This is a piece I did this week. Feeling like preparing the nest for winter.
9/28/2007
9/27/2007
Rex Dixon @ Amrose Sable Gallery
Rex Dixon will be showing some works ONE Day ONLY in Albany on Sunday, Sept. 30th at the Amrose Sable Gallery. Here is the email I received about it:
Amrose Sable Gallery together with the Ford Foundation present 'Where to
Find Me,' a one day exhibition of paintings by Caribbean based artist Rex
Dixon. This exhibition is in collaboration with a Caribbean Art Symposium
being held at SUNY Albany. This show is open to the public on Sunday,
September 30th from Noon - 8PM.
...
Elizabeth Dubben, Director
Amrose Sable Gallery
306 Hudson Avenue
Albany, New York 12210
607.437.6977
mail@amrosesablegallerynyc.com
Flickr and YOU
I recently posted about an event that happened to me while I was using a picture I culled from flickr. Today I saw this, a little video clip from CNN about a young girl who's picture was taken by someone, posted on flickr, and then used for an Australian Virgin mobile ad. Imagine the horror of seeing yourself in a TV commercial, when you didnt' even know about it...???? The parents of the girl are suing. I am glad this is on the legal table. The copyright laws in this country are ambiguous, difficult to understand and they leave a cloud of uncertainty over anyone who does collages' head. There are so many new ways to get an image now, and it is high time someone got down to business, pushed the envelope and made some laws that we could actually support, follow and understand!!
Follow this link to CNN and watch this short video for more.
Follow this link to CNN and watch this short video for more.
Colin Johnson @ Thumbtack Press
Thumbtack Press is a hip place with hot prints from fresh artists. This is a great site, in that it allows you to submit your work to them for possible submission, and it also has a super selection of prints to buy. These are cool prints, and what a great idea for a business, btw...
Colin Johnson has a print up there that is pretty collagey...check it out. I've noticed that he has been peppering his work with collage techniques lately. Just another example of collage at work.
9/25/2007
Romare Bearden
Romare Bearden in Harlem, NY
According to ArtCyclopedia, Romare Bearden was an African-American Harlem Renaissance Painter who lived from 1914-1988. The man was quite gifted, as a writer, as a sports figure, and also as a painter. Later in his life, during the 60's he turned to collage as a medium for expression.
I look at collage with extra scrutiny these days, especially since the whole copyright issue last week. I don't see anything specific in this collage of Romare Beardens that I can pinpoint as a food label, a magazine page, or what have you. But when you look at this work, it is obvious that the snips were from printed matter. I like it that you can't get specific as far as the origin of his snips. That's a gift, to be able to hide the disparate sources used in a work, and have the viewer see YOUR picture, not the composite elements. I am impressed by it, altho I often choose to do the opposite, and leave enough of each snip for it to be identified...
There's a really cool site here, which offers all of his papers and correspondence. Fascinating stuff. Helps you understand how his mind worked, what was intriguing to him, where his head was... They also have a micro-site like this for Joseph Cornell...hot stuff worth looking into further.
Mecklenburg Autumn
1981
collage & mixed media on masonite
18 x 14 inches
Provenance:
Sheldon Ross Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan
Exhibited:
Truth in Beauty/Beauty in Truth: Contemporary American Realism from the Seavest Collection, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, Florida, Nov. 11, 1999 - Jan. 2, 2000,
9/24/2007
Weekend work
I did this piece on Saturday. No theme, no purpose, no project. I just sat down and did something for the sake of creation ONLY~! Felt good to be liberated for a moment from deadlines, demands, and all that reality stuff.
9/18/2007
A Conversation with Cecil Touchon
I composed several questions for Cecil regarding his white on white exhibit and his personal feelings about art and networking, and sent them to him in an email. He generously responded with the following answers:
CC: Where did your original idea for the white on white exhibit come from? Is there an artist or movement that you were looking to?
CT: The first impulse for curating this show came from another show that I saw at the Fort Worth Community Art Center a few months ago called "Found Objects: Collections by Austin, Texas based artist Steve Wiman" that was very interesting. It was a showing of hundreds upon hundreds of small found objects sorted by color and arranged into wall compositions or wall assemblages. I took some photographs of the show and placed them on the Collage Museum website here.
All of us collage and assemblage artists are suckers for this kind of material - we all collect it and Steve is a consummate collector of objects that have a humble beauty about them. There is something about well used, worn out or discarded objects that attain a rich character and have fascinating surfaces that reveal evidence of a long history. We are all lovers of this kind of material existence.
CC: Did you have a vision of what you thought people would submit? Are you surprised by some of the things that were submitted?
CT: The big surprise for me was the overwhelming interest from artists all over the world who responded to the exhibition concept. Artists from Russia, Germany, the United States, Canada, Argentina, Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Greece, Panama and Portugal (I think that covers it) are represented in the exhibition. I put out a call to the various email listservs that I moderate which include the collage artists community associated with the museum, members of the Fluxnexus - a group of next generation fluxus artists, the Massurrealist Society and the Collage Poetry group now dubbed the Cut and Paste Poets (the first anthology of this group soon to be released) as well as a visual poets group called Spidertangle.
The other surprise was the quality of many of the works. Many are little gems that will be appreciated far beyond this particular exhibit. I didn't really have any expectations or a specific agenda and was mostly motivated by curiosity and the hope of achieving a similarly delightful experience as I had with Wiman's work. I think that clearly will happen.
A difficulty that I am anticipating at the moment is that I might not be able to hang everything since there have been between 75-100 works received and more are still on the way.
CC: Is there a way to engage a gallery to actually do this physically, at some point before you actually achieve your own gallery? Perhaps someone such as Pavel Zoubok or another gallery that has a proven record about showing collage art? Is is appropriate to contact or initiate something with a gallery in this manner?
CT: I have engaged a certain space for this show that has a maximum of linier foot wall space at the most reasonable cost possible because at this particular art center that is owned by the city, each exhibition space is for rent. A commercial art gallery is about one thing and that is sales. Everything has to be for sale or the commercial gallery really cannot afford to exhibit it and even if it is for sale the prices have to be expensive enough for it to be worth the bother of selling it. It is just basic economics. Other venues that are non-profit based and derive their income through other means such as museums, art centers, university galleries, etc. and do not sell art as a primary source of support, are the most likely candidates for having an interest in traveling exhibitions but until all of the work is collected and documented so that the nature of the exhibition can be fully understood and evaluated as to its merit it is impossible to approach anyone with the idea.
CC: You have a great page happening online currently at here. Will you keep a virtual exhibit online, for prospective galleries to preview in the future?
CT: The Exhibition will remain online indefinitely as part of the development of the collage museum website which is the main public interface for the museum's collection which has around a thousand works in it and is viewed daily by more than one thousand unique visitors. I will make the online exhibition a bit more presentable once all of the works are photographed and the show is up so that I can include installation shots. Additionally, there will be a hard cover catalog of the show where all works donated will be published. Contact information for each artist will be included if requested in the event that collectors, galleries or institutions wish to contact them directly.
CC: I think it's amazing how many artists send and donate their work to be part of the community. It takes dedication and a lot of hard work to produce art, and there is also cost in materials, framing, and postage. It takes an even further amount of dedication to host and exhibit, promote the work, and organize it all. I am thankful to you for putting together such in interesting array of pieces! How does all this work cut into your personal life? Your family life? Do you sometimes think that all this marketing and promotion gets in the way of your creativity, and your own artwork?
CT: It is all personal life to me. I don't separate it into work and home because I work at home. It does cut into home life to some degree because we are all being pushed out of the house by all of the art that I make myself and all of the work that comes from other artists for the museum and pretty much all of my time is used but my family supports the effort.
Another artist asked me some similar questions the other day wondering what is motivating all of this effort when the works are not even for sale; just being collected together and exhibited. Am I independently wealthy or what? Promoting my own career as a curator or artist? Where's the benefit?
Like most artists I am a poor working stiff myself living from sale to sale. It is hard to say how much the museum helps my career at this point to be putting all this effort because I really don't promote the museum that much in relation to my personal art career. They are really two separate things. One is my professional life and the other is my love of art and admiration for artists and their work. The museum is a long term project of mine, a kind of grand assemblage of things that other collage artists are helping me to build. I am approaching the Museum as a new genre. I hope that it will get to the point of a physical museum at some point once there is an overwhelming amount of work to use as a base and I find the right city where I would want to put it because then I'll have to live there! We did use a large house in Mexico for exhibitions where we have a bed and breakfast called Casa del Artista (casadelartista.com) for the first few years but we have decided to focus our efforts in the US in terms of finding a more permanent location.
Some have asked; "How can you have a museum without a building?" and the answer to that question is that a museum doesn't have a building until there is first a museum collection that needs to be housed. Otherwise you would have a building full of empty walls. So the collecting comes first and during that process a vision and a purpose is developed and then the collecting becomes more and more focused. It is a kind of sifting process.
Once there is a significant amount of work collected, then shows can be assembled which can travel to other venues for exhibition and in this way, when the time and circumstances are right there will enough public interest in the collection that going to the work and expense of an edifice will seem the logical next step.
That however, will take a financial commitment that I myself could not possibly make. Never the less, at present I would not want my vision of how to build the collection - namely through direct cooperation with other artists - to be compromised by those who have are stuck in a traditional art museum concept of collecting only the most valuable and precious things as determined by a collector market. This approach, according to my observation, leaves out almost everyone who is working at any given time. Because of museum collection policies almost all artists are off of the radar.
I am thinking about what I am doing with the museum in terms of at least decades of constant small amounts of effort being gathered into a basket and I think most collections are built that way. A museum is a timeless project that can go on for centuries. Once established it takes on a life of its own. It is not about what is happening this year or the next exhibition. It is about longevity and thinking in terms beyond a single lifetime and maybe across many generations. It is a creative projection.
Collage art is a very rich cultural record because all sorts of the stuff that makes up daily life ends up in collages and these are materials that otherwise would be lost in the ever receding and recycled past. Collage artists are preservationists really and their work will become increasingly interesting as artifacts to artists in the future and as they become historical matter.
My theory is that all of the artists in the collection will to some extent benefit from being in the museum especially if their particular work is good and interesting. This project has a lot to do with exploring museum politics and procedures via direct practice and is an attempt to return the power of art to the general artistic community rather than all of us following the very few that ever make it into the halls of fame via wealthy patrons and collectors who are, after all, the ones deciding what art has value and what art gets seen and whatever that is, is what art's future will be.
I see no reason to complain about how history has developed in the past. I love many of the artists whose works have been preserved but I want to expand that system by presenting an alternative idea. That is what I am working on and why I am willing to do it. It is an increasing difficult task but, I think, rewarding. It is not really about me collecting free art - I have all of my own I could ever want coming out of my ears. It is about community, collection building outside of the halls of power and building and preserving a history that otherwise might go unaccounted for. Previously only the famous, the royals and aristocrats were remembered. But it was because they or those around them took their own history seriously and were willing to go through the effort to preserve it.
What would happen if artists all over the place start making their own museums? That's my question and the collage museum will, in the future stand as one potential answer to that question. Also, thinking to the future, I want an institution that takes care of my body of work and continues to promote it into future generations where my children might possibly benefit from my life time of effort. I don't trust other people after watching what often happens to other artists' estates once they have passed on. I am being proactive. Once firmly established, I am sure other artists will want the Collage Museum to preserve their estates as well.
CC: I do think there is a validation in someone wanting your work. Some of us live in our own vacuums, and through the internet there is a way to approach people that are of similar interest. Even a timid person can hide behind the guise of their own internet persona and participate. Then there is the issue of community, where artists see something that others are doing, and they decide to go along and join in, creating new communities. There are a lot of cooperatives out there that are starting to take the whole gallery thing into their own hands. Maybe this would be a way for your museum to materialize, thru a cooperative or community effort. Or wouldn't this interest you, you are more into a private ownership situation?
CT: It's hard to say... At a certain point a wider group of people will have to be involved in order for the thing to function as an actual museum. That will probably require a 501c3 status so that interested parties can donate significant amounts of support to the idea. Even if there is a building, then there's all of the money and effort to run it. It would have to be a kind of business that generates enough income to pay for itself and the people caring for it such as a director etc.
So the aforementioned are the various things that motivate me though I am not really shooting for financial benefit at this point except so much as is needed to keep going. Does it bring me reputation? How would I know? I am fairly reclusive and most of my interactions are by email. I am not in the business of being a rock star or a public figure so the effects or benefits of reputation are impossible to gage. Perhaps I am developing reputation among other artists who are my colleagues. I would want them to know about what I am doing. That is who I anticipate influencing or inspiring and who I am inspired by. We are all hidden treasures.
CC: How much time do you spend working on your websites, organizing exhibits (not including your own) ...in relationship to the amount of time you spend on your own works? Is it a 50/50 split? 80/20?
CT: Websites, and I have many of them, are a form of public communication - a way to get your ideas and your vision out into the world. Every work of art is such a communication. So, in today's world I see website construction and promotion as an integral part of my artistic process - sort of developing my own milieu to work from. I have not really thought about it in terms of taking time away from my art making because all of the work I take on IS my work! But it might be something in the 50/50 range in terms of hours spent. After dealing with emails in the morning, I work in the studio. Then when I am finished for the day, I work on my various other projects such as poetry and recently I have been working on books to be published as another form of artistic production. It's a symbiotic relationship. Everything feeds everything else.
CC: Do you feel that people that do not have computers or people that do not spend time promoting themselves on the computer have a disadvantage when it comes to marketing their work? Are people that do not network at a disadvantage?
CT: Well. They would seem to be. Unless of course they are focused on a localized market as in NYC - some artists may not feel that they need the exposure from the internet... or may not feel that they want to expose themselves. Maybe they don't need to. At the same time, all of the hours spent online can be a huge distraction. As far as networking goes, as they say it isn't what you know but who you know. That is pretty true and speaks to the need for being connected to others on a social level. As artists, if we work long hours in our studios, we are by nature pretty isolated so we have to try to overcome the tendency to be overly reclusive. On the other hand, why bother really if you are working along happily and all you need to do is stay connected with your gallery dealers if you have some representing your work. Otherwise just the people you love and your friends. Too many connections can drain your time and steal you peace of mind.
I just think of everything I do as one seemless project of a heroic stature. That way I can be a legend in my own mind and then try to work in such a way to attempt to live up to that. By that I mean, I think all heroic characters whom we admire are such because they attempt to hold themselves to a high standard based on their ideals. The higher your ideals, the farther your going to reach and the more your going to demand of yourself to come as close as possible to exploiting your possibilities to be who you hope to become. I try to keep my ideals a bit beyond my reach at all times.
CC: Where did your original idea for the white on white exhibit come from? Is there an artist or movement that you were looking to?
CT: The first impulse for curating this show came from another show that I saw at the Fort Worth Community Art Center a few months ago called "Found Objects: Collections by Austin, Texas based artist Steve Wiman" that was very interesting. It was a showing of hundreds upon hundreds of small found objects sorted by color and arranged into wall compositions or wall assemblages. I took some photographs of the show and placed them on the Collage Museum website here.
All of us collage and assemblage artists are suckers for this kind of material - we all collect it and Steve is a consummate collector of objects that have a humble beauty about them. There is something about well used, worn out or discarded objects that attain a rich character and have fascinating surfaces that reveal evidence of a long history. We are all lovers of this kind of material existence.
CC: Did you have a vision of what you thought people would submit? Are you surprised by some of the things that were submitted?
CT: The big surprise for me was the overwhelming interest from artists all over the world who responded to the exhibition concept. Artists from Russia, Germany, the United States, Canada, Argentina, Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Greece, Panama and Portugal (I think that covers it) are represented in the exhibition. I put out a call to the various email listservs that I moderate which include the collage artists community associated with the museum, members of the Fluxnexus - a group of next generation fluxus artists, the Massurrealist Society and the Collage Poetry group now dubbed the Cut and Paste Poets (the first anthology of this group soon to be released) as well as a visual poets group called Spidertangle.
The other surprise was the quality of many of the works. Many are little gems that will be appreciated far beyond this particular exhibit. I didn't really have any expectations or a specific agenda and was mostly motivated by curiosity and the hope of achieving a similarly delightful experience as I had with Wiman's work. I think that clearly will happen.
A difficulty that I am anticipating at the moment is that I might not be able to hang everything since there have been between 75-100 works received and more are still on the way.
CC: Is there a way to engage a gallery to actually do this physically, at some point before you actually achieve your own gallery? Perhaps someone such as Pavel Zoubok or another gallery that has a proven record about showing collage art? Is is appropriate to contact or initiate something with a gallery in this manner?
CT: I have engaged a certain space for this show that has a maximum of linier foot wall space at the most reasonable cost possible because at this particular art center that is owned by the city, each exhibition space is for rent. A commercial art gallery is about one thing and that is sales. Everything has to be for sale or the commercial gallery really cannot afford to exhibit it and even if it is for sale the prices have to be expensive enough for it to be worth the bother of selling it. It is just basic economics. Other venues that are non-profit based and derive their income through other means such as museums, art centers, university galleries, etc. and do not sell art as a primary source of support, are the most likely candidates for having an interest in traveling exhibitions but until all of the work is collected and documented so that the nature of the exhibition can be fully understood and evaluated as to its merit it is impossible to approach anyone with the idea.
CC: You have a great page happening online currently at here. Will you keep a virtual exhibit online, for prospective galleries to preview in the future?
CT: The Exhibition will remain online indefinitely as part of the development of the collage museum website which is the main public interface for the museum's collection which has around a thousand works in it and is viewed daily by more than one thousand unique visitors. I will make the online exhibition a bit more presentable once all of the works are photographed and the show is up so that I can include installation shots. Additionally, there will be a hard cover catalog of the show where all works donated will be published. Contact information for each artist will be included if requested in the event that collectors, galleries or institutions wish to contact them directly.
CC: I think it's amazing how many artists send and donate their work to be part of the community. It takes dedication and a lot of hard work to produce art, and there is also cost in materials, framing, and postage. It takes an even further amount of dedication to host and exhibit, promote the work, and organize it all. I am thankful to you for putting together such in interesting array of pieces! How does all this work cut into your personal life? Your family life? Do you sometimes think that all this marketing and promotion gets in the way of your creativity, and your own artwork?
CT: It is all personal life to me. I don't separate it into work and home because I work at home. It does cut into home life to some degree because we are all being pushed out of the house by all of the art that I make myself and all of the work that comes from other artists for the museum and pretty much all of my time is used but my family supports the effort.
Another artist asked me some similar questions the other day wondering what is motivating all of this effort when the works are not even for sale; just being collected together and exhibited. Am I independently wealthy or what? Promoting my own career as a curator or artist? Where's the benefit?
Like most artists I am a poor working stiff myself living from sale to sale. It is hard to say how much the museum helps my career at this point to be putting all this effort because I really don't promote the museum that much in relation to my personal art career. They are really two separate things. One is my professional life and the other is my love of art and admiration for artists and their work. The museum is a long term project of mine, a kind of grand assemblage of things that other collage artists are helping me to build. I am approaching the Museum as a new genre. I hope that it will get to the point of a physical museum at some point once there is an overwhelming amount of work to use as a base and I find the right city where I would want to put it because then I'll have to live there! We did use a large house in Mexico for exhibitions where we have a bed and breakfast called Casa del Artista (casadelartista.com) for the first few years but we have decided to focus our efforts in the US in terms of finding a more permanent location.
Some have asked; "How can you have a museum without a building?" and the answer to that question is that a museum doesn't have a building until there is first a museum collection that needs to be housed. Otherwise you would have a building full of empty walls. So the collecting comes first and during that process a vision and a purpose is developed and then the collecting becomes more and more focused. It is a kind of sifting process.
Once there is a significant amount of work collected, then shows can be assembled which can travel to other venues for exhibition and in this way, when the time and circumstances are right there will enough public interest in the collection that going to the work and expense of an edifice will seem the logical next step.
That however, will take a financial commitment that I myself could not possibly make. Never the less, at present I would not want my vision of how to build the collection - namely through direct cooperation with other artists - to be compromised by those who have are stuck in a traditional art museum concept of collecting only the most valuable and precious things as determined by a collector market. This approach, according to my observation, leaves out almost everyone who is working at any given time. Because of museum collection policies almost all artists are off of the radar.
I am thinking about what I am doing with the museum in terms of at least decades of constant small amounts of effort being gathered into a basket and I think most collections are built that way. A museum is a timeless project that can go on for centuries. Once established it takes on a life of its own. It is not about what is happening this year or the next exhibition. It is about longevity and thinking in terms beyond a single lifetime and maybe across many generations. It is a creative projection.
Collage art is a very rich cultural record because all sorts of the stuff that makes up daily life ends up in collages and these are materials that otherwise would be lost in the ever receding and recycled past. Collage artists are preservationists really and their work will become increasingly interesting as artifacts to artists in the future and as they become historical matter.
My theory is that all of the artists in the collection will to some extent benefit from being in the museum especially if their particular work is good and interesting. This project has a lot to do with exploring museum politics and procedures via direct practice and is an attempt to return the power of art to the general artistic community rather than all of us following the very few that ever make it into the halls of fame via wealthy patrons and collectors who are, after all, the ones deciding what art has value and what art gets seen and whatever that is, is what art's future will be.
I see no reason to complain about how history has developed in the past. I love many of the artists whose works have been preserved but I want to expand that system by presenting an alternative idea. That is what I am working on and why I am willing to do it. It is an increasing difficult task but, I think, rewarding. It is not really about me collecting free art - I have all of my own I could ever want coming out of my ears. It is about community, collection building outside of the halls of power and building and preserving a history that otherwise might go unaccounted for. Previously only the famous, the royals and aristocrats were remembered. But it was because they or those around them took their own history seriously and were willing to go through the effort to preserve it.
What would happen if artists all over the place start making their own museums? That's my question and the collage museum will, in the future stand as one potential answer to that question. Also, thinking to the future, I want an institution that takes care of my body of work and continues to promote it into future generations where my children might possibly benefit from my life time of effort. I don't trust other people after watching what often happens to other artists' estates once they have passed on. I am being proactive. Once firmly established, I am sure other artists will want the Collage Museum to preserve their estates as well.
CC: I do think there is a validation in someone wanting your work. Some of us live in our own vacuums, and through the internet there is a way to approach people that are of similar interest. Even a timid person can hide behind the guise of their own internet persona and participate. Then there is the issue of community, where artists see something that others are doing, and they decide to go along and join in, creating new communities. There are a lot of cooperatives out there that are starting to take the whole gallery thing into their own hands. Maybe this would be a way for your museum to materialize, thru a cooperative or community effort. Or wouldn't this interest you, you are more into a private ownership situation?
CT: It's hard to say... At a certain point a wider group of people will have to be involved in order for the thing to function as an actual museum. That will probably require a 501c3 status so that interested parties can donate significant amounts of support to the idea. Even if there is a building, then there's all of the money and effort to run it. It would have to be a kind of business that generates enough income to pay for itself and the people caring for it such as a director etc.
So the aforementioned are the various things that motivate me though I am not really shooting for financial benefit at this point except so much as is needed to keep going. Does it bring me reputation? How would I know? I am fairly reclusive and most of my interactions are by email. I am not in the business of being a rock star or a public figure so the effects or benefits of reputation are impossible to gage. Perhaps I am developing reputation among other artists who are my colleagues. I would want them to know about what I am doing. That is who I anticipate influencing or inspiring and who I am inspired by. We are all hidden treasures.
CC: How much time do you spend working on your websites, organizing exhibits (not including your own) ...in relationship to the amount of time you spend on your own works? Is it a 50/50 split? 80/20?
CT: Websites, and I have many of them, are a form of public communication - a way to get your ideas and your vision out into the world. Every work of art is such a communication. So, in today's world I see website construction and promotion as an integral part of my artistic process - sort of developing my own milieu to work from. I have not really thought about it in terms of taking time away from my art making because all of the work I take on IS my work! But it might be something in the 50/50 range in terms of hours spent. After dealing with emails in the morning, I work in the studio. Then when I am finished for the day, I work on my various other projects such as poetry and recently I have been working on books to be published as another form of artistic production. It's a symbiotic relationship. Everything feeds everything else.
CC: Do you feel that people that do not have computers or people that do not spend time promoting themselves on the computer have a disadvantage when it comes to marketing their work? Are people that do not network at a disadvantage?
CT: Well. They would seem to be. Unless of course they are focused on a localized market as in NYC - some artists may not feel that they need the exposure from the internet... or may not feel that they want to expose themselves. Maybe they don't need to. At the same time, all of the hours spent online can be a huge distraction. As far as networking goes, as they say it isn't what you know but who you know. That is pretty true and speaks to the need for being connected to others on a social level. As artists, if we work long hours in our studios, we are by nature pretty isolated so we have to try to overcome the tendency to be overly reclusive. On the other hand, why bother really if you are working along happily and all you need to do is stay connected with your gallery dealers if you have some representing your work. Otherwise just the people you love and your friends. Too many connections can drain your time and steal you peace of mind.
I just think of everything I do as one seemless project of a heroic stature. That way I can be a legend in my own mind and then try to work in such a way to attempt to live up to that. By that I mean, I think all heroic characters whom we admire are such because they attempt to hold themselves to a high standard based on their ideals. The higher your ideals, the farther your going to reach and the more your going to demand of yourself to come as close as possible to exploiting your possibilities to be who you hope to become. I try to keep my ideals a bit beyond my reach at all times.
9/14/2007
Stunning work by David King
Lighting the Way
2006
10 1/4" x 8 3/4"
sold
Landscape (#3)
2006
9 1/4" x 14 1/4"
available
This work is just unbelievable. I am totally psyched by this man's work!!!
"Some people use journals as a way to chart and understand their life. For me, collage is the means of expression I utilize to better comprehend my Self and my world. Through the process of choosing, cutting, and assembling images, my ideas and feelings become clearer and more pointed. These collages illustrate my relationships with three major themes in my life: sexuality, spirituality, and HIV."
Considering he has to live with such a tragedy, I feel his work is quite hopeful and joyous. There is more here, at his site.
Bronislava Volkova
I found the enthralling work of Bronislava Volkova today. She is a Czech artist and poet that lives in Indiana. Of collage she says, "Collage lends itself readily to surrealist, dreamlike visions, so characteristic for my writing. I proceeded to experiment with this medium both independently and in conjunction with my poetry. I work in post-modernist ways, commenting on other artists, social and philosophical topics, depicting the contrast between society and nature, focusing on dark and light visions of the world and creating imaginary landscapes. I explore different sizes, materials, dimensions, colors and topics."
She has a nicely designed website worth checking out!
9/13/2007
Magikglasses is hosting the Mini Human Artefakts Online Gallery
I just finished html on the galleries and uploading. There is a variety of work there, from an international selection of artists, including folks from New Zealand, USA, Australia, Canada, and Germany. These pieces are all mini works, small but intricate pieces of collage that express the artists' interpretation of the "mini human artefakts" theme. You can view the gallery here.
I got myself in trouble
Scene 1
In March, I saw a cool photo on flickr. I liked it. I output a print of it. Pretty, I said. Maybe I can collage on this someday...
Scene 2
In September, I am sitting at my desk working on the final pages of my collage story book. The flickr pic rises to the surface of my massive pile of ephemera and I like it. I put it down on the table and made a collage on top of it. Yay! The last page is done!
Scene 3
I am excited to have finished my book at last! I post the image to flickr. In order to show how the work I do evolves, I go thru the effort to look thru flickr and find the image that I used...and I post a link to it on flickr.
Scene 4
I get a comment from the photographer.
"i will be honest with you.
im glad that the photo moved you and inspired you, i also appreciate the credit in the page. however you should have asked for my permission before you used my picture. this photo is licensed "all rights reserved" and i love it very much.
you really should look if the photo is licensed for free using or not. i only allow several pictures to be "creative common" (that meens - free to use) and those are for the use of other artists. i also love contributing for other artists, and i have done it in the past.
it also looks quite strange that your license for this collage is "all rights reserved". because it's not. some of it are my rights.
im sorry to say, but this is my art, and this photo is quite significant for me, it is mine to keep and to share, and i didn't share it. if i was to see the collage one day in a gallery, i would be very pissed.
i was ofended in the begining, but now im okay.
i allow you to use it, just for this time and cause, because i see you use it for a good cause, and that creation and art matters to you.
however, i do not grant you permission to use this photo for commercial needs. that meens you can't sell the photo or art with the photo in any way, or exhibit it outside of flickr.
i can only advise you - next time be conciderate of the artists you want to use their materials. it meens much, because an artist gives birth to his creation, and to the artist, the art piece is significant as a child sometimes.
i wish you wisdom."
(I am removing the names of people so that I don't upset anyone. This post is for principles only)
Scene 5
My blood pressure rises. My hands start shaking. I have to settle down in order to even think about this. I hastily typed this reply:
"I am really kind of puzzled over your response, let me be honest.
I do collage art and I am Never going to worry about the ownership of an image. I am transforming, and changing the view of everything I see in my work. I found the image intriguing. I output it. I used it. No one "owns" a view, regardless of what they may think.
I didn't have to announce to the world that it came from you. I certainly don't do that for the other thousands of images I use!!! That would be insane and quite frankly unproductive for a collage artist. I was trying to show how the creation process grows, from one "visual image" to another....
I am hereby trashing the art. Throwing out the page. Removing it from my flickr. I will now find something else that intrigues me, this time from my own repertoire, which by the way I used for the other 150 pages in this book. You, are gone.Your image, keep it.
As for rights? I don't look at the rights when I post my images. It goes up on default.
Sorry. this was a bummer."
Scene 6
Now I am posting this here, so I can elaborate, explore and figure out my dilemma!
I did delete the image and I won't use it in the book, I mean it is tainted for me at this point, certainly not a pleasurable ending to a book I have spent 4 years on. I don't want to open my book every single time and get annoyed at the last page.
I admit I have a problem with copyright. I don't think like everyone else. I am not into "possessions." I would never blatantly verbatim copy anything from anyone and claim it as mine. We ALL know that is wrong. But I DO blatantly observe, gather, and cull images from everywhere and anywhere in order to create my own artwork. If I couldn't, how could I collage? I would be forced to use plain papers with no image, and doesn't this limit creativity just a tad???? I paint with papers. Period.
I don't know really how to cope this this issue. I am hoping for insight, feedback...something to help me with this concept of ownership, cuz i just got slapped!!
As for the last page of the book, well now..there isn't one. I have to go back to the drawing board, and re-create. My work is so DADA, I know I can't make another page just like that one, but I will create one similar...with another image of unknown origin, and I will find it just as satisfactory as the last one. No harm done.
Or is there?
Do I have to worry about every single snippet I use, for fear someone may be greedy and decide they "own" it? There are literally hundreds of thousands of snips in this book, certainly that would be impossible!!! What about things like vintage wallpaper..? Do I have to go research and find the manufacturer...ask permission to use it?? What about my precious book?? Will a publisher turn me down immediately on the grounds that it will be a shaky project with ownership issues?
AAAARRRGGGGgggghhh!
Why can't I just be a painter!!!??? They have it easy!!
In March, I saw a cool photo on flickr. I liked it. I output a print of it. Pretty, I said. Maybe I can collage on this someday...
Scene 2
In September, I am sitting at my desk working on the final pages of my collage story book. The flickr pic rises to the surface of my massive pile of ephemera and I like it. I put it down on the table and made a collage on top of it. Yay! The last page is done!
Scene 3
I am excited to have finished my book at last! I post the image to flickr. In order to show how the work I do evolves, I go thru the effort to look thru flickr and find the image that I used...and I post a link to it on flickr.
Scene 4
I get a comment from the photographer.
"i will be honest with you.
im glad that the photo moved you and inspired you, i also appreciate the credit in the page. however you should have asked for my permission before you used my picture. this photo is licensed "all rights reserved" and i love it very much.
you really should look if the photo is licensed for free using or not. i only allow several pictures to be "creative common" (that meens - free to use) and those are for the use of other artists. i also love contributing for other artists, and i have done it in the past.
it also looks quite strange that your license for this collage is "all rights reserved". because it's not. some of it are my rights.
im sorry to say, but this is my art, and this photo is quite significant for me, it is mine to keep and to share, and i didn't share it. if i was to see the collage one day in a gallery, i would be very pissed.
i was ofended in the begining, but now im okay.
i allow you to use it, just for this time and cause, because i see you use it for a good cause, and that creation and art matters to you.
however, i do not grant you permission to use this photo for commercial needs. that meens you can't sell the photo or art with the photo in any way, or exhibit it outside of flickr.
i can only advise you - next time be conciderate of the artists you want to use their materials. it meens much, because an artist gives birth to his creation, and to the artist, the art piece is significant as a child sometimes.
i wish you wisdom."
(I am removing the names of people so that I don't upset anyone. This post is for principles only)
Scene 5
My blood pressure rises. My hands start shaking. I have to settle down in order to even think about this. I hastily typed this reply:
"I am really kind of puzzled over your response, let me be honest.
I do collage art and I am Never going to worry about the ownership of an image. I am transforming, and changing the view of everything I see in my work. I found the image intriguing. I output it. I used it. No one "owns" a view, regardless of what they may think.
I didn't have to announce to the world that it came from you. I certainly don't do that for the other thousands of images I use!!! That would be insane and quite frankly unproductive for a collage artist. I was trying to show how the creation process grows, from one "visual image" to another....
I am hereby trashing the art. Throwing out the page. Removing it from my flickr. I will now find something else that intrigues me, this time from my own repertoire, which by the way I used for the other 150 pages in this book. You, are gone.Your image, keep it.
As for rights? I don't look at the rights when I post my images. It goes up on default.
Sorry. this was a bummer."
Scene 6
Now I am posting this here, so I can elaborate, explore and figure out my dilemma!
I did delete the image and I won't use it in the book, I mean it is tainted for me at this point, certainly not a pleasurable ending to a book I have spent 4 years on. I don't want to open my book every single time and get annoyed at the last page.
I admit I have a problem with copyright. I don't think like everyone else. I am not into "possessions." I would never blatantly verbatim copy anything from anyone and claim it as mine. We ALL know that is wrong. But I DO blatantly observe, gather, and cull images from everywhere and anywhere in order to create my own artwork. If I couldn't, how could I collage? I would be forced to use plain papers with no image, and doesn't this limit creativity just a tad???? I paint with papers. Period.
I don't know really how to cope this this issue. I am hoping for insight, feedback...something to help me with this concept of ownership, cuz i just got slapped!!
As for the last page of the book, well now..there isn't one. I have to go back to the drawing board, and re-create. My work is so DADA, I know I can't make another page just like that one, but I will create one similar...with another image of unknown origin, and I will find it just as satisfactory as the last one. No harm done.
Or is there?
Do I have to worry about every single snippet I use, for fear someone may be greedy and decide they "own" it? There are literally hundreds of thousands of snips in this book, certainly that would be impossible!!! What about things like vintage wallpaper..? Do I have to go research and find the manufacturer...ask permission to use it?? What about my precious book?? Will a publisher turn me down immediately on the grounds that it will be a shaky project with ownership issues?
AAAARRRGGGGgggghhh!
Why can't I just be a painter!!!??? They have it easy!!
9/12/2007
Ivin Ballen
Ivin Ballen does 3d work with odd materials! SERiously. More here
IVIN BALLEN
UNTITLED (LOZENGE) , 2007
FIBERGLASS, AQUARESIN, ACRYLIC
59 x 59 x 10"
Wangechi Mutu
Wangechi Mutu
My Strength Lies
2006
ink, acrylic, photo collage, contact paper, on Mylar
228.6 x 137.2 cm
picture respectfully used from her Saatchi gallery
How can I possible maintain a collage blog without mentioning Wangechi Mutu?..."Wangechi Mutu was born and raised in Kenya and came to the United States in the mid-1990s. She is known for hallucinatory images in which she combines collage and ink drawing to create flamboyantly distorted figures that reflect contemporary society’s obsession with physical appearance..."
She doesn't appear to have her own website, but you can view more pix on Saatchi or here. Follow the link in the title to visit her work at SF MOMA>>>
Her work reminds me of Hannah Hoch, but with more flamboyancy...more vibrancy of color. I do like her textures...they are so lush.
him is he
The companion page to the previous...
vintage wrapping paper, A & W 12-pack box, book cover, various magazine cuts
vintage wrapping paper, A & W 12-pack box, book cover, various magazine cuts
Her is She
This is a page from the Fair Maid, the collage story I have just finished.
her is she
him is he
that's the way it's supposed to be.
her is she
him is he
that's the way it's supposed to be.
9/11/2007
collaged walls—Fort Thunder
(click image for zoom)
Since I recently moved, I have been going thru boxes of my own stuff and finding all sorts of treasures. I used to get NEST, the coolest magazine EVER>>which now is out of print (sob, sob!!). In NEST there were so many hip things. I miss that rag...
I came across an article about Fort Thunder, the brainchild of cartoonist Mat Brinkman and his buds from RSID. This bizarre loft/space/home/? was a living artrwork, a modern DADA testimony to the creativity of the peeps that dwelled there. The article goes on to explain it, and has a few choice pictures. It is these pictures I want to share, I hope the ghost of NEST won't mind. What a whirlwind of collaged materials! If these walls were murals, and painted they would be special. But with walls like this, collaged and pasted with the detritus of daily life, the impact seems so much more intense.
I really like the fact that there is plenty to look at and read in the bathroom. It reminds me of that old advertising wallpaper they used to have, that you could read the ads on while you took that dump. But these walls, they would require hours to be able to check it all out.
This all makes me want to purchase a beat up cheap piece of property and ...DECORATE it...collage style.
9/10/2007
messy studio space
This weekend I turned my attention to an ongoing project of mine called the Fair Maid. It is 150 pages of pasty collage goodness. A collaged story—a huge ass book. I finished the last 8 pages and worked in a frenzy till I was DONE!!! When I am really into the artwork, everything around me is ignored. That includes the space around me.
It gets so bad when I am really working. when I get up for a drink or a break, glued bits of paper attach themselves to the soles of my bare feet and I track them all over the house. Yesterday, I found a piece of collage paper in the shower!
9/07/2007
OCTOBER 15 - BLOG ACTION DAY
MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
OCTOBER 15!
BLOG ACTION DAY!
Make a difference, comment about our Environment on October 15, along with thousands of other bloggers and spread the message.
"On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.
Blog Action Day is about MASS participation. That means we need you! Here Is the LINK!
Go There! Sign up and register YOUR blog!
PHRESH work by Gary Taxali
These mixed media works by Gary Taxali caught my eye. I like work on book covers. I also like work that seems random, or accidental. These pieces catch the freshness of comics and the spontaneous qualities of collage to create some really cool images.
"The Beave", Mixed Media
7-3/4" x 9-1/2", framed 10-3/8" x 12-1/4"
$1500.00
To purchase please contact Kristin Weckworth.
(click on image to enlarge)
"Hope + Fear", Mixed Media
5-1/4" x 7-5/8", framed 8" x 10-3/8"
$900.00
To purchase please contact Kristin Weckworth.
(click on image to enlarge)
The images were taken from his website. There is lots more there...great stuff for a Friday!
"The Beave", Mixed Media
7-3/4" x 9-1/2", framed 10-3/8" x 12-1/4"
$1500.00
To purchase please contact Kristin Weckworth.
(click on image to enlarge)
"Hope + Fear", Mixed Media
5-1/4" x 7-5/8", framed 8" x 10-3/8"
$900.00
To purchase please contact Kristin Weckworth.
(click on image to enlarge)
The images were taken from his website. There is lots more there...great stuff for a Friday!
Chris Jordans' Micro Digital Collage
Ben Franklin, 2007
8.5 feet wide by 10.5 feet tall in three horizontal panels
Depicts 125,000 one-hundred dollar bills ($12.5 million), the amount our government spends every hour on the war in Iraq.
Partial zoom:
Detail at actual size:
Thru a link on Juxtapoz, today I found the work of Chris Jordan.
His latest series, Running the Numbers, An American Self-Portrait is fascinating because of its ability to depict abstract concepts in ways that anyone can understand.
Chris uses statistical facts, and graphical portrays them in a unique way, using digital collage. The work is subtle, because a zoom is needed to understand their vastness...but the message is bold. I really liked these because of their double meaning. The scale of the pieces is not easily translated on a webpage. This Ben Franklin example is 8.5 x 10.5 FEET long! That is a large work, to put it mildly. All of these pieces on display would be quite monumental!!
Hop on over to Los Angeles. This exhibit is currently showing at Paul Kopeikin Gallery.
September 8 to October 20, 2007
6150 Wilshire Blvd
LA, CA
8.5 feet wide by 10.5 feet tall in three horizontal panels
Depicts 125,000 one-hundred dollar bills ($12.5 million), the amount our government spends every hour on the war in Iraq.
Partial zoom:
Detail at actual size:
Thru a link on Juxtapoz, today I found the work of Chris Jordan.
His latest series, Running the Numbers, An American Self-Portrait is fascinating because of its ability to depict abstract concepts in ways that anyone can understand.
Chris uses statistical facts, and graphical portrays them in a unique way, using digital collage. The work is subtle, because a zoom is needed to understand their vastness...but the message is bold. I really liked these because of their double meaning. The scale of the pieces is not easily translated on a webpage. This Ben Franklin example is 8.5 x 10.5 FEET long! That is a large work, to put it mildly. All of these pieces on display would be quite monumental!!
Hop on over to Los Angeles. This exhibit is currently showing at Paul Kopeikin Gallery.
September 8 to October 20, 2007
6150 Wilshire Blvd
LA, CA
9/06/2007
WHITE on white
There is a bunch of seriously white and surprisingly vibrant work posted for the White on White exhibit over at IMCAC. The effect of so many white-based works is really stunning. I want to imagine them all in a huge gallery with tall white pristine ceilings, with white floors, and stark cold white walls...with white pleather furniture, and girls that look like they walked out of that Addicted to Love Robert Palmer video...but dressed in white clothing instead, grooving out –so blindly white, as gallery assistants...Since that outlandish scene isn't available, you can view some of these works here.
2007 South End Art Hop-Burlington VT
There is a large art show in Burlington VT this weekend. I am too busy to break away and check it out...but I am tossing it out there in case anyone else can make it.
"2007 marks the 15th anniversary of the annual South End Art Hop. The Art Hop is Vermont's largest visual arts celebration. Over 90 sites in Burlington's South End open their doors to display the work of more than 400 artists for the month of September. Special events include live fashion shows, a juried art exhibit, outdoor sculpture, artist-designed mini-golf, music, dancing, and more!"
For more information call 802-859-9222 or visit SEABA.COM
"2007 marks the 15th anniversary of the annual South End Art Hop. The Art Hop is Vermont's largest visual arts celebration. Over 90 sites in Burlington's South End open their doors to display the work of more than 400 artists for the month of September. Special events include live fashion shows, a juried art exhibit, outdoor sculpture, artist-designed mini-golf, music, dancing, and more!"
For more information call 802-859-9222 or visit SEABA.COM
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