Archive for the ‘Journal’ Category

March Exercise  |  year nine, day ten

Monday, March 10th, 2014

 

journal experiment:
balance, negative space


 

 

A Pervading Intrusion
collage miniature by J A Dixon
5.75 x 8.25 inches
 
Purchase this artwork!

March Exercise  |  year nine, day nine

Sunday, March 9th, 2014

 

journal experiment:
composition, composition, composition


 

 

The Central Issue of Life
collage miniature by J A Dixon
5.25 x 7 inches
 
Purchase this artwork!

March Exercise  |  year nine, day eight

Saturday, March 8th, 2014

 

journal experiment:
shape, analogous hues


 

 

Nightshades
collage miniature by J A Dixon
6.75 x 7.25 inches
 
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March Exercise  |  year nine, day seven

Friday, March 7th, 2014

 

journal experiment:
surreal impression


 

 

Prisoner of Conscience
collage miniature by J A Dixon
7.75 x 9.75 inches
 
Purchase this artwork!

March Exercise  |  year nine, day six

Thursday, March 6th, 2014

 

journal experiment:
line, value, contrast


 

 

Major Tonic
collage miniature by J A Dixon
5.5 x 7.125 inches
private collection

March Exercise  |  year nine, day five

Wednesday, March 5th, 2014

 

journal experiment:
activation of space


 

 

Circumvent (Bibelot 572)
collage miniature by J A Dixon
5 x 6 inches
 
Purchase this artwork!

March Exercise  |  year nine, day four

Tuesday, March 4th, 2014

 

journal experiment:
juxtaposition, balance, narrative


 

 

Short Of Her Zenith
collage miniature by J A Dixon
5.25 x 7 inches

•  S O L D

March Exercise  |  year nine, day three

Monday, March 3rd, 2014

 

journal experiment:
form, contrast, counterpoise


 

 

Heaven By Storm
collage miniature by J A Dixon
4.5 x 4.5 inches
 
Purchase this artwork!

March Exercise  |  year nine, day two

Sunday, March 2nd, 2014

 

journal experiment:
contrast, depth, tension


 

 

Primary Sources
collage miniature by J A Dixon
4.5 x 7.75 inches
on consignment
 
Purchase this artwork!

March Exercise  |  year nine, day one

Saturday, March 1st, 2014

 

journal experiment:
shape, color, space


 

 

Attempted Coup
collage miniature by J A Dixon
5.25 x 7.25 inches
 
Purchase this artwork!

Beyond “vacation art” . . .

Saturday, November 30th, 2013

“I have been producing collages for nearly fifty-five years, many of the early ones were done during long flights or in the waiting areas at airports.”
— Richard Meier

This season of the year finds many artists visiting family and friends. My spending time as a traveler without the suppletory activity of creating art makes for a less than satisfying experience. Visiting new places or returning to familiar haunts is noticably deficient if not combined with sketching or assembling ingredients for a collage experiment. Of course, we all need to relax now and then, sharing time with people who mean the most to us, but many of us also recognize a price to pay whenever the creative urge is asked to take a back seat for any length of time. What better opportunity than a change of environment to infuse our investigations with a fresh dose of spontaneity?

The sabbatical is a time-honored tradition for creative people, which brings to mind Cecil Touchon’s remarkable Paris Papers. But in contrast to this kind of planned artistic get-away, there is also much to be gained by a custom of fusing the influences of short-term travel with an ongoing artistic process. This makes me think of the highly publicized collage artwork of American architect Richard Meier. I saw something years ago which suggested the collage-making proclivity that runs parallel to his professional practice developed from the found material he acquired crisscrossing continents as an in-demand designer, and that many of the early works were created on airliners. I remember being impressed with his wooden case, crafted to accommodate several square working surfaces plus the modest number of accourtrements a collage artist requires to do one’s thing. No doubt his days of transporting blades and scissors on aircraft are part of the past. The status of being a celebrated architect has provided Meier ample “rare” opportunities to showcase examples of his collage. Whether or not the eventual significance of his work within the medium will prove commensurate with the attention it has already received remains a matter of opinion (like nearly everything in the art world).

Two years ago, I had the privilege to view a milestone exhibition of Kurt Schwitters originals at the Berkeley Art Museum. During my stay in Northern California, a brother-in-law was kind enough to let me set up a makeshift work area in his home office so that I could capture as collage experiments the flow of new stimuli. Please allow me to share two of those artworks for the first time:
 

Untitled (Back to California, part one)
collage experiment by J A Dixon
8 x 9.5 inches, not for sale

Untitled (Back to California, part two)
collage experiment by J A Dixon
8.5 x 7.5 inches, not for sale