3-Dimensional
8 Collaged and Encrusted Boards On 12 x 12,
11 x 14 and 6 x 18 bases
"With the passing of years, I have learned that it is always better in the end to ask for the privilege to examine chalk pits, earthworks, or dew ponds. And I have tried both ways: gentle trespassing, and polite request."
Talks with Shepherds, Ralph Johnson
Although recycling is the essence of collaging, to me it is more than giving new life to an old piece of newspaper, or twig, or postage stamp. When concluding one series of collages, I sift through and generally shrink the remains, and put them back into their storage homes until they emerge later.
Inevitably, my inclination to college wakes up, often prompted by an in-person or internet discovery. These eight boards resulted from this process.
The series Indifferent Matters and Suspect Terrain took me into the beginning of the pandemic and thencollaging stopped, while photography and family history research continued. I had recovered and adjusted after two years, and became fascinated with wood veneer, beginning with a packet of curly ashwood, then one of lacewood, and then a sampler kit. And then, via Etsy or eBay, I bought a random batch of samples from a company that makes guitar parts.
I had more than enough, of course, but next up was a package of old newspapers, whose purchase was prompted by my quickly shrinking and disintegrating existing stash.
Wood veneer and vintage newspaper make good neighbors, akin to soul buddies, but the former is not nearly as easy to work with as the latter. It absorbs a lot of glue, instantly warps, and requires a long period of compression, in my case applied by chunks of former granite kitchen counter.
I may still cringe when slicing 200-year-old paper, thinking of the craftspeople and passion involved, but I push past it and marvel at the warmth of former trees.
These new materials were enough to get me going, and in the background was a patient reading of the English writer Ralph Johnson’s Talk with Shepherds from 1925. My copy was acquired and signed a year later, and I’ll assume it gave the new owner as much pleasure as it did me. The book also gave me the title of one piece, Gentle Trespassing, and its spirit was with me as I created the other pieces.
