John's collages are sort of mathematical and geometric, but while this sounds boring, his collages are anything but. The bright colours on brown paper, (which I am drawn to because I have a strange, unexplainable soft spot for Kraft paper) are very exciting!
John Fogarty
www.flickr.com/photos/49963509@N00/
Rutherford, NJ
Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: A physical, emotional, and psychological explosion of energy brought together on paper.
Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I enjoy finding old textbooks, manuals, magazines and chopping them up. I'm especially interested in finding things that can be either used structurally, defining some sort of space or direction in the piece as well as odd and funny things that out of context can mean multiple things or nothing.
Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I've been working on collage off and on for about 5 years. More recently, say the past 2 years, it became a way of me keeping the majority of art (drawing and painting) fresh. So over time the collages started to take some of the ideas from my drawings and paintings and become more interesting, or cohesive, than earlier stuff (which was just an overflow of energy and boredom with the other mediums).
Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: Yes, mainly painting and drawing, but making collages is becoming more and more interesting to me.
Q: Do you have any formal art training?
A: No not really, I took some classes at the Art Student's League of NY, but mostly I'm self taught through pouring over art books at the library for the past 8 years and painting, drawing, and making collages for catharsis.
Q: Explain your favourite techniques.
A: I love finding pieces that connect, like building a schematic of an imaginary construction with tangents or satellites that I connect with pen or have positioned in a way that feels right. Lately I've started to cut more delicate and intricate pieces from magazines and books. My technique is pretty much being in the zone that a lot of other artist's just call "flow".
Q: Describe your favourite piece ever created.
A: Hmm. Possibly this piece called "Firmament" I made a year or 2 ago. It was in connection to a song, but mainly to the idea of creating being a direct link to the unexplainable or what some people find in religion.
Q: What other artists do you admire?
A: So, so many. Max Ernst, Roberto Matta, Kurt Schwitters, David Ellis, Abandonview, Yves Tanguy, Gordon Matta-Clark.
Thanks John!
![](http://www.notpaper.net/images/masters1.JPG")
Great work!!!
hey john, i know your work is exciting.... weird interview.
Are you making fun of my little blurb? haha
I like the sheep with the robotic arm. Robo-Ewe for the win!
hi aprile, this is john, actually it's not Kraft paper, all of the paper are actually the end pages from hardcover books i've used for materials. didn't know what Kraft paper was until i looked it up. just thought i'd mention it. it looks similar in some cases i agree.
Haha, sorry. It's really just the way I refer to any paper that colour, you know, "Kraft paper brown" or "paper bag brown."