Three Little Birds Collage

I work in a wide range of media, including painting, sculpture, and photography, but for the past 30 years the bulk of my work has been on a series of small, 8" x 10" collages. The works are abstract, but they include diverse references to things that attract my attention, like plants and animals, cities and architecture, and modern art. I have a deep affinity for the ocean and sea life. Fish and coral imagery come up regularly. I also love travel and maps. Many of the collages include pieces of maps. I see the artwork itself as a map, not of the physical world but of the history and process of its own creation. I usually start by drawing or painting on paper. I often repeat the marks I've already made. The variations that emerge through repeated drawing create a sensibility, or style, that is unique to my own hand, like a signature. It's important to me to incorporate drawing into my work. It records a direct expression from my own body. It shows where my hand was and how it moved when it was being made. Seeing the artist's hand at work in a finished piece infuses the work with a sense of intimacy and makes it a more personal experience. Often I deconstruct what I have made by ripping, cutting and tearing it apart, and then reassembling it. That process of drawing, cutting and tearing, and reassembling is repeated over and over until the work is finished. The process creates a residue that's like multilayered graffiti, or geologic strata. It results in synesthetic juxtapositions that are endlessly surprising. My work is like the process of discovery, or even alchemy. The physical stress I put the materials through during the construction process creates a patina that gives them an aged, or distressed look. It shows the struggle the work went through while it was being made, and infuses the work with a sense of history, or time. It's also a metaphor for the struggle I went though to make it, and the complexities in the creative process itself. I like art that shows that struggle. I think it makes the work more sincere. Everything has a history. The struggles we endure make us who we are. I'm trying to embrace that in my art.