Archive for the ‘J A Dixon’ Category
Thursday, April 9th, 2026
I’m pleased to announce that the Artists in Residence have been chosen by Kentucky’s Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest and that I was one of nine Honorable Mentions out of 205 worldwide applications.
Even though I didn’t receive a residency for 2026, I’ve been asked to teach a class there in September. My one-day collage workshop will emphasize “painting in papers’” from nature. Congratulations to Marilee Salvator from Bowling Green and the other four selections!
Here are four of the collage landscapes included in my submission:
Posted in En Plein Air, Honors, J A Dixon, Landscape, Workshops | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 8th, 2026
Isn’t there something about the “godfather
of merz” that transcends mere homage?
Good Ol’ Boy Dada, part 3
collage artifact by J A Dixon
scrounged paper, packaging, litter
on book cover, 10.25 x 8.375 inches
Posted in 1) Available!, Abstraction, Artifacts, Collage, Dada, Good Ol’ Boy Series, Homage, J A Dixon, K Schwitters, Merz | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 31st, 2026
“The holistic quality of craft lies not only in engaging the whole person but also in harmonizing his understanding of himself in the world.”
— Peter Korn
“Well I guess my advice would be: be patient. If you follow your gut and not the advertisements on the side of the bus, everything will turn out as nature intended.”
— Nick Offerman
Plenty of time on the east end of Shaker Village (during past outings) paid off in the studio recently. I decided to complete this one during the final week of my March Exertion. I intend to leave the rough, unfinished edges on this piece. When I was “painting in papers” on location, I could hear the sheep, but they never showed up in my view of their enclosure. Actually, I can still hear them (haha).
As the whole world is forced to swallow “large language models” that have run amok (which nobody really asked for), it is satisfying and gratitude inducing to make something authentic with my own hands at the historic setting of a culture revered for its artisanship.
At Pleasant Hill
collage en plein air by J A Dixon
found paper, gel transfers, tissue, tea bags
on vintage notebook cover, 12.5 x 6 inches
finished during my March Exertion, day 28
Posted in 1) Available!, Collage, Details, En Plein Air, J A Dixon, Landscape, March Exercise | No Comments »
Friday, March 27th, 2026
The Joining
imaginary collage by J A Dixon
found papers, gel transfers, tissue, tea bags
on canvas, 8 x 10 inches
finished for my March Exertion / day 24
Posted in 1) Available!, Collage, J A Dixon, Landscape, March Exercise, Workshops | No Comments »
Monday, March 23rd, 2026
My first rule of collage: There are no rules in collage.
Except for those imposed on oneself, such as my 2026 March Exertion, with 30 collage artworks created in 30 days. Below are six of them.
Click on each square preview to see the full image.
Follow my daily effort at Instagram.
Posted in 1) Available!, Collage, Constraints, Homage, J A Dixon, March Exercise, Merz, Rules of Collage | No Comments »
Monday, March 16th, 2026
Restful Waters
imaginary collage by J A Dixon
found paper, gel transfers, tea bags
on pasteboard, 6.5 x 7.75 inches
March Exertion / 30-in-30, day 14
Posted in 1) Available!, Collage, J A Dixon, Landscape, March Exercise | No Comments »
Friday, March 6th, 2026
Adagio for Maud
collage on book cover by J A Dixon
scrounged paper, photograph, litter, tea bags
8.375 x 11.25 inches
March Exertion / 30-in-30, day 6
Posted in 1) Available!, Collage, J A Dixon, March Exercise, Merz | No Comments »
Sunday, March 1st, 2026
The annual pre-spring studio intensification is upon me, including 30 new collage artworks over the next 30 days. Follow daily progress at my Instagram profile.
The Earth is Full
imaginary landscape by J A Dixon
paper, tissue, gel transfer, tea bags
(workshop demo) 5.875 x 8 inches
March Exertion / 30-in-30, day 1
Posted in 1) Available!, J A Dixon, Landscape, March Exercise, Workshops | No Comments »
Thursday, February 19th, 2026
“Collage artists put things together to make something new, and often we are the ones who have taken apart discarded things to do it, but there is always a much larger phenomenon at work — one of discord vs harmony, mechanism vs intuition, wastefulness vs thrift, cynicism vs affection.”
— from July 29, 2016
My deep exploration of collage began over 20 years ago with a nonrepresentational approach rooted in the MERZ and DADA traditions, but my recent concentration has been in pictorial collage, which I call “painting in papers.” Many pioneers of modern art collage considered themselves painters, and I increasingly anchor my intuitive orientation with that awareness. This miniature landscape was created in the studio from imagination and memory — recollections of a grim sky, but the sun breaks through for a few seconds to illuminate the trees. This is among the seen images that stick with me. Increasingly, these are the experiences that make me want to paint.
The Kentucky farmer-philosopher Wendell Berry tells us, “Things that belong together have been taken apart. And you can’t put it all back together again. What you can do, is the only thing that you can do. You take two things that ought to be together and you put them together. Two things! Not all things.” It is his metaphor for the creative life, and a tremendously healing admonition to those of us with a tendency to become overwhelmed by the enormity of the world’s chaotic disintegration. When I return to the studio from a natural place, I am in a better condition to put things together, with the enduring hope for a modest artistic breakthrough. And then to leave. To go somewhere small in the world and to fix something that is broken.
Breakthrough
imaginary collage miniature by J A Dixon
6.75 x 4.875 inches
Posted in 1) Available!, Collage, Dada, Influences, J A Dixon, Landscape, Merz, Priorities, W Berry | No Comments »
