Archive for the ‘Collage’ Category
Monday, June 9th, 2025
“Never put off until tomorrow what you
can do the day after tomorrow.”
— Sam Clemens, Oscar Wilde,
or some other unknown wit
Would that I had followed Ben Franklin’s advice in preparation for my class to share collage-making techniques and perspectives. When I “pick a card” like this and invite Lady Luck, I am more likely to find myself in the Mark Twain frame of mind. At any rate, everybody who signed up was fun to be with, all went well, I’m more than pleased, and surely I’ll do it again. We tackled multiple experiments to short-circuit the calculating mind and build intuitive spontaneity. Five participants were there on Friday and six on Saturday. My thanks to each of them and the hospitality of Kleinhelter Gallery!
When Chance Comes to Call
collage miniature, 2025
7 x 8.25 inches, in the Merz tradition
available to collectors
Posted in 1) Available!, B Franklin, Collage, J A Dixon, M Twain, Merz, Workshops | No Comments »
Saturday, May 17th, 2025
“No, you never think you’ve made it. To be respected by my peers is the most I could ask for.”
— Freddy Cole
I broke into the collage world twenty years ago and eventually gained some recognition with contemporary practitioners for my fine art approach to the medium, just as social networks were taking hold. My recent emphasis has been in another direction, as those of you who follow this site are fully aware. I still aspire to “make it” in the realm of nonrepresentational collage, but that may not happen for a guy who “paints in papers” as a landscape artist.
I enjoy periodically coming back to the tradition of Merz, and here’s a lyrical piece that I created for tonight’s fundraising auction and random draw. The business of art should involve some community pro bono work, as with all professions. Yes, I’ve pontificated about this before. To help needy nonprofits appreciate the value of creative labor, I maintain this rule of thumb: keep donations modest, infrequent, and local.
Kaleido-Scraps
collage on stretched canvas
24 x 18 inches, in the Merz tradition
Posted in Abstraction, Collage, Events, Fundraising, Influences, J A Dixon, Larger Works, Merz, Priorities | 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
framed: 16.75 x 13.75 inches
• S O L D
Posted in Collage, Influences, Ingredients, J A Dixon, Landscape, Nostalgia, P Gross | 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 »
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 »
Friday, December 13th, 2024
Dozens of collage miniatures are available for you to buy directly through this website, all in standard formats for framing.
~ click here ~
Let me know if you have any questions about these original artworks!
Posted in 1) Available!, Collage | No Comments »
