My drawings involve assembling pieces --sketches, photographs, originals-- on a light table or in PhotoShop. The end result: a seamless combination of those pieces cemented smoothly with my pencil work.
Inspiration often comes from song lyrics. "High Water" gave me my main characters: art for Charles Darwin and Bob Dylan existed from prior pieces. George Lewis was created for the first time. My mind positioned many of the elements roughly. The tower. The water. And Highway Five. The actual building of the sculpture --the collage-- altered some things by their size, shape and space, both negative and positive. And there were a few "positive (happy) accidents".
"In My Room (Again)", collage became a medium choice, such as oils or acrylics. I combined two existing images --Emily Dickinson and John Lennon-- the latter in the original place of the former. I altered proportions of the elements and re-illustrated and re-colored the pieces but most of the work involved determining what elements would rest on what layers.
My most recent collage, "Keith Without S", had no plan. I had a rough sketch of the famous guitarist's head, a photo of a model playing an electric guitar and a high-contrast image of a church from my hometown. I labored extensively on rendering the face to find that moment I wanted to capture. I added more "found objects" than to any prior work. I cut paper. I removed, re-glued, re-rendered. There was no plan. Only results.
Collage has led me down three avenues. One: a map or blueprint in hand. Two: impulse and intuition. Three: somewhere in between. Illustration and drawing only allow "hands-on" with pen or pencil. In collage, my hands manipulate the surface and structure, with tears and cuts and pieces removed and re-glued --a drawing as sculpture.
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