“Creativity is sacred, and it is not sacred. What we make matters enormously, and it doesn’t matter at all. We toil alone, and we are accompanied by spirits. We are terrified, and we are brave. Art is a crushing chore and a wonderful privilege. Only when we are at our most playful can divinity finally get serious with us. Make space for all these paradoxes to be equally true inside your soul, and I promise—you can make anything. So please calm down now and get back to work, okay? The treasures that are hidden inside you are hoping you will say yes.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
The latest collage news and inspiration!
Enjoy!
Substack, this here newsletter platform, offers paid subscriptions, but this is no paywall. We believe in making art accessible to the widest possible audience, and our newsletter will remain free for anyone to read. Opting for a paid subscription is a way to support the collective and all we do. So is signing up to our Artist Directory. Think about it :)
NEWS
WORKSHOP: our next collage-as-therapy workshop in collaboration with Art Therapy Lab by Art Therapist Julia Volonts will take place on Monday (instead of Sunday, a little concession to summer being in full swing), July 10th at 18:00 CET / 12:00 EST - it’s as always free to attend. More information below…
OPEN CALL: a little reminder that you can still submit to the Wilder Collage Open Call. The theme “On the Road” explores the feeling of being away from home. It can be interpreted literally as in travel or in many other ways such as exploring a sense of place, space, freedom or being neither here nor there. More information here
I am currently working with paper collage from magazines that I have collected for decades. In fact, all my work ends up being a collage of sorts. If 20th century was the collage century, it seems to me that 21st century is even more defined by the reassembling of disparate fragments comprising wholesome images that speak of the charm and efficiency of mixing and “contaminating.” - 7 Questions for Diana de Solares on Finding Inspiration in Myth and Eros for Her Solo Show in Guatemala City - via artnet
Take a close look at a chaotic, colorful collage made by the New York-based artist Romare Bearden and you’ll likely recognize an iconic civic symbol emblazoned on everything from trash cans to city notices: four overlapping faces in profile. - Artwork that inspired Berkeley’s logo is on view at BAMPFA - via Berkeleyside
In Peter Greenaway’s brilliant if difficult 1980 mock documentary, “The Falls,” some survivors of a “violent unexplained event” are taking on characteristics of birds. Something like that is happening in “Silent Fall,” a survey of work by Canadian artist Dominique Paul at the Art Museum of the Americas. In her collages, videos and interactive artworks, however, the cause of the transformation is not unexplained: It’s humankind’s greed and heedlessness - In the galleries: Poignant, powerful warnings about vanishing species - via The Washington Post
Sandell’s collage works often begin with a found object — sometimes a wine label, the wrapper from a chocolate bar, newsprint shards, or even packing material — which is glued or sewn to handmade paper. The work builds from there with multiple printed impressions done on a traditional etching press. These pieces serve as both a documentation of everyday life, as well as a visual notebook of ideas - The Artwork of Scott Sandell in Library Show - via 27east
There is something riveting about structures on the verge of collapse. Aware of our breath next to a stack of cards, we worry and delight in their precarity. The art of Gertrud Goldschmidt, an artist widely known as Gego, thrillingly toes this line in Measuring Infinity, a retrospective of her work now on view at the Guggenheim in New York. First trained as an architect and engineer in her native Germany, Gego fled the Nazi regime in 1939 to avoid persecution due to her Jewish heritage, along with so many others. She immigrated to Venezuela, since it was the only visa she could get, settling permanently in Caracas and grounding her then-emergent art practice in her adopted country. The resulting drawings, collages, and sculptures flow up the building’s famous circuitous ramp, exploring the relationships of “line, space, and volume.” - Measuring Infinity, at the Guggenheim, presents drawings, collages, and sculptures from architect-turned-artist Gertrud Goldschmidt - via The Architect’s Newspaper
PCC: 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
FROM THE ARTIST DIRECTORY - OLD & NEW
MICHAEL HART WEBSTER
I began my career in experimental and commercial video editing and approach my artistic and collage practice with the eye of a video editor, treating each element in my artwork like an actor in a scene.
My work comes from a place between diary and dream where I present the seen and the unseen, the physical and the intangible, together. I capture changes within, whether It is a moment of self-growth, a moment of intuition, the feeling of being thirsty in the bath or the instant when an idea sparks.
I am constantly balancing the beautiful, absurd and familiar using emotions like hues on a colour wheel.
A combination of techniques are used in my work, from creating abstract works to searching for old books of music and other unique treasures. When I search for an object I also search for the story associated with it. I then rip and tear these varying elements in order to build them back up, like scenes in a film, into a final form through a process of layering.
My work is about searching and giving a second life to forgotten objects. It is organic and intuitive. and it is about shining a light on the invisible and connecting on the things we cannot easily describe or see.
More here
PATRICIA BENAVIDES LIMO
I am a Peruvian art designer. The Dada and Surrealism artistic movements serve as the main inspiration for my artwork. My work is exclusively done manually, applying the classic collage technique without any digital retouching.
I use collage as a means of expression because I find absolute freedom to generate emotions, for which I utilize imagery from old magazines, books, and encyclopedias, that I cut and paste in a reconstruction game for providing new meanings to express my inner world and life experiences.
Through my work, I reflect on what we are made of, memories and what the subconscious mind stores to get in touch with the viewer's emotions.
More here
THEA STRANGE
I think in images, I remember in images. I see "images in images" everywhere. All images can be processed.
I glean pictures everywhere: brochures, magazines, photo's. Always an eye for a picture.
All my decoupages are created analog with scissors and glue. It is my kind of meditation. I can forget everything around me, when I'm working on a decoupage. Creative immersion is a must for me in our fast, digital world.
More here
KENNETH RICCI
"I work in a sort of literary/philosophical framework so within that context my reference points are the parables of Kafka, the films of Orson Wells and the aphorisms of Kierkegaard. Because elements determine content, the process of creation is both constrained and liberated by the available elements at any given time and it is the improvised procedure of choice, assembly and judgment that settles the argument".
More 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