, it's payday, the weekend is on the horizon, and there is this frivolity attitude going on all day long.
In keeping with a Friday mood, today I present the collage work of Marty Gordon. He combines modern imagery with crazy text in comic bubbles! It is like a cartoon collage. I am digging his messages. I think it is less threatening to receive a striking message in a comic bubble. Somehow, speech balloons give me this innocent aura...(maybe because I didn't buy enough of the badass monster comic books!) I read his bubble text and it really grabs me. Also a plus, is the fact that his messages are relevant to today, and seem to be pointing to a higher purpose, a bigger message. It works for me, because the seriousness of his point is not easily noticed at first glance. He draws you in to see what this is all about, and then Zaps you with the punch line. KaPOW!
His blog is here. Pump up your Friday!

Quote by Yayoi Kusami

I recieved my copy of Art Review Digital in my email and read an article about Yayoi Kusami. I confess that I was not aware of her or her work, but I found her concept on art and her comments quite philosophical...

What do you hope to communicate to the viewer?

I hope to communicate that love is forever in the universe, and to share with them wishes for peace on the earth without terror and war.

When you make your work, to what extent are you thinking of the way it communicates with other people?

I am I. Others are others. We are different in many ways. Behind art are, however, aspirations common to all humankind. It gives me great joy when I find them.


Simply beautiful!
peace. love. groove. art.

Side note:
ArtReview: Digital is a great online zine to check into. I enjoy the articles, and the online zine interface is sweet.

Collage Art by Erika Tysse

Collage on Canvas

Erika Tysse has some really nice collage work on her site. I like the painterly-ness of these works. They have an illustrative quality to them and I feel stories in my mind when I see them. Visit her site and find several more images to make dreams with.


Collage on Paper

Collage art by Nicole Natri

Today is this wonderful collage artists' birthday! She does some really nice spacial work. The tension between the images in her collage pieces really works for me. My work is so overdone and cluttered sometimes, it is a relief to see her images play off of each other. Happy Birthday Nicole!

Collage and It's Relationship to Recycling

BLOG ACTION DAY: Collage and Recycling
(Today is Blog Action Day. You may notice a plethora of blogs choosing to discuss the topic of environment today, and this is one of them.)

There is a natural recycling action that starts from the very origin of our thoughts. Every single day our minds take in thousands of new thoughts, ideas, images and sounds. We process them, distill them, file them, and then recycle them over and over throughout the course of our entire lives. This process is innate, involuntary and totally encompassing. There is no end to the recycling that our minds do...even with mind altering drugs and restraint, we continue to add, subtract and recycle.

Collage is the perfect artistic mirror of this organic process. Images are gathered, stored, filed, used, re-used, adapted, colored, stored and then used again. Their initial context may blur, the associations and relationships between them may alter, and they also may distort and morph into other images. I find this type of art very intuitive, because it taps into my inner mode of recycling and reinforces it.

There is a lot of contention between artists, producers, musicians, record companies, copyright owners...But the bottom line is that we ALL need to learn to use our resources wisely, no matter what we do or where we are. Recycling is the mode we should be in for the rest of human race, not just today, or during our lives and those of our grandchildren. It is the beginning for us in understanding our longevity on this planet. Critical for survival.

Congratulations!

I know i know this is a collage blog.
But STILL!
Al Gore, Congratulations on the Nobel Peace Prize!!!!