Archive for December, 2014

the Man Card ~ part three

Wednesday, December 31st, 2014

“But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;”
— William Butler Yeats

If you have not tired of looking at images that grew out of the guy-to-guy thing, here are just a few more items from the Haus of Cards that illustrate some occasions when only a Man Card will do.

 
collage greeting card by John Andrew Dixon

Coast Starlight
collage greeting card by J A Dixon

collage greeting card by John Andrew Dixon

David Down Under
collage greeting card by J A Dixon

collage greeting card by John Andrew Dixon

THE MAN
collage greeting card by J A Dixon

collage greeting card by John Andrew Dixon

The Wood Duck Society
collage greeting card by J A Dixon

A Very Merry Merry!

Thursday, December 25th, 2014

 

collage greeting card by John Andrew Dixon

Nog and Tea
collage miniature by J A Dixon
private collection

Assignment: Mars

Monday, December 22nd, 2014

“I would do ‘John Carter’ again tomorrow. I’m very proud of ‘John Carter.’ Box office doesn’t validate me as a person, or as an actor.”
— Taylor Kitsch

One of the more exciting developments for any artist is the request for original artwork based on an interesting theme. Whether it is for personal or commercial purposes, the medium of collage is ideally suited for commissions, and the process can make use of visual ingredients provided by the client, if the artist sees fit to embed them. It probably goes without saying that the applied arts can be a tricky affair for some fine artists. It is important to sort out the contrasts between meeting customer expectations and following one’s own creative direction. There is also a range of differences among the types of projects that might benefit from a collage assignment, including packaging or label graphics, book cover or editorial illustration, product design, or the straightforward commissioning of a fine-art work. Clear communication up front is always the best approach, and there is nothing wrong with declining a job if client objective and artist satisfaction cannot be fulfilled at the same time.

Today’s example was created for the buyer’s presentation as a gift to an engineer closely involved in Martian exploration. When the client described the intended recipient’s passion for the subject, I swallowed hard, but my initial trepidation soon faded as the process took on a life and momentum of its own (as, thankfully, it always does for me). I shall admit, however, that it may take a little time before I replenish my red-planet stash.
 

Dixon_AssignmentMars

Assignment: Mars
collage miniature on panel by J A Dixon
8 x 10 inches
private collection

the Man Card ~ part two

Thursday, December 18th, 2014

“The only way to have a friend is to be one.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

When a shared memory triggers laughter with a pal, bystanders usually understand and think, “I guess you had to be there.”

 
collage greeting card by John Andrew Dixon

Bay-Oh-Deez
collage greeting card by J A Dixon

collage greeting card by John Andrew Dixon

Eddies of Empire
collage greeting card by J A Dixon

collage greeting card by John Andrew Dixon

Assimilation
collage greeting card by J A Dixon

collage greeting card by John Andrew Dixon

Cabin One Tunes
collage greeting card by J A Dixon

On Nostalgia in Collage

Thursday, December 11th, 2014

“ . . . what I am hoping to do is discover if it is possible to separate nostalgia and collage art, or determine whether the two are inextricably entwined.”
— Joel Lambeth

In a blog entry last month, collage artist Joel Lambeth asked the challenging question, “Is collage inherently nostalgic?” It is one of the more provocative pieces about our medium that I have read this year, although a bit wordy in places. Admittedly, most working collage artists like us who maintain blogs that purport to be more than an online portfolio are not the finest writers alive, and I salute him for not choosing to approach the topic in a superficial way. Nevertheless, it is always risky to generalize about anything, but Lambeth cuts deeply into the subject to probe the history and heart of collage as an art form, and he manages to avoid a semantic discourse on the definition of the word “nostalgia.” His thoughtful viewpoints have sparked a desire on my part to weigh in (with what also may prove to be an entry more verbose than usual).

The groundbreaker Max Ernst worked with vintage engravings, perhaps to emphasize his anti-traditionalist intentions.a Joseph Cornell aviary assemblage He influenced Joseph Cornell, who captured feelings of personal nostalgia with innovative effects that were as cutting-edge as they were fixated on musings about the past. When analyzing collage artwork with respect to the idea of nostalgia, we must take into consideration the artist’s motivation in addition to the overall character of the medium. When I look at current examples from the daily waves of creative output, it is clear that nostalgia in collage plays out along a spectrum or continuum like nearly every other feature of the process, whether it be minimalism/maximalism, realism/surrealism, or representation/abstraction.

It is surprising to me how many contemporary collage artists work exclusively with old ingredients, but that does not mean necessarily that their agenda is merely to traffic in sentimentality. Sara Caswell-Pearce and Nancy Gene Armstrong are among those who appear to harness nostalgia as a conscious objective in their work while achieving a broad balance of artistic creativity. Many collage artists, such as Carolina Chocron, Nikki Soppelsa, Ross Carron, Fred Litch, Laura Collins, and Frank Voigt are more apt to generate nostalgic tones as a byproduct of incorporating vintage ingredients into strong compositions. Only these individuals could clarify to what degree they actively try to convey impressions of an era gone by. The versatile Zach Collins and Randel Plowman, although they frequently work with obviously old paper, both seem to be engaged in ongoing visual investigations more primary than any sense of nostalgia embedded in their finished works.

Lambeth compares the nostalgic impulse to the process of collage itself and concludes by suggesting “that at a very base level collage and nostalgia have more in common than they do separating them.” He acknowledges the contemporary effort to transcend the inherent bias that the medium may have toward nostalgia. Perhaps he, Marc Deb, Launa Romoff, Andrew Lundwall, Teri Dryden, and numerous other artists are making the push beyond any fundamental nostalgic essence. If so, collage, after more than a hundred years, is cycling back to its roots, when Kurt Schwitters, who always considered himself a painter, became convinced that the pasted detritus of his environment was equally as legitimate as a brushstroke of oily pigment.
 

Midnight Gambol: Or Why The Bees Slept In Every Morning
mixed-media collage by Sara Caswell-Pearce

A Boy and a Swan
collage by Nancy Gene Armstrong

descosiendo el cuadrilátero
collage by Carolina Chocron

Napoleon shows his hand
collage by Nikki Soppelsa

untitled
collage by Fred Litch

Nubecula Cum Ovi
collage by Ross Carron

Jump
collage by Laura Collins

untitled
collage by Fred Voigt

141zc14
collage on wood panel by Zach Collins

August Night
collage by Randel Plowman

Ripping It Up
collage by Joel Lambeth

Imperfect Parallels
collage by Marc Deb

the parrot (detail)
mixed-media collage by Launa D Romoff

Substance
mixed-media collage by Andrew Lundwall

9 Lives
mixed-media collage by Teri Dryden

your basic Man Card . . .

Thursday, December 4th, 2014

“There are a good many fools who call me a friend, and also a good many friends who call me a fool.”
— G. K. Chesterton

Have you ever made a gift so peculiar that you wondered if your friend on the receiving end would make all the special connections? For me, the personal miniature is inexplicable enough in its own right. The individual collage greeting made by a male artist for his friend not only defies general explanation, but may not be entirely comprehensible, even for its intended recipient (which, in my experience, seems to work out just fine for everyone involved).

 
collage greeting card by John Andrew Dixon

Large Bore Boar
collage greeting card by J A Dixon

collage greeting card by John Andrew Dixon

Reduced to This
collage greeting card by J A Dixon

collage greeting card by John Andrew Dixon

Small Bore Boer
collage greeting card by J A Dixon

collage greeting card by John Andrew Dixon

Pump Heat, Pack Iron
collage greeting card by J A Dixon