untold stories

Once again, here's are two more examples of why collage, as a medium, is so fascinating to me. I purchased some frames at the auction in Farmersville, PA a little while ago. One of the frames had a picture of this cute little puppy in it. After I took off the back to take the puppy out and clean the glass, I found this old photo. But why did someone cover up this photo with a goofy puppy picture? Seems like there's a story behind it. But it's a story that will never be told, I suppose. So it leaves me simply wondering in my studio about what the story is. The little notebook page was included in a Scrabble game box that my mother got at a garage sale last weekend. In the midst of a bunch of blank pages and pages with Scrabble scores on them, I find this gem. Interesting (even when I'm not active working on a collage).

Giving Polly the Finger

So excited to have gotten another piece done today!

Details

Here is the final product of a piece I have been meeting around with for weeks as part of a project considering the use of space as background elements in collage. It will be part of an article which will appear in an upcoming issue of Kolaj magazine. I was able to think a bit analytically while putting together the final piece and take some photos of some of the detail work that I do when I do collage. The detail work makes the elements look more integrated (and, in fact, makes people sometime think my collages are digitally composed). I paint the edges of the dark elements; so you don't see white edges (look carefully at the images below). I also wanted to convey the size of the molecule elements. It was a real chore to get those cut so precisely -- especially as to not lose the circularity of the atoms. Each of the molecules edges was painted with Golden's "neutral grey" acrylic paint. Took me about two hours to complete just the molecules. BTW, the image in the background is a photomicrograph of a tick's mouthparts.

collage photo/photo collage

While I was working in the studio the other night, I looked up at some items I had placed on a small shelf on the wall. The lighting caught my attention (as well as the composition), so I took this photo. It's a photographic collage, I think. And I rather like it ;-)