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He Smiled With His Mind

Tuesday, July 2nd, 2013

“I believe it is impossible for a man to tell the truth about himself or to avoid impressing the reader with the truth about himself.”
— Mark Twain

It is highly doubtful that any blogger can evade the pitfalls so evident over a century ago to one of the first modern minds that America produced. At any rate, I shall attempt to be as candid as possible about my own artwork, as well as the current output of contemporary collage artists. Today’s featured item stumbled badly out of the starting gate and remained in a suspended mode until a color scheme and visual subtext came into focus. What do you think of it?

Do not forget that I have a thick skin. As a firm believer that we learn more through a constructive critique than through a casual note of praise, I shall anticipate your comments at this site. Please register today and help make The Collage Miniaturist a destination for those who are not timid about having a frank discussion about this medium.

He Smiled With His Mind
collage miniature by J A Dixon
9.25 x 7 inches

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Fallen Body

Monday, June 24th, 2013

“Less is not necessarily more.”
— Milton Glaser

A profusion of collage artwork has recently come to my attention that makes use of only two or three elements. When this type of minimalist approach is successful, the result can be quite arresting to the eye and mind. More often than not, it looks uninteresting or unfinished to me. It may come as no surprise that I am more of a maximalist, preferring to build a layering of ingredients that transcends the intrinsic quality of the found material. I suppose that I have been more influenced by Schwitters than Cornell. Although there is nothing inherently unappealing to me about “sparsity,” admiring those who employ the methodology with skill, I have found myself pulled toward “density’ for the past few years. Some artists may think that if one hasn’t achieved a solution with fewer than a dozen parts, the essence of the piece has escaped. I appreciate that viewpoint, and respect those who consistently meet the challenge of limitation. For me, the working surface calls out for more, until a balance of “visual polyphony” takes form, and the dynamic aspects of color, shape, composition, and symbolic communication have resolved themselves as a distinctive, unified whole.

Fallen Body
collage artifact by J A Dixon
7.5 x 10.5 inches
available for purchase

Posted in 1) Available!, Artifacts, Collage, Influences, Ingredients, J A Dixon, J Cornell, K Schwitters, Links, M Glaser, Maximalism/Minimalism, Methodology | No Comments »

Disinclination be damned

Friday, May 31st, 2013

“We must always work, and a self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood. If we wait for the mood, without endeavoring to meet it half-way, we easily become indolent and apathetic. We must be patient, and believe that inspiration will come to those who can master their disinclination.”
— Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Like most collage artists, I usually don’t know immediately if what I’m producing “works.” Nevertheless, one has to buy into one’s process and trust that fruit is born through “stick-to-itiveness.” With diligence and a bit of perspective, it’s always possible to sort out the promising threads of creative direction. When they come into focus, keep moving. When they don’t, keep moving anyway.

Partners in Crime
collage miniature by J A Dixon
4.5 x 6.25 inches

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Two more tribute miniatures

Saturday, May 25th, 2013

Some collage artworks spring spontaneously from a random juxtaposition, a mental picture, or the way various ingredients coalesce. Others are sparked by thoughts about an individual. The first example below was a tribute to Zach Collins, one of the more prolific American collage artists whose work is also consistently innovative. The second piece is dedicated to a couple of guys I know who both had birthdays this past week. One is a friend, and the other is family.