June 2011 Archives

I am pretty fond of Dawn's digital collages, they all just seem so perfectly and geometrically executed! She mentions that her Graphic Design degree program has her accustomed to making as many variations as possible, and it's nice to see small elements repeated elsewhere in her body of work. Also, it's impossible to see anything I would change in her collages--they are so thought out!

Dawn Gardner / DG Design
dawngardnerdesign.com
Essex, United Kingdom

Describe your work in 10 words or less.

Layered visual musings to fuel further interpretations and imaginations.

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

A combination of the above. I like to incorporate my own photography with vintage imagery from National Geographic Magazines dating from the 1950's - 70's, Time-Life books or traditional craft magazines. I have always enjoyed experimenting with texture within my design and illustration, scanning found papers, materials or creating my own patterns digitally via Photoshop or Illustrator.

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

Although I have long been an admirer of collage, I only started making my own about a year ago. I touched upon collage primary illustrations within a self authored project at the end of my second year of university and enjoyed the process so much that I decided to keep the technique at the heart of my Final Major Project this year. The project explores the overlapping of Image/Word/Sound, and so this process of selection, layering and manipulation has been of huge benefit to the progression of the work and project itself.

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

I am a student at present, hopefully after graduating this summer I will be working within the design industry.

Do you have any formal art training?

I am nearing the completion of a BA hons in Graphic Design.

Explain your favourite techniques.

Although I enjoy hand rendered collage and typography, I prefer the freedom and flexibility of working digitally, particularly the multitude of possibilities you can achieve with colour manipulation, blending and composition. I usually begin with a rough outline in mind of how I want the illustration or design to look, before looking through my archives and finding the stimuli I want to include. The experimentation process then takes over and I get lost in the world I'm creating. The nature of my degree course means that I have grown accustomed to developing as many variations as possible, but this has also resulted in me constantly adjusting and tweaking - knowing when to stop is definitely the key to creating successful collages!

Describe your favourite piece ever created.

Like most other artists and designers, I usually always prefer the last piece I have worked on, but after a day or two this feeling soon evaporates and I feel the urge to create new work that is better than the last.

What other artists do you admire?

I have a list that is a mile long, but some favourites that come to mind include, Valerian Marguery, Julien Pacaud, Eduardo Recife, Tim Green, Jacob Whibley and Matthew Billington.

Thanks Dawn!

The way Benedikt describes his start is a great one, there are so many people who start to collage while traveling to a new place. Why does it feel so right to start pasting down things that you discover and experience while abroad? His collages hint at a bigger story, they are visually interesting without giving away too much of the story... They leave the rest up to the mind and creativity of the viewer.

Bene Rohlmann
gluepaperscissors.tumblr.com
Berlin, Germany

Describe your work in 10 words or less.

Weird cut&paste scenarios.

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

I prefer working with vintage magazines and books, that I buy at flea markets, in antique shops or find on my grandparents attic. But I also use images from daily newspapers sometimes or anything else that looks useful. When I see an image in any kind of printed media I immediately know if I could use it or not.

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

As many people did, I've made my first collages as a kid, but I seriously started about 2 years ago, while I've been studying one semester in Seoul, South Korea. They had these free daily papers there with a lot of great material in it. I collected them, bought a notepad with nice brownish paper and did one collage everyday for about 2 months. Since then I couldn't stop collecting, cutting, pasting and glueing.

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

I'm still busy with my illustration studies, but I'll have them finished next year and plan to make a living from illustration after that. Actually I'm a drawer, but as I've discovered my passion for the collage I will do both now. I think it's good to have more than one technique/medium, because when I'm stuck with my drawing, which I am sometimes, I start creating some collages.

Do you have any formal art training?

I'm studying design, with a major in illustration, since 2007.

Explain your favourite techniques.

I love to use real paper, scissors & glue. I've tried working digitally, but although it gives you tons of possibilities, it didn't feel right to me.

Describe your favourite piece ever created.

I couldn't tell which piece would be my favorite, but if I had a favorite it would probably be one my '8x14' collages which I've created during my time in Seoul. I really like the simplicity and minimalism in them.

What other artists do you admire?

That would be ATAK, Henning Wagenbreth, Elvis Studio, Thomas Allen, Tony Fitzpatrick, John Stezaker, to name just a few.

Thanks Bene!

Margarida's collages are bright and lively! She is attentive to geometry in her pieces which is a wonderful contrast with the bold femininity she displays in each piece. (Usually you expect to see a softer approach). She shows us pretty collages can also be strong!

Margarida Girão
www.margaridagirao.com
Lisbon, Portugal

Describe your work in 10 words or less.

Feminine. Emotion. Meaning.

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

Vintage magazines, books, photographs and stuff I find at home or in the streets.

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

Since I was 13. I don't know how to draw so I collect images and through collages I make up stories.

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

I am also a web designer and work as a creative at an editorial publisher. And with Inês Santiago we have a creative team, SHORT.

Do you have any formal art training?

No. My background is in linguistics and new technologies.

Explain your favourite techniques.

I love to mix images that are aesthetically pleasing. Usually I can get great effects with this. And I am always surprised by the effects.

Describe your favourite piece ever created.

I love the portraits made with animals and people. Animals & Humans mixed-up in beautiful portraits.

What other artists do you admire?

I like Matthew Billington and recently I have found Stephen Gill!

Thanks Margarida!

New work by Teri Donovan
June 22 to July 26, 2011

Red Head Gallery
401 Richmond Street West, Suite 115
Toronto, Ontario M5V 3A8

So many people mention connecting with collagists on Flickr as their first foray into collage, and I am thankful Flickr is there for discovery (and re-discovery) of cutting and pasting. Strange (since flickr is a photo sharing site) that artists have opened it up as their community, too. Jason designs books, so naturally he likes to collage in his spare time as well. His digital collages consist of fearless, super detailed pieces, that veer away from design into fresh artwork--with complete freedom from structure of course!

Jason Anscomb, aka Recycle Disciple
flickr, www.rawshock.co.uk (book design)
Brighton in the UK

Describe your work in 10 words or less.

Collages, bitter-sweet style. It's all in the re-mix.

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

Sometimes fragments in the street catch the eye, I bend swiftly and grab. (dirty looks from strangers are sometimes also gathered). I may see a book in a second hand shop (got a good one the other day, full of rich fat men hunting and shooting things).There's also the guy with the muzzer who hands out free daily magazines on my route to work.

I like patterns in envelopes. Vintage images are great, but perhaps we should learn to collage in the voice of the modern world sometimes? Having said that I really want to make a collage out of old Butlins postcards at some point in time.

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

Since I was 16 when I was going to art college. I have loads of little sketchbooks full to the Brim. I think it became a real obsession and one I have only just returned to recently after discovering this thriving community of collage people on Flickr.

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

I design book jackets and books during the day. Collage is a way of doing what I want to do for a change.

Do you have any formal art training?

Degree in Graphics and Communication from Brighton University.

Explain your favourite techniques.

My technique is to keep lots of snippings and let works unfold. My collages are often a bit twisted if I am honest.

I sometimes force myself to make pretty collages to even the balance a little. I love going on a journey and seeing where I end up. A recent discovery was that a shell was almost exactly the same shape as a little birds head. I like it when things visually fit, but make no sense.

Describe your favourite piece ever created.

I know this is a total cop-out, but it's still to come (just around the corner I promise).

What other artists do you admire?

Misprinted type, Robert Rauschenberg, Grey318, Michael Waraksa (M double U) Lou Beach, Build, David Pearson at Penguin books, and Bill Zindel come to mind.

Thanks Jason!

I think this little series collaboration between Marianne Dages (of Huldra Press) and Shane Darwent is pretty great. A bookbinder/letterpress(er) and a photographer, respectively, the work they created together is truly unique. Not the first time we have had basketball-themed collages. Read more about this project here!

Kyle's work kind of reminds me (in colour scheme and use of birds) of a fragmented Kareem Rizk collage, but Kyle definitely has his own style and techniques. I am really fond of the mixed use of natural elements and completely random shapes. And again, that colour scheme! Who doesn't warm up to turquoise blues with hints of red?

Kyle Mosher
kylemosher.com
Boston, MA

Describe your work in 10 words or less.

Rock-star personality with the work ethic to match; breathing new life into collage art.

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

Magazines, books and illustrations I find at used bookstores and royalty-free webpages.

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

I've been creating collages for five years and I was inspired by the works of Picasso and Cezanne.

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

I'm an artist and co-founder and designer for a custom clothing company, nashandburns.com.

Do you have any formal art training?

B.F.A. In Illustration.

Explain your favourite techniques.

Cutting and Pasting.

Describe your favourite piece ever created.

It's a toss up between, "let my flame go" and "ain't nothin' to play with."

What other artists do you admire?

Cezanne, Picasso, and Eduardo Recife.

Thanks Kyle!

I am always stumbling onto Jeffrey Meyer's work on the internet, it was only a matter of time before I featured his work here! He has such a huge body of work, and there is a wide range but you can definitely recognize his collages by his style. What drew me to them especially was the vibrancy of colour, which he plays up somewhere in each piece.

Jeffrey Meyer
http://goofbutton.com/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/goofbutton/
Born in Indiana, currently in the Pacific Northwest

Describe your work in 10 words or less.

Well-crafted but tight-assed.

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

No preferences -- anything I can find. I used to buy runs of magazines from the 1940s-70s. I pick up maybe 20 books and magazines a week from the local library's free pile. A decade ago I worked as a janitor in a different, enormous library and I'm still using stuff I hoarded from their discards and recycling. I occasionally root through dumpsters when it's not too conspicuous. So generally I don't pay for materials.

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

Since high school, I guess... 1986? But only in the last few years have I really concentrated on collage to the exclusion of everything else I'm interested in, such as cartooning (which is probably the most financially thankless and wretchedly difficult medium to work in, as far as I can tell).

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

I quit my last full-time job (peon in a video store) three years ago. I had saved a fair amount of money, and thanks to the generosity of my girlfriend I not only haven't had to pay rent, but I've also had a nice studio space (garage) to work in as well, where I can get high as a kite from glue fumes and 100-year-old encyclopedia mold. But it's been pretty precarious, and month to month I had no idea if I could pay my relatively meager credit card bill. Somehow or other I managed to sell about $2000 worth of artwork last year (this includes originals, prints, image use rights for album covers, etc.)... but of course I spent God knows how much on supplies and postage, so it's more or less a losing game for now. Not to mention I spend about 25 (mostly thankless) hrs a week obnoxiously "promoting" myself via online submissions to blogs, magazines, galleries, etc. which is time I'd much rather be making more art, of course. It's actually been so bad lately I've had to go on food stamps and get a part-time job refinishing floors. I expect I'll have cancer soon, yay!

Do you have any formal art training?

Couple years of life drawing in college. I had excellent teachers, but after filling 10,000 sketchbook pages I consider myself self-taught. Is collage even taught in school?

Explain your favourite techniques.

First I pour about six fingers of scotch, light a cigarette, drop "Shut Up, Little Man" in the CD player, then I -- just kidding. I don't know if I have any favorite techniques other than sorting endlessly through piles of pictures until something - color, shape, texture - catches my eye or suggests a larger meaning, at which point I separate it and keep shuffling until I find another image that somehow "matches" or complements the first. It's a pretty tedious process, but most of the time I know right away if something works (or doesn't). One thing I think I do well is "hide" which parts of my pictures are actually collaged -- there's often a primary image or figure which is obviously placed there by me, but I also spend a lot of time carefully constructing backgrounds, etc. which are composed of several disparate sources.

Describe your favourite piece ever created.

Well, the next day I disdain them all... but I think a few are successful, even pleasing: "Broken Dome" "Sugar Lights" "Cave at the Edge of the Park" "Blush" "Easter" "Borealis" "Hair 4" "Arcade Nebula"

What other artists do you admire?

Vanessa Lamounier, whose stuff has a looseness I envy (and I really can't tell if she's using scissors or making work digitally, so there's a nice tension there) and she's one of the few people using fashion imagery in an interesting way -- it seems both celebratory and subversive at the same time. Jason Overby, a cartoonist whose stories and/or content make no sense to me at all, but his combination of collage and drawing is remarkable to look at, like Sol LeWitt meets Gary Panter.

Thanks Jeffrey!