| Making
each
work is a continuous process of
gathering materials, cutting, and
pasting. Usually something
will attract my attention. This
might be a found image or a section
from a color photocopy of one of my
own photographs. I’ll paste
this down with an acrylic gel medium
onto a gessoed masonite
support. |
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All the
while, I’ll be rummaging
through my collection of
old books with
reproductions of paintings
and photographs, and
through files of my own
photos, making color
photocopies of the ones
that seem useful. For
the most part, I won’t be
looking for actual images,
but for areas of color,
line, texture, and detail. |
|
From
these pages, I’ll cut
out hundreds of little
bits, many as small as
an actual brush
stroke. These
pieces are for my
pictures what dabs of
paint are for a
painting. They
are the elements that
make up the work and
give it its substance. |
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I glue
these pieces onto the
support. I don't
usually sketch
anything out, except
for a few perspective
lines on the
Underground and street
scenes. I work
best eyeballing it
freeform. Once I am
satisfied that the
picture is finished, I
go back over the top
of it with a slightly
heavier gel medium.
This unifies the
surface and adds to
the overall texture
and luminosity of the
finished piece. |
|
As my
way of making collages
has evolved, I have
discovered that what I
like most about my
medium is its almost
sculptural aspect, the
way the elements of
the work can be
blended and layered
and shaped with
scissors, tweezers,
and acrylic
mediums. |
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The
interplay of all these
little bits of
different textures and
colors creates an
intricate and unique
world that can only
exist inside each
particular paper
mosaic. |
| My intention is to create
pictures that have the look and feel of
paintings, but with the sculptural quality of
cut paper work. |
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|
I
have used
photocopies for
years. I often used to fill pictures
with black and
white copies of
found images and
textures. Now I mostly work
with color copies
of my own
photographs.
Here are a couple of examples of
earlier pieces: |
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Morning
Coffee (24" x
18" 1994)
was in a travelling
exhibition of photocopier art in the spring of
1999. |
|
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The logo for
my studio,
Zebra
Crossing
Picture
Factory,
evolved from Zebras (18"x 24" 1993).
|
| Artists
have been using
reproductions of
source material
for collage and
related kinds of
artwork since
long before the
common use of
photocopiers.
One example is
Joseph Cornell
(1903-1972), who
often worked with photostats
of images he got from the library. |
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