The Collage Miniaturist

“Art has to be something that makes you scratch your head.”
—Edward Ruscha

I think it is good to start a fresh cycle with something that perplexes me. Will anyone else think that this is art? Does the irrepressible creative urge need to take matters into its own hands now and then? Or am I merely illustrating an untold story from my rambunctious imagination?

Happy New Year!
 

Transfigured
collage miniature on book cover by J A Dixon
7.25 x 9.5 inches
 
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“Time is so sneaky…don’t let it fool you into saying silly things. Your time here is yours…treasure it and enjoy it. It doesn’t ‘move’…it merely ‘exists’…period.”
—Burton Cummings

I was thinking that the holiday season had gotten away from me, and that I had not had enough time to make the many hand-crafted things that usually capture my interest and comprise my gift giving. And then I saw a Christmas Eve comment from the incomparable Burton, who has a superlative knack for putting universal thoughts into words. The whole “ain’t got no time” notion dissolved and I realized, once again, that there’s always enough time for what’s important.

Wishing the joy of Christmas to all . . .
 

Untitled (nativity with serpent)
a Christmas collage experiment by J A Dixon
collection of C D Darst

Untitled (nativity with thorns)
a Christmas collage experiment by J A Dixon
collection of P B Seitz

Untitled (nativity with cherubim)
a Christmas collage experiment by J A Dixon
collection of K Simpson

“It is by logic that we prove, but by intuition that we discover.”
— Henri Poincaré

December is the time of year for making hand-crafted holiday cards. By and by, I return to variations on the theme of a Christmas tree. Perhaps some of the collage miniatures are more “successful” than others, but the point of this ritual (other than sharing joy with dear ones, of course) is granting free rein to an intuitive response. Exercising this capacity is at the heart of collage as a medium. How important it is to give the imagination a blank check and invest no concern in the lack of a preconceived approach! Choosing a simple pictorial theme conveniently jump-starts an experimental process. What follows is pure discovery.
 

29 collage greeting
cards by J A Dixon
variations on a
Christmas theme
2001 – 2016

The customary Valentine’s Day division of labor: I make a card and my sweetheart bakes a cherry pie. Don’t you agree that I get the better side of this deal?
 

 
Hearts for Dana, 2016
collage greeting card by J A Dixon
7.875 x 5.25 inches

Order of the Janus
collage on book cover by J A Dixon
9.75 x 7.125 inches
 
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Ho Ho Hosanna
collage miniature by J A Dixon
private collection

“Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.”
– Stephen Sondhiem

I was in the “Seasonal Zone,” listening to music and making a batch of hand-made greetings and collage miniatures. I began to recycle Christmas cards from previous years, and I had the idea of trying to visually merge two different but similar images. Nothing seemed to go right as my technique played out. One cannot anticipate nor contrive the “fortunate accidents” inherent in the medium. The resulting effect reminds me of an aging fresco, as if an artist had painted a Madonna and Child over another, with the decay of time and weather taking over. I rarely think too much about these things in process, with reflection arriving later. I especially enjoy when others make observations and symbolic associations of their own. Overall, I think my sweet obsession with collage may be about trying to bring some kind of harmony out of the sense of disorder that pervades much of modern perception, although I should hesitate to generalize about my personal state of being and apply it to the world.

Tender and Wild
collage miniature by J A Dixon
7 x 9.5 inches
private collection

“Man himself is mute, and it is the image that speaks. For it is obvious that the image alone can keep pace with nature.”
— Boris Pasternak

I have come to the point where nearly all of my December gifts are hand-crafted items, many of which feature experimental images of one sort or another. Some end up being studies for larger works. Shown below are a couple of little artifacts that have resulted so far from my lead-up to the holidays — examples of how gift art can hover between descriptive categories. Both are more than greeting-card covers, but not advanced enough to be called true collage miniatures. Intrinsic value is always a matter of opinion, but, at any rate, people usually appreciate being invited into the artistic process.
 
 

two small, year-end gifts
collage artifacts by J A Dixon
(click to view larger)

Thanks a Million
collage experiment by J A Dixon
Enjoy the holiday!

Unkind Reckoning
collage miniature by J A Dixon
6 x 7 inches
 
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Untitled (thoughtform)
collage experiment by J A Dixon