November 19, 2011 – Art in 30 Minutes or Less

As a general rule, most of my work could qualify as “slow” art. When I work it’s usually a slow, labor-intensive process. But this morning I decided to give myself the 30-minute collage challenge. A kitchen timer was used as part of the process.

1. 10 minutes to go through my various collage fodder and find some pieces that would work together.
2. 10 minutes for cutting and configuring.
3. 10 final minutes for assembling, gluing and finishing.

And yes, the collage was completed in just under 30 minutes. At times it is good to have a bit of discipline and control over one’s work. But in some ways, there was more time involved. The 4”x4” canvases are prepped in advance and the accumulation of collage material is an ongoing process. A photo was used that I picked up at SCRAP in the late 1990’s and some Basquiat bits from an old Art in America that I clipped almost 20 years ago. My alternate title for this piece would be The Conquest of Basquiat.

May 14, 2011 – Egyptian Scrap Sparkle

I like that as the title. It sounds a bit more like the name of a recipe than a piece of art. But when you find stuff at SCRAP (Scroungers Center for Reusable Art Parts) the word ingredient often comes to mind, so the recipe metaphor fits. I actually have not visited SCRAP in a long time, but I still have a lot of stuff — too much stuff. My whole Reverse Collage series back in the 1990’s would have never happened if not for a piece of inspiring Plexiglas I put in the bag at SCRAP. Today, with some gold bits, I recycled an old, tattered little book about Egyptian antiquities that I found at SCRAP nearly 15 years ago.