The Collage Miniaturist

“Excellence is a habit acquired by continuous improvement on the little things you do, with a firm belief that it’s going to be better than before!”
― Israelmore Ayivor

It is true that my output of hand-crafted greeting cards has declined, in contrast to when I averaged nearly one per day, but the small-format activity remains one of my most valued improvisational exercises as a collage artist.

 

A Glenda Kind of Day
collage miniature by J A Dixon
collection of G Dixon

Bill’s Smile
collage miniature by J A Dixon
collection of B Simpson

A Man Named Joe
collage miniature by J A Dixon
collection of M Dixon

Without Hindrance
collage miniature by J A Dixon
collection of M Scarborough

K’s Ladybird
collage miniature by J A Dixon
collection of K O’Brien

“At Hallmark, the approach to creating emotional, relational communication for anonymous others is captured by the phrase ‘universal specificity,’ which suggests that people’s emotions are essentially universal, and that the industry can meet the nation’s social expression needs by customizing these core insights.”
— Emily West

There is, of course, nothing evil about the greeting card industry, but I have never felt comfortable with store-bought messages and decided to give them up early in life. After many years of making original birthday cards, I intensively produced over a thousand small, hand-crafted designs between 1999 and 2003. These visual investigations also served as personal greetings to people I knew. They provided the foundation for my entire approach to creating collage miniatures.
 

That Red Dress
collage miniature by J A Dixon
collection of B Palmer

Astermandarquoise
collage miniature by J A Dixon
collection of R Crabtree

Sweetly Terie
collage miniature by J A Dixon
collection of T Strock

Nested Pair
collage miniature by J A Dixon
collection of J Hellyer

“You can judge your age by the amount of pain you feel when you come in contact with a new idea.”
— John Nuveen

A maximalist to the core, it does not take much of a stimulus for me to create a miniature dense with ingredients. Happily, the flow of birthdays, anniversaries and thanks-worthy gestures continues unabated.
 

Congenial Subversion
collage miniature by J A Dixon
collection of K O’Brien

Honeydone
collage miniature by J A Dixon
collection of J Davis

Elboniana
collage miniature by J A Dixon
the Willoughby Papers

Soviet Madness
collage miniature by J A Dixon
collection of J Thornton

Large Game
collage miniature by J A Dixon
collection of R Jones

“When will we ever get wise to the debt we owe the men and women of the military? When will we ever learn to pray for them every day? We do not deserve such fine people.”
— Ben Stein

My nephew is not here for his birthday today. He’s in Jordan, or Kuwait, or Afghanistan — I don’t even know exactly where, but someplace dangerous and probably very, very hot.

Celebrate the day, Josh, if you can.
Serve well. Be safe. Return home.