The Layered Image

With Collage I try not to be too influenced by what others have done with this
medium. I try to be as natural as possible with it. I find that I may be surprised by
the way the whole thing develops, often I don't have an outline or plan, rather I
may be inspired merely by the materials I have. It can be a long and slow process.
Sometime it may work other times it may not, depending on how it unfolds.
I suppose I am basically dissecting someone else's material, photograph, news
clipping , postcard, poetry etc.

There were many amazing artists who did collage one of my favorites is
Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948) who was part of the Berlin Dadaists in 1918, Known
to some as the Grandfather of Pop Art.(Member o the Abstraction-Creation Group
in Paris in the 1930's. The Abstraction-Creation Group was an avant-garde school
of artists who worked with geometric abstract forms.The artist Piet Mondrian was also very prominent in the group.Kurt Schwitters (June 20, 1887 - January 8, 1948) was a German painter who was born in Hanover, Germany.

Schwitters worked in several genres and mediums, including Dada, Constructivism, Surrealism, poetry, sound, painting, collage, sculpture, typography and what came to be known as installations.

My real interest in this medium are the layers that may be created naturally
the overlapping, tearing, and fragmenting of pattern's and imagery.

It is amazing how, some image that was once overlooked perhaps, now has
a new life of it's own transformed into a new work.

I started creating collages for Greeting cards. As an artist I always felt guilty buying
a card at a bookstore and the like. Reproductions of other peoples art, some
famous and extraordinarily beautiful some down right dreadful.
This way I could personalize a card to the sender. I developed handmade cards
for a couple of years, but found I could not keep up with the demand and found
that my work was starting to be controlled by someone else, it was loosing that
rough edge, it was in danger of running into a Hallmark nightmare. So I gave this
up. The collage work took a break while I re- thought the next step.

So working in Television creating graphics on a daily basis in a highly stressed
fast paced environment, I continued somehow to not loose touch of the layering
of my collage work which in many ways found it's way into my TV work.

I have developed to different style's for collage work the Digital and the Traditional.
The later is more of a rough edge with less transformation, relying more on the
materials itself. With Digital I have the luxury of transformation, though not
getting carried away with effect after effect. The Digital Collage too has little size
restriction. Keeping in mind the art work was created at a usable resolution for
a variety of sizes to get output from, plus I have the luxury also of outputting if
need be to canvas.

With Traditional Collage the final image I create is it and whether I have decide to do a large format, which I am planning on doing at some point and will incorporate
paint etc. Even with traditional Collage I find myself looking back to digital. i am experimenting with
creating a traditional collage layout directly on the digital scanner itself and taking it from there.

This past Memorial Weekend the 43rd Mount Wilson Trail Race was run in and above the
sleepy town of Sierra Madre...up to 300 hundred runners ran 8.6 miles up to Orchard Camp
at 2100ft and back down into the village. I have been running and working this event for the past six years..creating graphics, organizing a kid's art show , creating t-shirts,
banners and other assorted materials for the event. it's all volunteer and I love the
Race and everyone who is envolved. I always somewhat dread the morning of the race..faced with a nervous stomach..this year I beat my time from last year and placed a respectable position in the top 100 and 5th in my age group.I am on the far right in the orange shirt and black cap.

If only I still had my Bus!

Apart from the heavy intake of tabacoo those were
the days! Notice how smart and nicely attire everyone here is.