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Statement
2007
Collage artists
often work according to certain ideas that
have to do with exploiting found material. The vast glut of paper
materials
generated over the last 100 years not only provide a glimpse into the
history
of the recent past but the ephemera collected often reveals a uniquely
private
history whose authenticity and genuineness is highly prized. The subtle
patinas
gathered over the years by these surfaces add a great deal to the
sensual
quality of the collage
works
generated from
them.
The
hunt for materials is a big part of a collage
artist’s activity and these materials, to a great degree, determine the
nature
of the artist’s work and in my case, I welcome the stimulus that
becomes the starting
point for new methods of construction and new compositions. Most often,
in
years past, I have focused on book sized papers found in second hand
shops,
flea markets and antique stores from Paris, Texas to Paris France.
Recently,
however, I have taken an interest
in street
posters and roadside billboards and the large typographic shapes that
they
contain in a quest to move from the small, intimate scale I have been
accustomed to, toward a comparatively larger scale of work that might
allow me
to work on canvas and panel supports without losing the attention to
detail. I
think of these works as a sort of nonobjective, visual or concrete
poetry whose
interest is of a purely visual nature not tied to literary meaning or
commercial utility.
Kazimir
Malevich said in his manifesto of
Suprematism;
“‘Practical
life’,
like a homeless vagabond, forces its way into every artistic form and
believes
itself to be the genesis and reason for the existence of this form. But
the
vagabond does not tarry long in one place and once he is gone (when the
utilitarian usefulness has passed) the full artistic value of the work
remains.”
The
Non-Objective
World based on a 1959
translation from German - Paul Theobald and Company
Similarly,
I see these works of mine
as liberating the forms
of language from the practical utility of being carriers of some
commercially
driven corporate message, allowing them to exist purely for their own
sake as shapes,
curves, rhythms and colors.
My interest in this idea
was first engendered in 1998 as I
entered Mexico
City
in the middle of the night after a long drive through the northern
desert.
Towering above the highway at the scale of the large urban architecture
were
brightly lit billboard
advertisements seemingly by the hundreds. Some
of these
billboards had completely abstract designs on them created by the
billboard
owner having had the advertiser’s message scrambled by rearranging the
sign
panels and thus destroying the advertiser’s message but leaving all of
the
elements in an unreadable condition.
I had
never seen this idea before and
immediately thought;
‘from now on, whenever there is a sign like that, it is a Touchon, as
ink
splatters might seem to resemble a Motherwell. And so, soon after I
began to
experiment with the idea and to pay attention to such signs for ideas
for my
own work. Some signs, my favorites, were just lettering that had been
shifted
around to create abstract shapes. These eventually became a central
focus of my
own compositions.
A lot of my collage
art
depends a great deal on serendipitous discovery. This allows a certain
amount
of chance and randomness to find its way into my work which in turn
makes
possible an interactive dynamic between my own inner life and the
influence of
the surrounding environment.
The main problem was, until I returned
to the
United States,
I didn’t seem to be able to come across the large billboard material in
Mexico
and so I satisfied myself with the ready and renewable materials around
me
which happened to be the street posters many of which were for
wrestling
matches. But in order to get the effects that I was looking for, I had
to stick
to a fairly small scale of collage.
This was
fine because I was already working at a small scale.
On my
return to Texas
in the summer of 2005
I started to wonder how the move back to the States was going to affect
my art
and I started keeping my eyes open for a new motif and when we passed
through Nuevo Laredo, Mexico
I saw several billboards that caught my eye and I photographed them.
Once in Texas I
began to notice that many of the
secondary
smaller billboards were still covered with paper signs (as opposed to
the new
vinyl materials being used) and that, when it rained for 2 or 3 days at
a time,
the paper would begin to peal and fall from the backing. Soon I had a
garage
full of these wayward papers where I soak and separate them and cut
them to
manageable sizes for storage and have been adjusting my collage
techniques to fit this new exciting material.<>
My current working process
tends to be very meditative
sitting in front of a canvas or large piece of paper for hours at a
time
carefully cutting and fitting together the many parts that end up being
my
current work. Some of them I then use as studies for larger paintings
on
canvas. In my paintings I use a lot of subtle trompe
l'oeil effects
in order to simulate the surfaces of my collage
studies. So in a
way my
paintings are realistic, but the subject is non-objective.
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