December « 2018 « The Collage Miniaturist

The Edinburgh Collage Collective has made a splash in the international collage scene over the past couple years, and it closed out 2018 with its Cut & Post project. The Collective and collage artist Mark Murphy, along with guest jurists, collaborated to select a group of finalists from postcard-based collage artworks submitted from around the world in order to produce a limited edition set of collector cards. Organizers told Kolaj Magazine that they “featured a wide range of submitted works on social media and showcased as many postcard collages as possible, demonstrating the diverse visual responses and interpretations.” According to the publication, “the project joins a list of strategies collage artists are using to curate and disperse collage outside of the gallery exhibition format.” With over 1400 individual pieces of work electronically submitted, the project sponsors admit to being “completely overwhelmed by the response.” There is talk of exploiting the body of accumulated images beyond the original scope of the open submission.

Below are five experimental pieces that I created for the submission. I also included two previous collage artworks with postcard ingredients among the total seven image files that I sent to Edinburgh for consideration, but none of them made the project’s “first cut.” I shall keep my fingers crossed and look ahead to new initiatives from a city shaping up to be a world center for the medium. (More about that next year!)

Five experimental post cards that I submitted to the ‘Cut & Post’ project that was based in Edinburgh, Scotland

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Modern Use

Monday, December 17th, 2018

“As long as movements require our attention they are kata (form), when the kata become spontaneous they become waza (technique). As long as we persist in viewing kata superficially, we will begin to think that they are of special importance.”
— Yushio Kuroiwa

When explaining aikido, the late martial artist Yushio Kuroiwa taught the practice of rational movement, so that one could spontaneously execute a natural movement as a result. For me, this idea has a distinct parallel to the art of collage, which is based on repetitive experimentation. With study and discernment, the collage artist can discriminate the difference between a superficial composition that was contrived with too much self attention, and an intuitive composition that developed more naturally — an expression of synchronicity — that grew from understanding the essence of creativity.

Kuroiwa encouraged his students to not blindly follow masterful forerunners, but to observe and discover their “causes, effects, and processes of things, and their similarities and differences through experience.” He pointed out that “someone with poor handwriting cannot write beautifully, even when using a good pen. A skilled calligrapher, however, can write beautifully even when using an inexpensive pen. It is not that the pen is good, but rather that the writer’s ability, as a result of long experience, is excellent.”

It is beneficial to keep in mind that even though we are “working artists,” much of our “work” is not significant in and of itself as an artistic product, especially if it is merely a conscious application of formulae largely exhausted decades ago during the formative years of our medium as a modern art. Instead, maintain your drill, your ritual of formation, not to yield marketable artifacts, but to internalize an “organic” process that leads to a rewarding sense — that we have freely expressed the natural ability to create something with real spontaneity.

Thanks for visiting. Now, let’s go make more art . . .

Modern Use
collage experiment in monochrome by J A Dixon
8.375 x 11 inches

Purchase this artwork.

Posted in 1) Available!, Criticism, Experiments, J A Dixon, Methodology, Technique | No Comments »

Happy Birthday, Clara!

Monday, December 10th, 2018

There are times when one is reminded of the profound privilege of sharing artistic abilities. Recently I was humbled when friends asked me to create collage artwork for a fine lady on her 90th birthday. Clara was a teen when American soldiers and Allied forces liberated her homeland of Italy during the Second World War. The medium of collage offers the most creatively efficient capacity to embed a dozen or more images and symbolic elements that have personal meaning for an individual recipient. We honored Clara’s love of America and her lifelong gratitude to those who heroically sacrificed on her behalf — men such as Garlin Conner and John Squires, and so many others, including former U.S. Senators Daniel Inouye and Bob Dole. And, without a time-consuming process, I could at the same time recognize her particular appreciation of opera, the visual and literary arts, education, flowers, movies, wine, dogs, and a fondness for Mickey Mouse (who also turned 90 this year).

As an artist, I always find what I do rewarding, but it just doesn’t get any better than “the art of the gift.”

My friend Bill presents a birthday gift to Clara —
a collage miniature that I created with her in mind.

Posted in Collage, Commissions, Gift Art, Methodology | No Comments »

New note cards for the season!

Wednesday, December 5th, 2018

If you send hand-written messages during the year-end season, you may want some new note cards that feature collage artworks from my series of Christmas-tree greetings. Each large, blank card is 5.125 x 7.75 inches and is folded along the left vertical edge. Matching envelopes are included, of course.

Click below to buy with your PayPal account or a credit card.
No extra charge for shipping, handling, or state taxes within the USA.
International customers, please contact me directly.

Thank you!

Assorted vertical-format cards ~ 5 cards, 1 each of 5 ~ $27.50
larger note cards that feature collage artworks from
my series of handmade Christmas-tree greetings