In this newsletter, I’ll share images of my studio and thoughts about what’s going on – about collage chaos and a new work undone and redone. I will tell you about the project where papers got moved and something became something else. The image below is a view of my 5′ x 3 1/2′ worktable. It looks messy but I don’t think it’s as cluttered as usual. Notice the metal palette knife, the water tubs and bottle of acrylic medium. Notice the painting on the wall beyond the worktable is a framed collage titled Green Grid. Notice tall open wood shelves on another wall with pads and papers.
Notice the table is covered with painters canvas. On top at the front edges is a canvas strip that looks like an abstract painting. It’s not. What you see is a barrier surface I use when I paint papers. I work with a palette knife and push paint beyond the paper edge onto the canvas strip. Papers are typically 9″x12″ cut up from large drawing or printmaking papers. The paint marks on the canvas strip are the patterns the palette knife creates. I replace the canvas strip every month or two – especially when I want to cut it up and use it in a collage painting. Notice I’m working with the color green. Notice, the painting on the wall is painted in the same green colors you see on the canvas strip and the same colors in the paint jars.
COLLAGE CHAOS
I like to work on several projects at a time and there’s never enough space on the worktable for more than one or two projects. If I have to move anything to make space for something new, it goes on a side table so I can continue to look at it. I want to see the work every day. When I see it, ideas continue to percolate. If there’s no space on a side table, I put the project on a broad shelf under the worktable. I don’t see the work but can pull it out if I need to.
The image above is a jumble of paper triangles – loose and unglued – a disorganized mess. The black painted surface you see, is a 16″x24″ wood panel underneath. The jumble was set up for a collage. It was left unglued. The collage got interrupted. I moved the wood panel to a small side table to make room on the main worktable. I thought the unfinished collage would be safe, because I placed 3 large paper pads on top. Two weeks later, when I lifted the pads, I saw every paper triangle was out of order. I had undone my collage. I never took a photo so didn’t know how to put the papers back in the same order.
The image above shows an open flat file drawer that sits right under my worktable. The flat files have 5 drawers. Two are filled with collage papers. Notice small sheets of hand-made papers on top of the stack with black and white (or black and gold) stripes and dots. Notice curled white canvas strips in the lower right corner. I cut up leftover unprimed canvas. I will add strips to a painting on canvas. Notice this drawer needs to be organized. It will take about an hour to sort through everything, but I’ll “discover” new collage media I didn’t remember I had.
The image above shows painted papers for a new collage that I painted in acrylic with a plastic palette knife. Notice how I place the painted papers onto newsprint on my studio floor. Some of the papers are still wet and sit in their own space. As I continue to paint, I move papers that are dry and place them in stacks. Notice papers are painted green, yellow, white and black. Some papers have patterns that I scratched into wet paint between paint layers.
The image above is my finished collage with triangles on 16″x24″ wood panel. It looks very different from the jumbled triangles in the image on top. I think this collage should be called “Serendipity” – it was a surprise to see the undone collage, but it gave me an opportunity to re-order the image and create something new. Collage is all about chance and change.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
I like to recycle art. All the triangles in my new collage are cut from a 22″x30″ painting on paper that was stored in a flat file drawer under a stack of other works on paper – and probably 3 years old. There is no image of the painting so I can’t show you what it looked like before it turned into triangles. I didn’t like the painting, but I do like the triangle collage. Please send you comments about recycled art. Tell me if you like the new image and the way the triangles are organized as a grid. Do you notice the triangles are set in chevron stripes?