In the image above, I’m standing in front of my 4 collages at the Silvermine Arts Center (1037 Silvermine Rd., New Canaan. CT). I was one of 6 artists who spoke at a gallery program on August 26, 2014. I assumed the sophisticated audience knew my works were collage, and didn’t want to hear about how I made collage or the materials I used. Because the works are geometric and abstract grids, I talked about positive and negative space. I misread my audience but was saved by Jeff Mueller, the gallery director who got the Q&A started when he told them my work was made with hand-painted paper collage. The audience thought the work was printmaking! Jeff told everyone they would see the work differently from up close, and they immediately walked up to look and started to ask questions. I learned an important lesson: Never assume you know what an audience sees, and never assume you know what an audience wants to hear.

The quote above by Douglas Adams – “I seldom end up where I wanted to go, but almost always end up where I need to be” perfectly described my situation.

A NEW COLLAGE SERIES: TRIANGLES INTO DIAMONDS

My recent collage METRO Series show geometric grids with squares and rectangles. Some rectangles have interior triangles. The new TRIANGLE series show geometric grids where triangles become diamonds. The spaces are opening up. There’s more texture and contrast.

The collage above (image: 11″ x 10″), shows thin white papers that create triangles stacked point over point and reveal black diamonds (negative space) below. Black is painted drawing paper. It was a lot of fun to create overlapping triangles. Shapes vary. Notice top and bottom rows are cut. Nothing was pre-planned.

The collage above is a horizontal grid (image: 8.5″ x 11″) with 6 rows of black paper triangles. It’s a collage in 3 layers.  Touch the collage and you feel the black  collage papers sit on top of the white Japanese rice paper pasted below. The rice paper covers another layer with black vertical lines below.

The collage above (image: 11″ x 9″) includes black diamonds and horizontal stripes on thin white rice paper. Notice the black diamonds are stacked triangles. It’s difficult to see what’s on top (positive) and what’s below (negative).

Black and White are Colors

My blacks and whites are not pure. I work with color even in black and white. I add Nickel Azo Yellow acrylic to  Zinc or Titanium White. I add Pyrole Red acrylic to Carbon or Ivory Black. I might also add Turquoise Thalo Blue to the blacks. I work with a palette knife as I layer acrylic paints. My blacks and whites include red, yellow and blue.

The collage above (image: 11″ x 9″), is made with many overlapping white triangles that create the black diamond spaces behind. The black negative space is flat painted paper. This collage is open.  I framed it and deliberately left it unglazed. I want you to see glue, smudges, and the hand of the artist. You can touch it and you’ll feel the overlapping white papers.

I’m continuing to work with triangles. These images will grow into larger works on canvas.