I am busy working on a collage, and as is usually the case my mind is very active as I build layer upon layer of paper very patiently.
As I worked today a conversation I had with another artist in my building kept circulating in my head. The artist mentioned something regarding "now that you have a formula it is pretty much an issue of cranking them out."
This is certainly not the case with these works. I approach every piece as a new challenge, of refinement, expression, of understanding the individual in that moment of time. The actual process of applying the paper is rather straight forward, but every mark is made as though it is the exact mark that is meant to be there, in terms of color, value and the description of its shape. I view these works as operating as both representational works and abstractions. As there is no blending per se, the marks move in and around the forms creating a lattice work of levels, at moments in the process the open areas of color read like precise versions of a Pollock gestural work, and over time develop into forms that on the proper distance congeal to create an arm, a cheekbone, an eye.
The collage works are as much about the process as they are about the finished product. Every mark is a comment on the emotional presence of the model, descriptive as well as gestural.
