Red Orange Tan and Purple (after Mark Rothko) Collage

From the series "Hollywood Remakes" Created between 2011 and the present day, Hollywood Remakes is a series of A4 portrait collages. In order to create the pictures I'll first sketch the lines from an existing work by an artist I admire onto the page. As these works may not be A4 portrait shape this creates an initial distortion between the original and my version. The next distortion is taking the intricacy of the original piece and simplifying it to specific blocks or segments on the page. These segments and then filled with torn magazine covers. The end effect is one of confusion where the original picture (due to distortions) is difficult to make out, and where the torn covers mean those original images are fractured - creating another layer of distortion. Each of the individual pieces retain the title from the original work upon which they are based as well as crediting that artist with the title of the "remake".
 Hollywood Remakes is an intentionally sarcastic title. It implies that the art, just like the films that are remade, are poorer representations of a story told better elsewhere. Hollywood remakes - particularly of foreign language movies and also of original properties owned by a particular company - often miss the point of the original story or destroy the nuances in their translation. It's me mocking myself: asking what right I have to represent these works; suggesting that I've missed the point of the originals by copying and simplifying the general shape form. They are perverse tributes: paying homage to artists that I like by bastardising their work.
 In this way, Hollywood Remakes is as much about my discomfort at calling myself an artist than it is about anything else. How can someone with no formal training or qualification dare to not only make pieces of art but to replicate the works of other established artists. My naivety, lack of skill, and shallowness of thought is exposed fully when placed in comparison to the original pieces.