All in collage

Going Around the Edges

Long held beliefs about your own problem solving abilities can hold you back from experimenting and moving forward. I’ve discovered that instead of meeting the problem ‘head on’, it’s easier to go around the edges of things, whittling away until a solution presents itself. Like cutting with scissors to create silhouette shapes for collage.

Communities of Colour

I’ve been calming my turbulent thoughts with colour experiments to create a series of paste papers. The colours reminded me of the earth, of the bark of trees and how trees form communities the same as humans do. All hues, shapes and colours depending on where we grow, how we put down our roots, how we are all connected by the blessing of this earth.

With Love

Art activism is my way of maintaining optimism in the face of adversity. So many calamities are happening in the world I often feel overwhelmed and powerless. That’s where small grass roots projects like The Postcard Project – Finding Hope’ is a way I can add my artistic voice to keep hope alive.

Beginnings and Endings

Where to begin and how will your creative story progress? I’ve found it easier to start new artworks from the ‘seed activators’ of works you have already made and liked. It’s similar to following a story structure, the ‘once upon a time’ that ushers in a magical engagement with the imagination.

Collage Tributes

Collages are for me a kind of Memento Mori, a reminder of mortality and that what we do with our lives defines us. Much of our activities can be traced to the objects with which we surround ourselves. Unearthing these early collages from my own archives reveals a biographical portrait of my family ancestry.

Walking, Mapping

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.

Start Somewhere

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.

Pause for Effect

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.

Collage Your Life

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.

Success Your Way

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.

Art + Place

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’.

When to Stop

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.

Personal Geographies

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.