{"id":8095,"date":"2017-01-15T18:33:52","date_gmt":"2017-01-15T22:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/?p=8095"},"modified":"2020-01-11T20:44:16","modified_gmt":"2020-01-12T00:44:16","slug":"empress-of-wings-when-is-the-flight-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/archives\/8095","title":{"rendered":"Empress of Wings \u2014 When is the flight over?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI tell you what gets harder over the years, it\u2019s coming to grips with \u2018is it finished yet or do I want to make one more change?\u2019\u201d
\n\u2013 B L Cummings
\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Being invited by our Community Arts Center<\/a> to participate in the annual winter invitational of regional artists<\/a> never fails to jump-start my burst of year-end activity. Submissions to the January-to-February show are required to have been completed after August. The request comes in late October, but, instead of selecting from completed works, <\/a>I\u2019ll typically commence a work specific to the exhibition in early November. I set a goal this time to produce my largest collage ever and to shoot some in-progress photos.<\/p>\n

The first image below indicates how I blocked out the early composition with mostly larger elements. The second represents how the color-quantity contrasts and spatial manipulations resolved themselves. The last image is the finished work with final layering and a few closing refinements.<\/p>\n

It is a challenge to maintain a high degree of spontaneity when creating so large a work (for me, the dedicated miniaturist).<\/em> It helps to carry a momentum of small-scale experimentation into the process, plus there are things I do to boost an \u201corganic\u201d flow. For example, if there are aspects of the color scheme I want to enhance, rather than acquire and position new elements one by one and invite too much preoccupation with each, I will quickly prepare a batch of ingredients and place them into the composition as rapidly and as intuitively as possible, responding to my impression of the evolving totality. Instead of pondering two-dimensional locations, the eye or hand moves first, and one learns to trust whether something \u201cbelongs\u201d or not. Also, it can be difficult to know when the winding down to conclusion should start. At a certain point, I become conscious of a natural progression toward closing refinements (more logical considerations for balancing and harmonizing the overall effect). Noticing an escalation of rational deliberation can be the reliable signal that a piece may nearly be done \u2014 almost time to \u201cpull the plug and sign it.\u201d<\/p>\n

We are unlikely to hear any collage artist say that completing a work is an exact science. Personally, if I walk away from something that I suspect is finished, it is less probable that I will continue to monkey with it when I come back. It is beneficial to have an objective consultant \u2014 in my case, a trusted partner willing to instruct, \u201cDon\u2019t touch it!\u201d<\/p>\n

I also should note that the exhibition is an opportunity for Robert Hugh Hunt<\/a> and me to unveil another major collaboration (more to say about that next time). Creating the interlocking mixed-media construction was an interesting process. The result is something unconventional, and we\u2019re pleased that it was selected as the promotional image<\/a> for the show.
\n <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n 
\n 
an early and a late
\nstage of my largest
\ncollage painting to date
 
(click each for larger view)
<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n 
\n 
\n <\/p>\n

\"Empress<\/a><\/p>\n

Empress of Wings<\/em><\/strong>
\ncollage on canvas by J A Dixon
\n42.25 x 30.375 inches
\navailable for purchase<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI tell you what gets harder over the years, it\u2019s coming to grips with \u2018is it finished yet or do I want to make one more change?\u2019\u201d \u2013 B L Cummings   Being invited by our Community Arts Center to participate in the annual winter invitational of regional artists never fails to jump-start my burst […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,273,260,1,437,8,22,18,111,35,172],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8095"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8095"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13223,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8095\/revisions\/13223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}