Going Under Collage

For me, each new painting is a journey into the unknown, and in that way, a metaphor for life. I have no idea what lies ahead, how I will get there, or if I will succeed. The journey unfolds a little at a time, slowly revealing to me which path to follow. My approach is based on the idea of "happy accidents," in which I encourage and curate a certain amount of chaos, and then sculpt it into a composition. This process requires me to step further out of my comfort zone to find ways to make essentially random events work together as a whole. Each journey is different, not only in outcome but also in technique. I use all manner of media including pens and pencils, crayons, acrylics, magazines, and spray paint. I call this media fusion. My subject matter is most often determined closer to the end of creating a piece when apparent themes begin to emerge from the chaos field. It is only then that an image or motif will arise to give a meaning or direction to the entire piece. I don't really require inspiration or ideas; I just start working and the materials themselves suggest what to do. I simply follow the cues they are giving me. I work on several pieces at once so I can move to whichever one reveals the next steps, while letting the others remain fallow until they are ready to divulge their directions to me. My current body of work uses a lot of collage elements such as articles and illustrations from magazines. I often use the pages as palettes for mixing paint colors, or even leave them outside in the elements to create texture and distortion before merging them into drawings. In the information age there is rather a lot of "information pollution," which I up-cycle into art. I apply the collage elements into a sub-matrix created by intuitive drawing, which gives them a very organic flow. This blend of chaos, intuitive response, and media fusion creates a unique tapestry where each piece becomes its own journey of discovery, both for myself and, ultimately, for those who engage with it.