Insignificant Hilarity
collage miniature by J A Dixon
4.5 x 4.5 inches
on consignment
Archive for the ‘1) Available!’ Category
March Exercise | Miniature Three
Sunday, March 3rd, 2013March Exercise | Miniature One
Friday, March 1st, 2013
Unhappy, Far-off Things
collage miniature by J A Dixon
4 x 6 inches
Purchase this artwork!
Star of Abraham
Monday, February 18th, 2013“However long and varied the background of pasted materials in folk art, none of these developments was considered a major artistic movement. It was the creative artists of the twentieth century, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, who applied materials as a new and valid means of expression. With these artists and their work the word ‘collage’ was first applied and became associated with the movement. Thus was born an art form that has become part of the contemporary milieu and, indelibly, a major historical art movement.”
— Dona Z Meilach and Elvie Ten Hoor
My wife and I recently went to see Lincoln, the Spielberg picture with Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role. It got me thinking again about the work I created for the bicentennial of the 16th president’s birth, the celebration of which was a fairly big deal here in his native state. I had made the decision to exploit the bulk of my collected Lincoln images to totally cover a metal star. To produce a collage tribute to the martyred leader with a folk-art approach seemed to me a technique appropriate to the occasion. The “artifact” is still waiting for a home. Happy Presidents Day to all.
Star of Abraham
collage artifact by J A Dixon
22 x 22 inches
Fortune Collage Project
Wednesday, January 30th, 2013Here are the rest of the recent experiments from my participation in the Fortune Collage Project. Aside from the strict imposition of vintage magazine scrap, which dictates a particular look not in keeping with my typical eclectic mix of ingredients, the primary realization I gained from this exercise is a greater awareness of how much I rely on a series of closing decisions to fine tune my composition. A speed requirement strips nearly all of that phase from my process. It was interesting to observe the distinct difference between spontaneity and deliberate refinement. Each involves a different kind of intuitive response.
A
B
C
D
A— Life with Bobby
B— Over the Weekend
C— The Following Presentation
D— Crocodile Tears
collage miniatures by J A Dixon
7.75 x 4.5 inches
Fortune Collage Project
available for purchase
Daze of Yore
Thursday, January 24th, 2013“Creativity arises out of the tension between
spontaneity and limitations . . . ”
— Rollo May
If you want to see just how quickly 30 minutes can zip by, try your hand at the Fortune Collage Project. Charles Wilkin currently has a bunch of us speed-pasting his vintage scrap, as we take part in the latest collaborative exercise among facebook friends. It’s important to keep these kinds of involvements under control, but Wilkin has put together a thoughtful ritual that I could not resist. I have a tendency to pride myself on a high level of spontaneity, so occasionally I have to put it to a true test. It can be fun, informative, and more than a bit humbling, too.
Daze of Yore
collage miniature by J A Dixon
7.75 x 4.5 inches
Fortune Collage Project
available for purchase
Diamonds in the Rough ~ details
Wednesday, January 9th, 2013Collage for me is always an intimate viewing experience. You may find me with spectacles off and nose pressed near to the surface of any example within the medium. The scale of Diamonds in the Rough enhances the contrast between an up-close scrutiny and a step-back regard for the entire effect. With a large piece like this, I also enjoy visually cropping areas to create a series of virtual collage miniatures.
This micro view accentuates the ingredient elements, as in a collage miniature.
Visually, larger works are less ingredient centric, but still rely on their qualities.
I think my imagination would never tire of working with diagonals.
What is it about the diamond or the triangle that engages my mind’s eye?
This is one of my favorite areas within the total artwork.
Oddly, the legs and hands resonate with the Tapley drawing in the exhibition.
The composition’s focal center projects from the surrounding forms.
It differs energetically from the outer areas of structural perpendicularity.
To regularly bestow a new purpose on found material . . .
Without fear of contradiction, one could say that I am hooked.
The essence of collage is the contrast of the mundane and sublime.
At any rate, this is often how I perceive it.
WH—WHO’S THERE? (Look closely: Milt Caniff, that’s who.)
Somebody saw this as an homage to Roy, but Kurt used comics first.
A collage can rest divertingly upon layers of symbolic meaning.
Or it can be simply the harmonious resolution of aesthetic factors.
The dynamics of complementarity. (Is that a real word?)
More than one astute eye discovered my warm-cool “horizon.”
Composing with shape, color, contrast, rhythm, dimension.
At times, it need be about nothing more than that.
This image isolates a microcosm of the whole effect.
Are my larger works just a aggregation of collage miniatures?
Thanks for looking. Let me know what you think. Constructive criticism is encouraged at this site. To be honest, the medium of collage needs a bit more of it.
First exhibition of 2013
Saturday, January 5th, 2013“What makes a painting meaningful is the spectacle of the ordinary content living together with the equally important life of the picture plane and the unity of the whole surface.”
— Gillian Pederson Krag
It pleases me to say that my most recent large-scale artwork will be on display and available for purchase as part of an invitational exhibition now hanging in my hometown.
NEW YEAR NEW ART ~ Community Arts Center, Danville, Kentucky
January 2 to 26, 2013 ~ Reception: January 10, 6–8 pm
The invitation to participate is an honor for two reasons. It is always good for one to know that local people appreciate collage, especially the more esoteric kind. Even more humbling is to be included among some truly outstanding Kentucky artists, such as Sheldon Tapley, Helene Steene, Kathleen O’Brien, and Marianna McDonald. I’m looking forward to the reception this Thursday. Mayor Steven Connelly of nearby Berea will speak on the powerful effect the arts can have on local economies. According to Programming Director Brandon Long, the intention is to showcase “fresh, new art that has the kind of excitement and energy of artists who know their work will go on display.” Many of the diverse works were created specifically for the exhibition, and that includes mine. Everything accepted had to have been executed since September.
Diamonds in the Rough is a composite of panels and stretchers. It is my latest effort to free collage from behind glass and approach the medium in a manner similar to the painted surface that stands on its own. I also departed from my typical rectilinear format, yet sought to maintain the type of perpendicularity that I frequently exploit for a unified structure. As usual, the color balance of found material plays a vital role in my overall composition. The lineage of the collage miniature is strong here. In fact, nearly everything I do to produce a major work comes from what I have learned from the small-format approach. This recognition is not meant in any way to devalue the miniature. I would hope that you have come to know my penchant well enough by now to appreciate that.
The next entry will include some detail crops and perhaps a few remarks about the process, too.
Diamonds in the Rough
collage construction by J A Dixon
36 x 36 inches
available for purchase
Resolved . . .
Tuesday, January 1st, 2013”Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page. Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the first day of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take no interest in the things that were and are past.”
— Henry Ward Beecher
“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (thanks to four corners design)
It is interesting to see the contrasts inherent in various discussions about setting New Year’s resolutions. I think that most people who make them keep the practice to themselves, and the ones who do not are prompted to explain why, often coming from a position that seems cynical or overly critical to me. To be fair, some are simply being practical when they question the efficacy. For those who go out of their way to sow seeds of disdain for the customary list: it’s not about now long it stays viable, or about the resulting success rate, or whether it retains meaning in a culture where overt self-improvement carries a tinge of “fuddy-duddy-ness.” For me it’s about one’s mindset at the cyclical cusp. Is it not just “the thought that counts.” The thought becomes a renewal of self-belief, expressed in multiple line-items of striving. It requires introspection, evaluation, discernment, and commitment— hardly fashionable, to be sure. As an artist, I know that resolutions have worked for me at some level, just as they have for other aspects of my personal discipline (the effort to stop smoking, quit refined sweeteners, or get into marathon condition all began with a New Year’s Day pledge). The bad rap on resolutions probably has a lot to do with the familiar failure to abstain, and that’s understandable, given the nature of human behavior. For the most part, the average person underestimates the value of failure as a stepping stone to achievement. Some of the best insight I’ve read on the subject has been written and shared by choreographer Twyla Tharp. For a creative individual, positive resolutions can be an aid to tackling new challenges. Perhaps it is better to attempt a new ritual of focusing on priorities rather than resolving to banish procrastination, for example. Detrimental patterns can more effectively be overcome if one replaces them with beneficial habits. If a promise to oneself on January the First will help, I’m all for it.
Majestic Fetch
collage miniature by J A Dixon
6 x 6 inches
• S O L D
By Heaven’s Good Grace
Friday, December 28th, 2012“Whatever an artist’s personal feelings are, as soon as an artist fills a certain area on the canvas or circumscribes it, he becomes historical. He acts from or upon other artists.”
— Willem De Kooning
“You can never see too many things in a work of art. Itself, the work is a means for discovering what is already within us. The true work of art is more than its creator; it is always beyond him; soon it enters another orbit not his, because the artist changes, he dies, while the work lives in others.”
— Michel Seuphor
As I look back on six months of producing this site, I recognize that there are probably only a handful of people who currently pay a visit. To those of you who do, please accept a sincere tip of the hat. I hope that you find my periodic entries to be stimuli worthy of your time. Perhaps 2013 will bring a wider audience.
Collage is a distinctively collaborative medium, at times directly, but always indirectly. We are continuously interacting with those responsible for the ingredients we value enough to incorporate into a work. They might include one of the finest masters of the brush, an outstanding photographer, a bull-pen illustrator, an obscure commercial artist, or an anonymous shipping-carton keyliner. All that matters is this: Each has in some way caught hold of our eye, mind, or heart. Each has become an influence and unwitting contributor. For reasons not entirely clear, some of us attempt to have a more active effect on the state of our art by regularly making words, too. Allow me to bring a few stimulating blogs to your attention, if you haven’t already discovered them—
matthew rose studio
kathleen o’brien studio
a collage a day
daily collage project
with scissors by hand
paper with a past
every day should be a red letter day
lynn whipple’s blog
janice mcdonald collage art studio
four corners design
the altered page
collage clearinghouse
By Heaven’s Good Grace
collage miniature by J A Dixon
5 x 5 inches
Purchase this artwork!
Twelve-Twenty-One-Twelve
Friday, December 21st, 2012“I want to be in Kentucky when the end of the world comes, because it’s always 20 years behind.”
— Mark Twain
I’m sitting here in the Bluegrass State, wondering how everyone else is faring today. My hunch is that the Mayans stopped working on their stone calendar because they were a bit preoccupied with the Spanish conquistadores. Or, as somebody more witty than me speculated the other day, the artisan responsible probably put it aside and remarked to a friend, “If I never finish this thing, it’s not the end of the world.”
Twelve-Twenty-One-Twelve
collage miniature by J A Dixon
6.5 x 8 inches, available for purchase
Friday Morning
Monday, December 17th, 2012“There is evil in the world. It’s beyond mental illness, beyond gun control. It is evil.”
— John R Coyne, Jr
“Man is made of such crooked stuff that it is impossible to set him straight, said a famous philosopher. God help us.”
— Ben Stein
When something like this occurs, there are those who respond with heartfelt, eloquent words. A few others will make political hay.
Some of us can only make art.
Friday Morning
collage miniature by J A Dixon
5 x 7.5 inches, available for purchase