“Every athlete, every musician practices every day. Why should it be different for artists?”
— Christoph Niemann
Creating a collage within constraints is one of the more enjoyable activities within the medium, because it is necessary to throw oneself upon the mercy of pure intuition. I was in the middle of a care-giving day at the Blue Bank Hall yesterday and assigned myself this exercise:
• Complete one full-page collage in my journal during Mombo’s two-hour afternoon nap, using only ingredients found in the recycling bin.
I am constantly experimenting, because I find it difficult to pluck a coherent idea from a “cold start,” and so I cultivate a habit of collage experimentation to preserve a state of receptivity and to invite the uncanny “synchronicities” from which a more rational concept can be refined. Naturally, my journal is the perfect place to conduct such exercises. I take what I learn from the small format and bring it to larger artworks. What is it that I learn? That, too, is primarily a matter of intuition. I hope to internalize the creative response that each experiment reveals and keep my collage process as subjective as possible. For me, nothing bogs down the making of a collage more than too much rational thinking.
Untitled (first cause)
constrained collage exercise by J A Dixon
9.5 x 13 inches