“This was among some of the collaborations I received while I was going through chemo. I recently found some of the ones I had set aside when really sick and completely forgot about.”
– Ted Tollefson
While we’re on the subject of collage on coasters, a pleasant surprise explodes on the scene from an exemplar of the genre, Ted Tollefson. A prolific collaborator, Ted has impressed many of us working in the medium with his diversity of approach and an indefatigable spirit. Keep your eye on this guy!
As Seen On TV
collage on Budweiser coaster, 4 x 4 inches
(start by J A Dixon, finish by T Tollefson)
collection of T Tollefson
Like many others, I spend prayerful time caring for a parent with progressive dementia. The other day I was trying to explain to my mother, in terms she could appreciate, my burning desire to make collage artwork, and, touching on her prevailing sense of confusion, talked about my creative activity as a way to bring some kind of harmony out of the chaotic stream of disorder that dominates so much of current stimuli in our daily lives. It brought to my awareness the motivation at the center of what I love to do, but also fell short of the clarity for which I was reaching. Over the next year, I hope to find better words which get to the heart of that idea — how I take what I can carry into a process that leaves thinking behind, a kind of sweet madness that offers explanations difficult for me to achieve any other way. Of course, this is not the only approach to the medium. I hope to profile more collage artists who use a different methodology than my own — the extraordinary minimalists, the dedicated aestheticians, and those who continue to harness a kind of thoughtful irrationality that keeps me in awe.
