Assemblage: Making things from other things...

... a few of my recent collage/assemblages...

I'm still producing as many small works as I can. Artwork priced under $100 is still selling slowly, but steadily. I price these between $38 and $90, depending upon size, treasured items, and (heh) effort required.

Emile, 8 x 10, mixed media and drawing
click to enlarge for detail

For some time (years!) I've been collecting stuff. Bits of metal, pieces of wood, odd little toys, broken jewelry, bones, hardware, wire, keys - a treasure trove (at least by my standards) of fabulous found objects. This stuff is my flotsam and jetsam collection, raw materials for recreation and recombination into images, allegorical, mythological, enigmatic, personal - and yet - only recently have I dedicated a room for doing the actual assemblage.

Most of my assemblages have one or more concurrent themes (my thoughts as I worked). I often write little ditties to accompany each.

The Flight of Apollo Friday the Thirteenth, 7 x 10, mixed media
Apollo's uplifted - left his blues behind.
Laughing and twisting, he's blooming on high.
Crazy with sanity

It makes all the difference to have a space where I can surround myself with all the choices within reach, and be able to close the door on unfinished works. The door is important, as it prevents all those little pieces from becoming cat toys!

Absolute Contrasts, 10 x 10, mixed media assemblage

A Pony For Me, 10 x 10, collage

I have always been fascinated with the work of Joseph Cornell, an artist who made "boxes" filled with objects that confound and inspire due the juxtapositions of objects inside. There's a fun site for admirers of his work here, and another with many of his collages and assembled boxes here.

Below are some of my favorite Cornell assemblages:

bebe-Marie

1942, untitled

Solar Set

Untitled (soap bubble set)

Untitled (Cockatoo and Corks)