I sometimes imagine that I am an
archeologist trying to reconstruct an unknown text from found fragments of a
lost or unknown civilization. Since these compositions are all black and white
relationships, each composition is like looking at the constant flux of yin and
yang. The sense of what is positive and what negative is always shifting back
and forth.
I have been using this same black and
white collage material more or less the same way for about a decade now. All of
it is from a single poster that I designed for collage making and had 500
copies printed. I have close to a lifetime of the material left. Most of them
have been 9 x 6 inches. This latest set is 10 x 8 inches and I think I prefer
the little bit fatter proportion.
It seems like an interesting idea
to make these collages with the same basic idea and look. The variation is
based on the moment they are created. Each moment is different, unique. When I
say moment, I am stretching them out to as much time as it takes to make the
collage. The collage starts in a certain moment and that moment of conception
drives it to its conclusion however long that takes. I am different, my
approach is different because I am trying to fit a composition together based
on my intuitive reasoning and responses. This makes it a form of meditation or
contemplation. Sometimes I do have a feel of what I want to do across a group
of several works. Still, I am looking for opportunity, looking for things that
strike me as going together, fitting together.
The process is driven by an idea
of chance aesthetics. I usually start anywhere and glue pieces down as I feel
the right spot for it. So, I am usually fully committed to the placement as I
go along. It is evolutionary, everything builds on the last thing that happened
and all future decisions are driven by all the decisions up to that point. Once
started, it is driven to its own unique conclusion.
Sometimes I wonder how I will get
to the next part of the composition. It sometimes feels like I won’t find the
right fragment but, in the end, it comes to a conclusion.
If I get stuck then I stop and do
something else for a while and then come back and finish it up. The few minutes
away from the collage lets me let go of the process and then pick it back up
with fresh eyes.
Because of this process, failure
is not an option, there is only begin, continue, conclude. Since I have done
all that I can in the design of the system of construction, whatever result is
a success within that set of systematic limitations. Aesthetically I personally
might like one over another but even my preference might change over time as I
study them over the following years.
“We should
bring our will into harmony with whatever happens, so that nothing happens
against our will and nothing that we wish for fails to happen.” — Epictetus, “Discourses,” 2.14.7
Once a body of collages is
completed and documented then they become possible studies for paintings. I
think of the collages as scores as in musical scores or event scores or an
architectural plan or a recipe. The paintings are performances of these scores.
There might be one performance, there might be multiple performances of the
original collage in different sizes, different proportions, they might be
cropped, they might change colors, or the colors might be reversed or various
painting techniques might be experimented with. Each performance is unique even
if two instances look nearly the same. I might make a painting of a collage
from last week or from a decade ago. It doesn’t matter, they are timeless.
The progressions of the collages
have nothing to do with the progressions of the paintings just like an
orchestra might play a symphony from 1722 in the same program with one written
last year. Both are unique performances even if the older one has been
performed a thousand times over the last 300 years.
A
chef might follow a recipe from ancient Rome and try to match the dish as
exactly as possible, or a playful master chef might start with a recipe and use
it as only a suggestion. He/she might; change the ingredients, adjust the
proportions or the spices, or take it in a completely different direction.
Journal Entry: Saturday, August 6, 2022
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