In my collage/assemblage art there are always many parts that must come together. It is my process to surround myself with all the interesting, intriguing pieces of ephemera and rusty worn objects I can.
Most I have collected over months and in many cases over many years and they wait patiently until they find a home in a piece of art work. I often wonder about my chosen way of work, but it is the only method that flows and feels right to me. There are projects I plan in detail ahead, but more often I have a general idea, a direction in which I head, and then I turn myself over to the journey, for it is in the experience of creating that ignites more and more creativity. It takes a great deal of trust in the inner artist or what ever we might like to call that guiding force, but I have learned when I can do this my best work comes. For me if I plan too much ahead, I over think, I over critic and I let doubts creep in...if my conscious mind is more active than my sub-conscious mind.
Many non artists find this difficult to understand, and want to know what you are thinking when you do a piece of art, and how you do this or that. I think it is a bit like how I cook. I read tons of cookbooks and recipes, but when I enter the kitchen it is without books or recipes, for it is time to create. If you have to stick to a recipe or a plan you have dedicated yourself to a limited range of outcomes and therefore pre-constrained your own creative results. This way of work is not for everyone or every artist, it is my way, it is what I have found works for me and the only way I feel comfortable and right with doing art. For me it is like the runners high, I enter a world of Zen like concentration, a world of intense concentration and a world where time stands still-one hour is one minute. or several hours pass by and it seems as if it I just blinked.
The piece I am working on now is an assemblage for a members show for an art center I belong to. The theme is Home. I will take you through some of the process as I go through it and try to describe some of my choices and challenges as I proceed through each step. Part of the challenge of this piece is it must be shipped to another state, and it will be in at least three main sections in the central body and many small pieces on the outside surfaces. It will also depend on the gallery that receives it to do some assembly, due to the fact it is less likely to be broken if shipped in three sections. The other challenges are many different materials that call for differing adhesives and methods of attachment, to achieve as much stability and durability as one can. I am an artist who, if a work sells, is concerned about the quality and longevity of the work I sell. So as we begin I will start to photograph stage by stage to take you along this trip of creation and struggle with me. I hope you will enjoy the journey as we enter this world of the artistic process.
STEP ONE: CHAOS
There is no order at this stage only an idea and the gathering of interesting elements. This first stage for those who love order, is most disturbing. Some people thrive on order and a need to plan ahead, the idea of letting go is too frightening to conceive, it is the jump from a high dive into a cold pool that is not even in site! But it is in the letting go that the beginning of creation happens.
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