{"id":9068,"date":"2017-04-23T12:30:36","date_gmt":"2017-04-23T16:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/?p=9068"},"modified":"2021-05-03T08:41:15","modified_gmt":"2021-05-03T12:41:15","slug":"constrained-collage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/archives\/9068","title":{"rendered":"First cause: the intuitive response"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>\u201cEvery athlete, every musician practices every day. Why should it be different for artists?\u201d<br \/>\n\u2014 Christoph Niemann<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Creating a collage within constraints is one of the most enjoyable activities within the medium, because it is necessary to throw oneself upon the mercy of pure intuition. Last week I was in the middle of caring for my mother at our family farm, and I assigned myself this exercise:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/MomboMe_Easter2017-e1492966322544.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/MomboMe_Easter2017-e1492966322544.jpg\" alt=\"Mombo (V E Dixon) with her son (J A Dixon) ~ Easter at the Blue Bank Farm, 2017\" title=\"Mombo and JAD ~ Easter at the Blue Bank Farm, 2017\" width=\"187\" height=\"155\" hspace=\"19\" vspace=\"12\" align=right size-full wp-image-8896\" \/><\/a><em>\u2022 <strong>Complete one full-page collage in my journal within the time of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/archives\/category\/v-e-dixon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mombo\u2019s<\/a> two-hour afternoon nap, using only ingredients found in the recycling bin.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Naturally, my journal is the perfect place to conduct such exercises. I take what I learn from the small format and bring it to larger artworks. What is it that I learn? That, too, is primarily a matter of fortifying one\u2019s intuition. I hope to internalize the creative response that each experiment reveals and keep my collage process as subjective as possible. For me, nothing bogs down the making of a collage more than too much rational thinking, which is best reserved for aesthetic refinements, finishing touches, and creating titles.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Dixon_Untitled_FirstCause.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Dixon_Untitled_FirstCause.jpg\" title=\"Untitled (first cause) ~ J A Dixon\" alt=\"Untitled (first cause) ~ a collage miniature by John Andrew Dixon, Danville, Kentucky\" width=\"333\" height=\"444\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 88%; line-height: 133%; margin-top: 11px; margin-bottom: 44px; color: gray; padding-left: 30px;\" align=\"left\"><strong><em>Untitled (first cause)<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\nconstrained collage exercise by J A Dixon<br \/>\npage from 11&#215;14 Strathmore journal<br \/>\nnot for sale<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cEvery athlete, every musician practices every day. Why should it be different for artists?\u201d \u2014 Christoph Niemann &nbsp; Creating a collage within constraints is one of the most enjoyable activities within the medium, because it is necessary to throw oneself upon the mercy of pure intuition. Last week I was in the middle of caring [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[412,1,160,52,22,18,68,111,35,621,131],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9068"}],"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=9068"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15126,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9068\/revisions\/15126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}