All in collage
How can we use the motions of our body to create marks and can these marks become maps that lead us back into an active arts practice? I contemplate these ideas as I pack my bags (again) to travel to the UK this week. Walking and mapping will help me document my 10 months away.
I absolutely love boats and ferries. My 2021 vision board was all about embarking on a sailing adventure, but so far this has eluded me. Now I am taking action to see if I can make this vision come true.
The beginning of a new year is often a time of indecision for me. What sort of format and theme will I use for my daily artworks? There is always a moment of hesitation but I know that I have to start somewhere, anywhere, then the path forward will appear.
I have many artworks which are in a state of pause. Projects that lie dormant in my “waiting” drawers, unresolved, needing some special spark to activate them. Waiting for me to ask the right questions to reveal a deeper narrative.
Creating collages, every day for more than years has given me a creative practice, a visual diary and ways to work through some of my ideas on a small scale. Now some of these collages are featured in a new book Collage Your Life by USA artist /author Melanie Mowinski.
I am attracted to text as art. Graffiti, asemic writing, Cyrillic script, Asian calligraphy and Pitmans shorthand. A hidden language that whispers of poetry and love. Success in art takes time and a whole lot of practice. It is the only thing that stands between you and your success.
I have been lucky to research and create art about a specific place on artist residencies. But it wasn’t always like that. In many cases it has taken years before my art about place could be be expressed as a placemaking ‘retrospective’.
Quite often my best art works are created really quickly. Things “just click” and the work literally makes itself. Other pieces I will labour over but these are not as successful as they have lost that initial “spark”. Knowing when to stop is key.
Many of my early creative works involve maps or journeys of one kind or another. Maps and stamps took me around the world when I was a kid, it’s no wonder that I love them. This year I have returned to collaging maps for my 2022 daily artworks.
