Archive for the ‘J A Dixon’ Category
Saturday, March 15th, 2025
“I don’t want a picture, I want a painting.”
— Raimonds Staprāns


Sometimes a day on location feels like “going to work in the morning again.” By the time I find a good spot to sit, everything changes. Being present in a natural place elicits the rapt attention that calls for the immediacy and spontaneity of painting from life. For me, it just happens to be paper and paste. That it would turn out this way is something I never could’ve predicted. Included here is my “start” from a recent outing to Marion County, Kentucky. In the studio (without a breeze), I shall add two round bales and the essential dose of March daffodils.
Posted in En Plein Air, J A Dixon, Landscape | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 4th, 2025

Fat Tuesday seems as good a day as any to finish a pair of collage miniatures that clearly fall into the category of “catharsis.” Not all artwork in the Merz tradition is specifically purgative, but the synchronicity inherent in this dynamic approach lends itself to the impulse.
Posted in 1) Available!, Catharsis, J A Dixon, Merz | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 26th, 2025
“I called it Merz. This new process whose principle was the use of any material. It was the second syllable of Kommerz. It first appeared in Merzbild, a painting in which, apart from its abstract forms, one could read Merz, cut and pasted from an advertisement for Kommerz und Privatbank. I was looking for a term to designate this new genre, for I could not classify my paintings under old labels such as expressionism, cubism, futurism, and so on.”
— Kurt Schwitters

Mere Scrupulosity
collage miniature on canvas panel
8 x 10 inches, in the Merz tradition
Posted in 1) Available!, Abstraction, Collage, Homage, Influences, J A Dixon, K Schwitters, Merz | No Comments »
Friday, January 31st, 2025
“The landscapes that I choose to paint are tied by a common thread, a sense of nostalgia, a setting that at once is current, but also captures a sense of the (Sacramento) valley that hasn’t changed for many years. I believe that landscapes live in us.”
— Phil Gross
While away from the studio, with limited collage ingredients, I made a miniature copy of a splendid oil painting by Phil Gross. I’ll probably add a few finishing touches and then decide if it’s appropriate to sign it. This turned out to be a very different kind of exercise than any other paper landscape that I’ve done. My thanks to Rowland William Breidenbach for the opportunity to spend time with this landscape.

California Theme (after Phil Gross)
unfinished collage landscape by J A Dixon
10 x 8 inches
Posted in Collage, Influences, Ingredients, J A Dixon, Landscape, Nostalgia, P Gross | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 1st, 2025
“My father told me when I was a little boy that people in authority lie and the job in a democracy is to remain skeptical. I’ve been science-based since I was a kid. Show me the evidence and I’ll believe you, but I’m not going to take the word of official narratives. The way you do research is not by asking authoritative figures what they think. Trusting experts is not a feature of science, and it’s not a feature of democracy.”
— Robert F Kennedy Jr
When I indulge the impulse to have a collage catharsis, the Fred Otnes influence of my editorial past often bubbles to the surface. So be it. Wishing everybody a new year brimming with creativity, marked by discernment, and devoid of fear!

American Janus
collage catharsis by J A Dixon
11 x 10 inches
Posted in Catharsis, Current Events, F Otnes, Illustration, Influences, J A Dixon | No Comments »
Saturday, December 28th, 2024
Nine segments from 2024 artworks of which I am still fond — aesthetic beauty within the Merz tradition continues to wrestle pictorial collage for my attention. Which approach do you favor in the coming year?

CLOCKWISE TO CENTER:
La Monda’s Refuge, Wind Harbor, Our Lady of the Cheap Shot, April Burst, Down Side Up, Unprotected Speech, War and Peace, Maybeland, Up the Channel
Posted in Collage, Details, J A Dixon, Links, Multiple Miniatures | No Comments »
Sunday, December 22nd, 2024
“Sometimes a man humbles himself in his heart, submits the visible to the power to see, and seeks to return to his source.”
— René Daumal
This small landscape found its start a year ago during one of my library demonstrations. I finished it from imagination in the studio this past week after a season of “painting in papers” outside.

La Monda’s Refuge
collage on canvas by J A Dixon
8 x 10 inches
private collection
Posted in J A Dixon, Landscape | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, December 17th, 2024
“Dixon hopes his students will share the belief that Kentucky’s landscapes need its inhabitants’ care and attention to preserve the space for generations to come.”
— Lilly Keith
What a surprise to have something happen with which I had no initiating role! Students at the University of Kentucky’s lifestyle magazine made an editorial decision to include my LITTER-ALLY KENTUCKY traveling exhibition in an article to showcase artwork created from repurposed material. Much appreciation to Lilly Keith and Alexis Baker for their contributions! (And thanks again to the PAACK member who provided this image of me “painting in papers” on location.)
Posted in Collage, En Plein Air, J A Dixon, Landscape, Publications | No Comments »