Archive for the ‘B C Adkins’ Category

Brendan’s Birthday Comic Strip Artifact

Sunday, April 30th, 2017

 

Brendan’s Birthday Comic Strip Artifact
collage artifact by J A Dixon
12 x 7.375 inches
collection of B C Adkins

Sunday, May 3rd, 2015

WYOMING
by Brendan Adkins

Leonard and I were in Wyoming just long enough to stop for gas off the Laramie exit.

The Vagina Monologues was my second college play, and The Laramie Project the second-to-last. They were the only times that I felt meaningful, in drama, loud and bright and kicking teeth. Every acting student in this decade has had those feelings about those plays. That doesn’t reduce their significance.

Laramie was an offhand pilgrimage, a place to throw the ashes of a twelve-year dream. I was done with acting. I’d begun to write.

Leaving, I bought a local newspaper: the Boomerang.

WYOMING is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.

 

The Boomerang ~ J A Dixon

The Boomerang
collage miniature by J A Dixon, 4 x 5 inches
inspired by WYOMING
(Ommatidia, Thursday, January 26, 2006)
collection of B C Adkins

Pearental Discretion

Wednesday, February 4th, 2015

“When people think about creativity, they think about artistic work — unbridled, unguided effort that leads to beautiful effect. But if you look deeper, you’ll find that some of the most inspiring art forms, such as haikus, sonatas, and religious paintings, are fraught with constraints. They are beautiful because creativity triumphed over the ‘rules.’ Constraints shape and focus problems and provide clear challenges to overcome. Creativity thrives best when constrained.”
— Marissa Ann Mayer

I have been intrigued by the recent work of participants in the Matchbook Collage Collaboration Project. Collage artists, whether working alone or in collaboration, are increasingly known for imposed restrictions — time, scale, format, or ingredients. Early on I gained a healthy respect for the power of parameters, most likely because I was educated as a designer and trained as an applied artist. Years later, this respect was amplified significantly when I witnessed my nephew create thousands of 101-word stories as an exercise in creative writing.

A big part of managing open-ended potential when initiating new work is to dig for an “inner assignment” that limits the options and sparks a creative impulse. Another good catalyst is to look around for an external constraint. I enjoy reacting to calls-to-artists that focus on an organizing concept. Even if I don’t actually apply, the triggered intuitive process can be informative. Here is a piece that I just finished in response to the exhibition theme of “Home.” In addition to framing the possibilities, it provided an opportunity for me to work more three-dimensionally, explore color scheme limitations, and further investigate the combining of found materials.
 

Pearental Discretion ~ John Andrew Dixon

Pearental Discretion
mixed-media artifact by J A Dixon
11.25 x 9.25 inches
available for purchase

Happy Birthday, NB . . .

Saturday, May 3rd, 2014

“I am really not famous enough to have a cottage industry devoted to my identity theft.”
— Brendan Adkins

My sincere greetings to the man behind the curtain at Xorph.com, the domain that brings you The Collage Miniaturist. NB stands for ‘Nephew Brendan,’ the multi-talented, multi-skilled, multi-identitied creative force who somehow manages to keep one of my feet near the leading edge of online communication. You can read his stories, hear his voice, unfollow his tweets, or simply join me today as I tip my hat to his magnanimity. There… Do you think that will get me invited to his birthday party? And can anyone please tell me whether or not the Oregon Boundary Dispute has been settled?
 

Untitled (NB)
collage miniature by J A Dixon
collection of B C Adkins

Compliments of the Haus

Saturday, May 4th, 2013

“We don’t critique a gift. We don’t worry about its technical qualities or how its built. We don’t want metrics on our gifts. When we get a gift, it makes us feel something. Gifts tap into our sometimes irrational emotions and move us. We don’t question it. We simply give thanks.”
— Jarrett Fuller

Yesterday was my nephew’s birthday, so I produced the customary personal miniature as a greeting card cover image. Many of these creations are so idiosyncratic as to be virtually unexplainable (not that a collage needs any explanation in the first place, of course). Long have I found the personal miniature to be one of the most enticing of art forms. It begins with a pleasant agenda — engage the unique personality of the intended recipient — yet it offers profound opportunities for wild departures, because one already knows that the result will be met with joy and high regard by the primary observer. Much could be written about this subject and the history of artists as gift-givers. Any creative person will undoubtedly appreciate what I mean by this.

Here are a few more cards from my archives:
 

A Furious Struggle
collage miniature by J A Dixon
collection of B C Adkins

Gravitational Familiarity
collage miniature by J A Dixon
collection of S Lister

Solar Deliberation
collage miniature by J A Dixon
collection of J M Menke

Organic Potential
collage miniature by J A Dixon
collection of C Dixon

Compliments of the Haus
collage miniature by J A Dixon
collection of H Coomer