THE WEEKENDER 07 | 2023
Collage News & Inspiration
When Van Gogh was a young man in his early twenties, he was in London studying to be a clergyman. He had no thought of being an artist at all. He sat in his cheap little room writing a letter to his younger brother in Holland, whom he loved very much. He looked out his window at a watery twilight, a thin lamppost, a star, and he said in his letter something like this: "it is so beautiful I must show you how it looks." And then on his cheap ruled note paper, he made the most beautiful, tender, little drawing of it.
When I read this letter of Van Gogh's it comforted me very much and seemed to throw a clear light on the whole road of art. Before, I thought that to produce a work of painting or literature, you scowled and thought long and ponderously and weighed everything solemnly and learned everything that all artists had ever done aforetime, and what their influences and schools were, and you were extremely careful about ‘design’ and ‘balance’ and getting ‘interesting planes’ into your painting, and avoided, with the most astringent severity, showing the faintest ‘acedemical’ tendency, and were strictly modern. And so on and so on.
But the moment I read Van Gogh's letter I knew what art was, and the creative impulse. It is a feeling of love and enthusiasm for something, and in a direct, simple, passionate and true way, you try to show this beauty in things to others, by drawing it.
And Van Gogh's little drawing on the cheap note paper was a work of art because he loved the sky and the frail lamppost against it so seriously that he made the drawing with the most exquisite conscientiousness and care.
― Brenda Ueland, If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit
The latest collage news and inspiration. Enjoy!
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ARTICLE: “I think it’s important to make discoveries through the knowledge of other people,” Marclay said, explaining how the act of collage has been integral as a theme in his work, cutting and pasting images, sounds, and movements together to create something new - ‘Music as a Physical Experience’: See How Artist Christian Marclay Fuses Sound With Image in His Conceptual Collages - via artnet
OPEN CALL: NOT JUST: A WORLD COLLAGE DAY EXHIBITION -
Maude Kerns Art Center with Curators Beth I. Robinson and Michael James is hosting an open call for local and regional artists working in collage to celebrate World Collage Day. The exhibition is scheduled for May 12th - June 9th, 2023.
EXHIBITION: ANNAPOLIS ROYAL, N.S. — Z'otz* Collective, a group of three visual artists from Toronto, is bringing a playful and collaborative storytelling exhibit to the Artsplace Gallery in Annapolis Royal - via Saltwire
NFT: The Blueshift Collective provides visual creators with a theme and graphical frame, giving them the freedom to interpret it in their own unique style. This approach ensures that each piece is as individual as the artist who created it. And, with each exhibition comes not only an NFT trading card, but also an original NFT curated by Blueshift - Blueshift Collective: Where NFT Meets Creativity - via abdz.do
ARTICLE: Art making didn’t come easy to Krasner the way it did for others. She was no child genius or savant; she worked at it. She studied, she tried, she failed, she retooled, she persevered and ultimately overcame through extreme effort and dogged determination, developing her talent and vision until she finally stood as an essential of American art history - Lee Krasner’s Fall And Rise - via Forbes
DOCUMENTARY: Nam June Paik the prophet: documentary creates chronological collage of pioneering video artist's life - via The Art Newspaper
PCC: As always a little reminder: our weekly creative challenge prompts remain free to download and the challenges themselves open for everyone to join, but if you prefer to work with paper, our 2023 Workbook is out and available here
PCC: And last but not least, a selection of challenge submissions from last week is up on our website and can be seen here, the image prompt for next week is available to download here
If you have any news about exhibitions, publications or events you want so share with the community, please send an email with all relevant information and at least one link to a website or venue to: hello@pariscollagecollective.com