I have recently been exploring the world of collage. These are two that I consider finished, there are many more that are yet to be completed. The process is slower than how I would normally work, and requires a lot of patience. I am basing these images off of the cartoon strip-like water color trio from a few weeks ago. First I pick out the main colors and mix up a batch in acrylic. This is actually difficult to do because watercolors bleed and blend so much that no shape is a single color, but I do my best. Then I paint a sheet of paper that color and let it dry. I usually create all my color swatches at once, which really forces me to think in advance about what each color is going to do in the composition and how it will interact with the other shades and hues. After I have decided that I have a variety of swatches to work with and a range of value and intensity, I start to cut out the various shapes and play with their placement on the board.
Acrylic and paper collage mounted on cardboard
I am playing around with the size of the paper cutouts, and whether a shape is made of a single piece of paper, or whether it is comprised of various small pieces together. I like building up my shapes the way I would with brush strokes. Using one large piece, like in the background of the bottom collage, reminds me the paint can effect on KidPix. But I also like the comparison between larger, flat expanses and the agitation from stitching bits together. I also am exploring the addition of non-cut out elements to the collage. In both works I either used a paintbrush or charcoal to go back and rework the space.
Acrylic and paper collage mounted on cardboardI am playing around with the size of the paper cutouts, and whether a shape is made of a single piece of paper, or whether it is comprised of various small pieces together. I like building up my shapes the way I would with brush strokes. Using one large piece, like in the background of the bottom collage, reminds me the paint can effect on KidPix. But I also like the comparison between larger, flat expanses and the agitation from stitching bits together. I also am exploring the addition of non-cut out elements to the collage. In both works I either used a paintbrush or charcoal to go back and rework the space.
Acrylic, charcoal and paper collage mounted on cardboard
3 comments:
oh! i really like these! very cool.
These are really good, Blake. I'm sorry I've been kind of out of touch for the last week or so. As I think I've told you, I've had a lot of guests recently, including Keefe, Claire '10, and then Sam, Gerrit, and Ben Masten, annd LuLu from NYC, so it's been crazy in my apartment, which is such a mess it looks like the Baghdad National Museum, post looting, if, uh, the Baghdad National Museum collected my artwork and beer bottles.
Anyway: These pieces are great. I think the color is really subtle. Although I don't often work in color, using all this mat board from the frame shop has given me a different experience of using color than paint mixing ever did. Albers did write, after all, that colored paper is the best medium for chromatic experimentation. Do you find that you make different color choices, given the differences between mixing color and collaging it? Also, the interaction of color, cut shapes, painted shapes, and surfaces is really rich. Bravo.
Dear Blake:
Annoying that I can't see your work as I write. Regardless, these two pieces: excellent. Their colors achieve strong 3D effects, for one thing, and their forms are imaginative and memorable. The second has an especially sweet clutch of colors; they rhyme.
Nice.
Scarlatti Gamelan
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