Ann Baldwin

I discovered the work of Ann Baldwin today. I really do like these photographic works!!! I have had a passion for putting my photography into my work for awhile now and I enjoy seeing it in other peoples' work. I like her use of ink jet outputs as a background. These pieces move me, since I enjoy very much her natural subject matter. I also embrace their large scale. I want to see her work in person. Her site is here and definitely worth a peak.

This post is about me

An early work of mine from Composition XXfour




Most of the time I am using this blog to locate information about collage. I don't usually voice my own opinion on collage or art in general. But today I feel like taking it over for myself!
Why collage? Why not painting? drawing? I can do both. Painting and drawing seem to be more validated in the art world, in galleries. Painters are revered demi-gods of creativity above their collage counterparts. I wonder about whether this is all in my mind or if it is a reality for us all?? I have painted before, and pen and ink was my favorite medium for years. But now I have turned to taking bits of my life and pasting them together rather than painting my vision. I was not an exceptional painter,as I can use colored pencil and pen and ink better than watercolor or acrylic. I never had a chance to try oil...seeing how I am self taught and never really tried. But from the first time I tried collage, from the very first pages in that first journal, I felt at home.
So, in the beginning, it was just a matter of timing. Doing one painting took me 15 hours at least to do something of quality. I had kids, a full time job. 15 hours to create one vision, it just wasn't expressing enough for me. I felt as tho there was a dam that would burst and i should implode. To date, I have done hundreds of collages. So many different design experiments I have been able to try. It is a relief to express it all. Prolific I can be, in this medium.
After finally being able to get some feelings onto paper, the collages began to take on new challenges. I was pretty haphazard at first, being influenced by photomontages of Shirin and Hannah Hoch. I was into the randomness and freedom of collage. But, as I grew into my own groove, I could see my own style changing and developing. My love of type and all things "letter" started to manifest itself. Graffiti and its typographic twisting appealed to me and I began to peel it off the streets and infest my work with it. The free form appeal of collage changed, and I began to take over the pictures, creating scenes of my own with bits, rather than letting the scene create itself.
It is like walking a fine line, to get something to look random, but purposeful at the same time. To take disparate objects and put them together. I like the contrast. Smooth, rough. Shiny, matte. Black and white. With collage art, I am able to use all this and more, to create my vision. It's the best of all worlds. I can paint or not. I can draw, or not. I can rip. cut. tear. shred. dice. and slice. or not.
I look at art in galleries online, and I read about other peoples' work. I don't know where this "collage is lesser" opinion of mine is coming from. My personal insecurity about the quality of my painting? I wonder about it lately. Regardless of the answer, I am a collage artist. It fits me like a glove. My talent is in melding things together that once were apart. I gather pieces of life from here and there, sort them, re-arrange them and make them mine. both in my mind and on paper. What other medium can translate this like a collage>???

Post Persecuted, another piece of mine, 2005

Eva Lake

Her stories are fascinating. Her work is fresh. Her blog is here.

Paper Chase

"Paper Chase highlights the mediums of collage and photomontage as used by eight west coast and one New York artist."

This is an interesting exhibit. I wish I could I could view it. Wrong side of the coast for me. But those near Oregon may want to take note. OPENING RECEPTION, FRIDAY, MAR, 2 2007, 6 TO 9 at the Guest Room Gallery, 4114 N VANCOUVER AVE . PORTLAND OR 97217.

The work of Elbow Toe

Elbow-Toe does really interesting street work in NYC. He has been working on various pieces for an upcoming show. These are mixed media --collage--and very moving. I admire his work. He is evolving all the time and it is only getting better.

Golden Hand Me the Fly

Golden Hand Me the Fly
Originally uploaded by misphit.

This weekend I worked on another piece towards the Decaying Springs project. On this one I tried gold leaf. I do like the effect.
When I worked up the photo in Max, I was amazed at the brilliance of salmon and gold. I am tiring of this subject matter a bit, after doing several depictions of this particular building, but I was dazzled by the color combo and was prompted to do just one more of the Magnesia Spring!

quote from the Tate

Re: Pin-Up: Contemporary Collage and Drawing,
Tate Modern, London, 4 December 2004 – 30 January 2005


"While organized on principles of technique, there is a clear contemporary aesthetic shared by the works. Most
of them are glossy and shiny; the works are simply beautiful, attractive, and self-enclosed. They are resolved
without being elusive, critical without being disorienting. The subversive nature of collage has inevitably
softened since the 1910s, when the cubists were radically challenging the conventions of painting, and since
the 1960s, when the commercialized appropriation of the technique became mainstream in advertising and
media. Greenberg’s claim that ‘after classical Cubism the development of collage was largely oriented to
shock value’4 could not predict post-modern economies of circulation and consumption. The work in Pin-Up
can only be but subtle in its approach and yet is active in its refusal to include three-dimensional objects as a
part of the pastiche. If these artists return to the seemingly ‘evacuated, obsolescent’ material of paper at this
particular historical moment, they do so in order to establish a relational position opposite to that of installation
and sculpture in the expanded field."

© Clifford Lauson, 2005
Papers of Surrealism Issue 3 Spring 2005

Pieter Frank de Jong

Don't know much about him. But I do like some of his work. He doesn't do a whole lot of collage, but I found this piece interesting.

Heimir Björgúlfsson

Such graceful and airy work. I found Heimir's work very refreshing. His theme of birds and nests is very intriguing. The pictures in the 2004 set entitled "all birds..." are something i would have liked to immerse myself in.


Heimir was born in Iceland, but resides in LA, USA and Amsterdam, The Netherlands. His site is chock full of random fowl thoughts, and worth checking out.

Mail Art, Collage and Luc Fierens

I received an email this week from an interesting guy in Belgium. He has been doing mailart for quite awhile and also is involved with doing creative things or all types. When someone truly has the creative spirit inside, it is insatiable. It manifests itself in many arenas and from the looks of Luc's site, he has dabbled in all sorts of endeavors. I was not aware of the mailart movement until recent years, and it appeared to me as tho I had missed the boat and since the internet, the movement had died down. I was wrong, as I notice that Luc has a mailart call on his site.
Luc has these most interesting PostFLuxPostBooklets...which are most bizarre and almost retro. In this new age of flourishing internet, mail seems so passé. I haven't spent much time in fancy mailings...however, after reading about his PostFluxPostBooklets I feel as tho I am missing something. The booklets are an ongoing project started by Luc in 1987. "The first numbers were solo outings, but in 1989 it developed into a collaborative project in the format of 15x10.5cm booklets done by cut-and paste collage and photocopy." ..."Currently, the POSTFLUXPOSTBOOKLETS are one of the most interesting collaborative projects in the network and if you meet Luc you are likely to be asked to participate. It also collectedby a number of museums and archives including my International Copy Art Archive (since 1992). It is especially notable for its longevity and form: cut-and-paste collage photocopy in unlimited open editions making it one of the best street-level democratic mail art projects i know of. "...
How does this all apply to collage? Fluxus, Dada, these were art movements that used collage often in their style and message. Mailart grew out of the entire fluxus way of thinking....and even our more recent internet and Round Robin projects have their roots in mailart. Luc works on collage and some can be seen on his extensive website.

Subservice Strategies in the Media Arts

A Quote from this web page:

"The term subversion began to appear in art with greater frequency in the 1980s, particularly in reference to the practices of artistic "appropriation" associated with the strategies of critical art. The word has a dual meaning, and both senses of it are fundamentally critical. The etymology of the word (from the Latin sub "from below" + vertere "to turn") suggests that criticism can be a physical act: overturning an object, transforming it – even destroying it – in the process of appropriation. Subversion in this sense can be understood as a method or technique for creating a work of art through the decontextualization and recontextualization of existing images from art or from the broader visual culture. At the same time, the more commonly-understood sense of the word posits a critical stance, usually toward the dominant culture. But it suggests a protest from a position deep within the reality being criticized, not from the outside. As Grzegorz Dziamski put it, "Subversion entails imitating the object of criticism, or even identifying with it, but with a subtle shift in meaning. The moment when the meanings shift is not always evident to the viewer. It isn't direct criticism; it is criticism full of ambiguity."[1] The term subversive is especially appealing to me in that first meaning – the sense of physical manipulation of materials. That meaning is very helpful when attempting to classify, define and analyze subversive media techniques, in that it enables us to discern a group of techniques that use similar principles for creating a work of art – the principles of decontextualizing and recontextualizing existing media material appropriated for artistic practices. I call techniques that have these characteristics "subversive".[2] And the word strategy, as used in my title, enables us to link the two levels of meaning of the word subversive. A strategy combines both the theoretical aspect of artistic activity – the artistic agenda or concept – and the practical one (the methods and techniques for carrying out the agenda or concept). In the broadest terms, a strategy is the combination of standpoint and technique, as postulated by Benjamin; thus, following this same line of thought, I regard subversive strategies in the field of media arts as the combination of certain subversive techniques (for example found footage, video scratch and software art) with specific artistic positions and concepts (such as critical or analytical art). "
This particular webpage is focusing on Found footage in a video application. However, one cannot ignore the similarities to collage regarding subversion.

Reexamining Appropriation: The Copy, the Law, and Beyond

A discussion to attend in NYC, if you are nearby:
Read this at Newsgrist.

Reexamining Appropriation:
The Copy, the Law, and Beyond
Friday, February 16, 10:00 am - 12:30 pm
New York City Bar Association
Great Hall
42 W. 44th Street
(between 5th and 6th Avenues)

A discussion of appropriation and visual art in the context of historical precedent and recent developments in copyright law.

[This event is free and open to the public. Registration is not required, but if you plan to attend, kindly email nycrsvp@yahoo.com to help us ensure there are enough seats]

Inappropriate? Copying in the Renaissance
Lisa Pon, Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University

The Reign of the Quotation–Appropriation and Its Audience
Johanna Burton, Princeton University

From Appropriation to Postproduction
Jaimey Hamilton, University of Hawai'i, Manoa

Appropriation v. Piracy, Round Two?
The Hon. Pierre N. Leval, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
William Patry, Senior Copyright Counsel, Google

Chairs:
Martha Buskirk, Montserrat College of Art;
Virginia Rutledge, Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP

The Paris Vitrines

I just had to use the word Vitrine in the title of this post. What an excellent word!!!
Matthew Rose, again doing innovative and envious things! I read about this exhibit he has put together, Drinking with Scissors, and I was very enthused over this!! He has partnered with a local winery to create a collage wine label. He painted up wine bottles and collaged them for this exhibit, and I liked that artistic touch. And futher, he has put together small exhibits in his town, inside store front windows to promote the wine escapades. What a great way to take over the town and provide some culture! I like the theory behind this idea. Matthew, you are an inspiration!!! How I would have like to see this in person!!

Bringing art to the people is what it's all about. I am in a good position to try something like this. I have a studio/loft that resides on the second floor of a building in my town of Fort Plain. It is an interesting but pathetic little town, not romatic and dreamy like a town in France would be. But does it deserve less art because of it? Is the reason that there is no culture because creatives like me give up on the idea immediately upon thinking it. There isn't anything here. BUT, there can be! On the bottom floor of my loft is Fort Plain Antiques, the antique store of my sweet love Chris. He has 2 major storefront windows. Perhaps I can arrange an "art and antiques" situation with him, and maybe even other antique dealers around here, and put together a small exhibit here?? The location is ideal, situation right smack in the center of town and at a stoplight. I may have to approach him about this...It could be an opportunity.

No matter what, the works of Matthew Rose get more interesting to me daily. I have to keep my eyes on him!! You can visit The Paris blog here ...but more importantly, you can view the images of Matthew Rose's exhibit here.

Anteism project Announcement

YOU GET, WHAT YOU GIVE.
Is the first Anteism project of 2007. ---> 12 days Left!!!
Details below.

At 12:00 Midnight February 13th will be an international display of art in public places. You are invited to take part. The premise is to install a free piece of art for the general public. Knowing that a large number of people from around the world will be doing the same thing. Photographs of the artwork will be collected and a free downloadable zine will be produced and distributed through the anteism website. You give a gift and receive a multiude more in return.

What do I have to do?

Create and share. Whether you consider yourself an artist or not, produce something and install it for all to see. Then photograph your public artwork. You may need to return in the day time to get a good picture. You can even photograph the transition of what happens to the art and the effects it has on the people viewing it. Then send the photos to ryan@anteism.com along with your name, country, city and cross streets or area description of where the art is installed. Sit back and wait for your gift to multiply and return to you. The zine will be produced and you will be emailed a link to where you can download the finished book.

(Please send the photos in Jpg format at least 825x1225. The higher resoloution the better, but we will try to make whatever we recieve work)

Why is it on Valentines Day?

Because it should be a nice warm fuzzy day. What better day to give a gift. And it just kinda worked out that way. You can use the theme of LOVE in your artwork but it's definately not necessary. The idea of giving is more along the lines of what we want to promote.

A photocopied zine with selected works will be printed and sold through Islands Fold Publishing The proceeds from the sales of the book will go towards the Not For Profit - Islands Fold artist residency and making future Anteism projects happen.

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD.
FEBRUARY 13th 12:00 MIDNIGHT

Sincerely,
Ryan Thompson
www.anteism.com

Sharon in Australia

I read about Sharon's website in the Art Erratica yahoo group today. Her work is colorful, random and interesting. She has posted work from her Journal of Shells. Such articulate little drawings!! I really liked these. In the Art Art section she has used a bunch of medieval images. I can relate to that....you can visit her site here.