Year Five: a new “Janus Project” in the works?
December 26th, 2017“There are, it seems, two muses: the Muse of Inspiration, who gives us inarticulate visions and desires, and the Muse of Realization, who returns again and again to say ‘It is yet more difficult than you thought.’ This is the muse of form. It may be then that form serves us best when it works as an obstruction, to baffle us and deflect our intended course. It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.”
― Wendell Berry
Someone once opined that “since most people feel that the world gets worse, not better, the only basis of genuinely popular art is nostalgia.” There may be some truth in that. However, one could recall examples of entirely new things gaining wide popularity, too, especially in music. The visual artist must accept that most people will never grant them the position that they ascribe to musical and culinary artists, because nothing in life will supplant music and food in their daily routine of emotional attachments (although, with the current explosion of binge-on-demand streaming entertainment, other creatives may be poised to achieve a similar status).
When I reflect on my fifth year of musing about collage at this blogsite and look ahead to the next, I realize just how much work there is in front of me to puzzle through some of these ideas.
Like many artists, I hope to juggle goals that may at first seem in contradiction: to attract patrons, to inspire colleagues, and to please myself. I don’t see any way to approach it other than to balance elements of our past (the appeal of the nostalgic), our present (the lure of the trend), and our future (the surprise of the new). How convenient that balancing elements in Janus-like fashion just happens to be my craft!
In all seriousness, collage (and the related montage-inherent media) are almost uniquely suited to the challenge at hand, and perhaps that is why post-centennial collage is becoming a worldwide phenomenon in the 21st. Diving more deeply into this quandary will provide ample food for thought in the coming year. Meanwhile, I shall make more!
Nikki Soppelsa
Look ahead to a discussion of “ultra miniaturism” in collage.
Robert Hugh Hunt
Stay tuned for a review of contemporary collage abstraction.
Terry R Flowers
Is it time to peruse the long history of humor in collage?
Kurt Schwitters
And I shall never tire of studying and sharing the work of KS.
Merry Merry!
December 19th, 2017
Cyborg Santa
John’s Haus of Cards!
collection of J M Strock, Jr
Shop at the Holiday Market!
December 12th, 2017Buy local this season and bring home a sleigh-load of art. The Holiday Market at the Community Arts lasts until December 23rd!
Holiday Market at the Community Arts Center
Downtown Danville, Kentucky
Interior decorations by C Beale
News from the Kentucky Crafted Program
December 5th, 2017“Proper, untainted pride is not a bad thing. It can even make you try harder sometimes.”
— B L Cummings
I must confess that I am elated and gratified to learn from the Kentucky Arts Council that I have been designated as a “newly adjudicated” participant in the Kentucky Crafted Program.
It is not my nature to feel entitled, and so I approach any initiative supported by taxpayers with a respectful awareness of their essential role.
It pleases me to know that I submitted for evaluation some of the best work I have done, and look ahead with anticipation to fulfilling the purpose of the program and returning a dividend on any public investment made in my artistic goals. I am also keenly attuned to the unmet economic potential that the so-called “creative class” can contribute to my adopted commonwealth. But make no mistake, I would never assume that those of you who are kind enough to visit a site devoted to “all things collage” would have an overwhelming interest in my personal goings-on. Take it as a mere news flash. The proof is in the proverbial pudding, of course.
Noelia Brim Falcon
collage miniature by J A Dixon
7.8125 x 8.375 inches
Purchase this artwork!
Caroline Knot Cornelius
collage miniature by J A Dixon
7.8125 x 8.375 inches
Purchase this artwork!
Three more book covers . . .
November 28th, 2017“The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.”
— Ellen Parr“What do I make next?”
— Paula Scher
Curiosity is perhaps a common characteristic of all visual artists, but certainly it is a driving feature of what motivates the collage practitioner — curiosity about acquiring and editing discovered remnants, curiosity about choosing a substrate or background context, and curiosity about composing selected ingredients for creative juxtaposition. We are all, in essence, “curators” of what others have cast aside.
Cecil Touchon has written, “The hunt for found materials is crucial to the process of many collage artists, causing them to be consummate collectors of things. Their collecting of material artifacts for their artistic appeal and possibilities rather than for rarity or value often makes them keenly aware of popular culture — present and past — with the subtle eye of an anthropological curator. Collage artists explore the artifacts that have poured out of the cornucopia of modern society, using them as grist for the creative mill, generating new works of art with materials that have already had their useful life and have been retired from their intended purpose. In the hands of collage artists, these materials often achieve poetic stature when their inherent visual qualities are brought to the fore and their former usefulness disregarded.”
Every creative person is interested in what comes next. Those of us who focus our curiosity on the discarded are also interested in what we shall rescue and transform in order to create it.
Touché
collage miniature on book cover by J A Dixon
7 x 10 inches
Purchase this artwork!
Mussel Power
collage miniature on book cover by J A Dixon
7 x 10 inches
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Evolucent
collage miniature on book cover by J A Dixon
7 x 10 inches
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Happy Birthday to my only Grandson!
November 21st, 2017
Rugged Country
collage miniature by J A Dixon
8 x 10 inches
collection of J M Strock, Jr
Miniature vs. Miniature
November 20th, 2017“Tie small-scale contrasts together compositionally, but also large-scale contrasts; for instance: confront chaos with order, so that both groups, which are separately coherent, become related when they are placed next to or above each other; they enter into the relation of contrast, whereby the characters of both sides are mutually heightened.”
— Paul Klee, 1915
For the most part, I consider any collage artwork that is 8 x 10 inches or smaller to be a “miniature,” but this is not a definition that I expect anyone else to adopt. It is just a personal rule of thumb within my nomenclature, based on a conviction that the small format has been at the heart of the evolving medium from the outset and continues to be the wellspring of innovation.
Cohesive collage artworks at this scale have always been qualified to stand on their own as finished creations, but I am increasingly fascinated by the process of assembling multiples or embedding miniatures into composite designs. It boosts their perceived character as “artifacts,” and offers the practitioner another level of discernment that balances intuitive spontaneity with more considered design judgments.
This is a series that I shall enjoy expanding.
Please let me know what you think.
Fresh-Full of Youth
combined collage miniature segments
J A Dixon, 11 x 14 inches
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Clarissa’s Beetle
combined collage miniature segments
J A Dixon, 11 x 14 inches
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Happy Birthday to my only Godson!
November 19th, 2017
Small Animation
collage miniature by J A Dixon
7.375 x 10.25 inches
collection of N J Dixon
New note cards featuring ‘Cherry Balm’
November 17th, 2017It’s that time of year when I urge you to “take note” of the card sets featuring some of my collage artworks, (now including Cherry Balm). They’ll be available during Danville’s upcoming Holiday Market at the Arts Center, which opens tonight. It is shaping up to be a unique local kick-off for the gift-giving season — live music, cash bar, and an assortment of holiday treats for hungry shoppers. For those nearby: begin your year-end activities in earnest. Perhaps I shall see you this evening!
Cherry Balm (details)
assorted vertical-format note cards by J A Dixon
4 blank cards, 1 each of 4 cover images
5.125 x 7.75 inches, folded
available for purchase
November 13th, 2017
I shall be participating in the first-ever Holiday Market at our local Community Arts Center. The opening reception is this Friday evening, and I’m curious to see how much interest there is in art buying for the year-end season.