November 2010 Archives

Nick's surreal collages look like something borrowed from dreamland, something you can only faintly remember but have a feeling that sticks in the mind. The celestial themes and rainbows of colour make his work look like something you see when you close your eyes. It makes me wonder if he collages while he sleeps or is just really good at daydreaming nonsense!

Nick Paliughi
www.nickpaliughi.com
Unfixed

Describe your work in 10 words or less.

The vaguely recalled dreams of a magician laying in bed.

What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!

I try to only use photographic material... usually from the 60's-70's, from National Geographic or old science books. By using pictures that were all printed in the same era, and by not mixing photographic elements with graphical elements in the collage, the finished pieces (to me) have some kind of equilibrium or grace... also a nostalgic feel which also adds some believability.

How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?

I fell out of the hay loft of a very tall barn last year and broke some ribs. During the downtime I started collaging and the habit stuck.

Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?

I do some website/graphic design, farm work during the season, and other less mentionable odd jobs.

Do you have any formal art training?

No formal training, but I would like to someday be creating art while dressed in formal wear, and being paid for this.

Explain your favourite techniques.

I like to get a stack of fresh (old) magazines and index everything that catches my eye, then go back and cut them all out and spread them out everywhere. I like starting several collages at once like this, and then building a mental library of these weird pictures to call on... Sometimes Inspiration strikes while reading National Geographic on the toilet. I strive to make the pieces appear slightly believable. The situations are obviously surreal/absurd, but there is some visual unity with the colors an the era of the materials I'm using that makes the scene believable in a dreamlike sense. You might dream of two people rowing a boat at night and then they just start rowing up into the sky, and in your dream you're like 'ok, I can accept that'...and then you move along into the next scene and don't even think twice about the sky-rowing until you wake up. And when you do think about it, it's faded and low contrast like a 1960's National Geographic magazine.

Describe your favourite piece ever created.

I think my favourite is "Peanuts". It's one of the simpler ones I've made but the most powerful.

What other artists do you admire?

I like William Kentridge, Chris Johanson, Fred Tomaselli, Megan Coyle, Siena Mayers, Phillip Estlund, Agnes Montgomery, someone that goes by "KOKOFREAKBEAN" on flickr.

Thanks Nick!

"Love, Longing & Six Legs"
Written by Dierdre Anne Martin
Illustrated by Stefanie Augustine

The Elegant Cockroach is a charming storybook for whimsical grown-ups and sophisticated children.

Available from Uppercase Gallery.

The Elegant Cockroach from UPPERCASE gallery on Vimeo.

Greg's work has all the typographic qualities that I love to see when graphic design and art start to mingle. The colours, layering, and words and letters are quirky and refreshing. It invokes (for me at least) the "why did I think of that?" feeling. And, of course, the vintage ephemera he uses evokes equal vibrancy.

Greg Lamarche
www.greglamarche.com

Describe your work in 10 words or less.

Elegant, unique, bold and original.

What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!

I like to work with printed papers from the 1940s to the 80s. The printing and the quality are far superior than today. I mainly use paper with matte finish never anything too new or glossy.

How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?

I started making collages around 1980-81 as a kid I used to pick up things off the street and make simple collages and compositions. A lot of my early collages were made with burnt out firework wrappers.

Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?

I am also a freelance graphic designer and part time vandal. But I am mostly a full time artist.

Do you have any formal art training?

Not really, I attended a specialized art high school where I took college level art classes, (when I actually went to school). At that point most of my time was spent writing graffiti. When I got to college I wanted to get away and was not interested in formal training. That said, I did major in art with a minor in graphic design but I was able to experiment with photography and glass blowing so I learned and experienced other art forms rather than being too focused on one thing.

Explain your favourite techniques.

Collage, drawing and spray paint.

Describe your favourite piece ever created.

Hard to pick just one, but the Fun Gun piece I made a few years back is definitely one of my all time favourites. I showed it once and didn't want to sell it and it has lived in my collection ever since.

What other artists do you admire?

Kurt Schwitters, Joseph Cornell, Ed Keinholtz, Tom Friedman, Cildo Meireles and Ray Johnson to name a few.

Thanks Greg!

Karl has very strong opinions and he is clearly dedicated to his artwork as a form of expression, and I like the shape his work takes. You can tell that there is a fierce motivation behind everything he does. But enough from me, read on and his work will speak for itself!

Karl Noyes
www.roosterhouse.org, www.paperonpaper.com
Minneapolis

Describe your work in 10 words or less.

Semi-failed attempts to make sense of the now.

What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!

I like working with the impersonal media around us. Notes found on the street, parking tickets, pornography, newspapers, food wrappers, advertising. We are saturated in impersonal and inhuman media. We soak it in by our nature and we must dissect it, remove it from its context to understand its continually perversive nature. Thus I tend to work with what is around me.

How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?

My first collages were put together in high school art classes. I went back to collage as soon as I fled the education system. I went through a couple years of detoxification and realized that every pillar that was in place for generations before us like marriage, religion, meat-eating, child bearing, government, occupations, education have grown into personal enslavement tools. These and institutions like them are the largest forms of shams; all substitutes for one thinking for one's self. And our responsibility in this current state of mass information is to diffuse the lies, discern the truth and most of all trust ourselves and our hearts beyond any social pressures. For most of human history, people existed in peace without these shams and collage by its destructive nature helps recover the intuitions necessary to understand motivations and symbols. In the United States we have a government that assassinates its gifted artists. In the near future privacy will be exitinct and genetic engineering will do what it can to control randomness. We as a species have only a short time to create before feral and intuitive artists are selectively eliminated from the gene pool. There is no time for tv, protesting or voting; we must create now.

Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?

I work for myself and take care of the economics via many of the techniques John Hoffman discusses in his "Art and Science of Dumpster Diving" books. I've worked as a security guard, motor oil monkey, library page, lab rat, gas station clerk, baker, etc etc etc and all of it drudgery. There are few things more humiliating and soul-destroying than working for someone else. So I dig in dumpsters and I find ways to be self-sustainable.

Do you have any formal art training?

No. My art training began when I started this long string of dropping out.

Explain your favourite techniques.

I feel I am working well when I am losing conscious understanding, just shifting paper on the table, acting on whims. It's the closest I can get to the dream state alone and awake.

Describe your favourite piece ever created.

I like "Vacation at Marlboro Mountain".

What other artists do you admire?

Philip K. Dick, Low, Shohei Ooka, Crew Jones, Kathy Acker, J.G. Ballard, Joe Cunningham, William S. Burroughs, Kevin "Berserker" Hagen, Alexander Calder, Sweet J.A.P, John Hoff, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Kafka, Emily Hayes, Charles Gatewood, Charlie Parr.

Thanks Karl!

Morteza's work has a childlike curiosity, with its crayon doodles and cut and pasted little bits of paper. I really admire the detail his work has, but at the same time it's not stuffy, it's quite loosely done. Each piece has a thousand little nuances of pastel shades and delicate drawings.

Morteza Zahedi
www.mortezahedi.com
I live and work in Tehran - IRAN.

Describe your work in 10 words or less.

I am a modern illustrator for children's books and also painter and sculpture artist...

What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!

I would like work with museums ;-)

How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?

About 10 years ago.

Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?

I told you that I am an illustrator, painter, and sculptor--but I am also a teacher.

Do you have any formal art training?

Yes, I learned Graphics and Painting in university.

Explain your favourite techniques.

I like working with paper because I am a paper artist ... or I am a mixed media artist maybe!

Describe your favourite piece ever created.

Unfortunately I can't answer you very well...

What other artists do you admire?

Kveta Pacovska, Javier Zabala and so many artists in the world, sorry, this is a hard question to answer!

Thanks Morteza!

Lucky me, I just received in the mail WAFA's second zine, For A Brief Time Only (aptly named because their first zine, Maps, sold out so quickly!) The second one is all photography, and it's great to see this collective of artist approach work from all sides--and all kinds of media.

(Here's my lovely copy)

I also wanted to include some images from their last zine, Maps (because this is a collage blog and it seems fitting) which features pages of collage collaboration.

I am always looking forward to new work by WAFA, and I can't wait to see what zine #3 will be! They also have a newsletter now, for keeping in touch with new releases (hurry! they are all limited editions).