Collage!

I found an old National Geographic magazine in my garage today and figured I would rip it up and make some collages out of it. The issue was focused on the eruption of Mt. St. Helen's back in the 80's so I utilized the abstractions created by the various ash plumes, log flows and assorted images of destruction. Anywho, Enjoy.

Something Found, Something Old, Something Bought

1.) A quick collage study I did from a book about the Cascades that I found at an antique store in seattle. Yummy

2.) A glass melting thing (?) I did back in middle school. I've had this thing sitting on my shelf for a long time now, never thought much of it until yesterday -- Its pretty damn cool for how old it is. Yikes

3.) I tore up an old painting canvas so that only the wood frame was left. I stretched an old tie-dye pillow across it and continued to pour acrylic paint over the surface. Finally I tilted the canvas on its side and let gravity pull some of the paint down. (The actual piece is a lot bigger than what you see in the scan but due to the size limitations in my scanner I had to cut some of it down) Snip Snip

Contour Collage

Continuing into the 6th cluster we were assigned to create a large scale collage following a few open ended directions and techniques. After utilizing the various methods to create the collage materials we were asked to replicate a contour drawing of one of our body parts we had done previously. All stitched together this is what I got - a hand.

Defending Ray Johnson

It can truly be said that Ray Johnson's work was uniquely his own. Ray was a man genuinely intrigued in his field and I believe sincerely loved the process of making art and allowing the world to see it.
It is not a question whether Ray Johnson's works were pieces of art, they invoked an emotional response from those who looked at then and commanded a sense of purpose and desire. His pieces seemed to blend the line between love and art - this said because Ray johnson truly created art just for the sake of it and for nothing else. Though ray would sit on the phone and haggle for process for hours it was simply because, for him, that was part of the art making process. Every event, person and idea in his life emitted an artiness to it. Whether his life itself was some sort of dark artists performance is up to debate but what i find to be much more interesting is his ability to create for the purpose of creating. From his immense body of work he would send image and collages to random patrons and tell them to in turn mail the work on again. Ray cared not about price or fame but about people seeing his work and taking from it some emotional response and that I feel is truly what art should be about. Unfortunately Ray's life was cut short by the work of his own hands but luckily his story and art will live on into the future to educate people on the real meaning of making something and being creative.