Collages, Assemblages

Collage has been a long-standing part of my practice. I appreciate its historic traditions and the aesthetics of perfectly arranged compositions created from seemingly insignificant found or saved elements.  I love the process of selecting, rearranging, cutting into, overlapping, adding and subtracting to achieve visually compelling resolutions. With traditional studio materials I often draw into or obscure aspects of the collaged material to enhance the result. Pared to their essences, the juxtaposed details from material that already existed become new conceptual or abstract artworks.   

Reuse, recycling and environmental consciousness have been givens in my life for many decades. The use or reuse of ephemera that someone else might have thrown away also drives the process of collage for me and keeps it continually present in my work. The adventure of not knowing what could manifest from randomly chosen elements amplifies the thrill when a successful piece comes into being from mere scrap material. No matter what type of approach I take, inevitably some drawing helps to unify the compositions.