I LOve Making Collage!

This collage combines images of Johnny Cash that were published in Time magazine at the time of his death, and is incorporated in a personal memorial picture. A collage like this would not be suitable for commercial use, because the images used are copyrighted material in a time when people are far more sensitive to copyrights than they were when collage was first invented in the early 20th century. At that time, newspaper print and images were regularly used in collage art.

Added to this collage is a dream divination card that has the appropriate image for my favorite Carter-Cash song, Ring of Fire. If you look long enough, you will find images that say exactly what you want to say. The rest of the image is created with scraps of art paper. The magazine images were finely crumpled to give the collage this texture; it is finished with matte glazing, and framed, appropriately, in a frame created to hold a long play album cover. 12.5 x 12.5 inches.

This piece has incorporated the newspaper clipping of one of my favorite plays presented by The Shakespeare Tavern in Atlanta: Rashomon, with Agnes Harty and Dikran Tulaine. Their clipping photo is shown framed like a story within a story within a story, which is what Rashomon is: When faced with stories told by different people, from different perspectives, what is the truth? The colors symbolize the motives behind the different stories in the play, from black and criminal to red and passionate to the muddy chaos of the combined stories. The color gold symbolizes the honest story of the man who has observed everything and can give the only objective account, which reveals the true background.

The piece is given more dimension by glueing a 12 x 16 canvas board to a 16 x 20 inch stretched canvas. Canvas board is easier to use to build a smooth collage.

You see? You can tell a story through art with the simplest shapes!

16 x 20 inches.

I am using tarot and other divination cards as the themes for a long series of divination collages (when you have at least 52 cards in a deck, the possibilities are huge!). Simple rough shapes help frame the card in this 8 x 10 inch collage on stretched canvas.

I used a tarot card of "The World" as the center of this piece. It combines handmade paper with leaves, gold leafed paper, and a cut out of measuring tools. It is finished with matte glaze. 8 x 10 inches.

Another of my divination series. The Balloon is 8 x 10 inches on stretched canvas. You can see what interesting effects you can get by making the collage of rough pieces, and weathered acrylic paint. Sealing with matte glaze.

In this collage, a simple present celebrating a new phase of life, I took the cover of a favorite old journal and found a single bronze coated leaf that had exposed veins in it that matched the cross hatching of the journal artwork, to creare A New Leaf The art is in the combination and the statement. It is glued to a plain primed stretch canvas, and glazed with a matte finish. 8 x 10 inches.

A large painting I once did, called Wolf Moon, was destroyed when I made my move to Kentucky. I took the main images of the wolf and the moon and glued them to a round canvas painted like a red moon. I left the edges of the torn canvas rough, for texture; the piece is finished with gloss glazing. This new piece has kept the old name.

If you're seen my other artwork you will recognize the wolf as something I also preserved and have used in my digital art.

I made this during the great snowstorms of 2010, which was a stretch - I wasn't dreaming of snow I was dreaming of spring! Christmas tissue makes a great background, for a few simple bits: A vintage emphemera print, and the centers of paper doilies for snowflakes. 8 x 10 on stretched canvas.

A photograph of the woman in my acrylic painting Muse of Fire has been used in several of my collages. This collage has inspired me to make collage dolls - look for a new lens on that project! I used a doily to create an Elizabethan look, but the piece is modern in texture. Paoper glued to stretch canvas, with some rough edging to create an interesting look; matte glazing combined with gloss glazing for the dress. The doily "collar" stands up above the canvas, and is heavily glazed for protection.