WORLD AS COLLAGE DAY 4

Well, March Arts Marathon is off and running. We’ve now got fifteen of you who have signed on to donate to this fundraiser by sponsoring my WORLD AS COLLAGE PROJECT – thanks to you all! Its still fine to join in; visit my CVRAN site HERE to learn more.

Hello All and welcome back to my studio! As most of you know by now, I couldn’t wait to start, and am now posting these collages, one each day throughout the month of March.

THE SHORT TAKE:
First, another collage – the fourth, for your viewing pleasure!

 

 

Next, another video HERE, this time focusing a little more on my huge collection of paper scraps and ephemera which is my collage palette.  See THE LONG READ below for more.

A word about the music in my video – it’s Eugene Hütz in an early recording of Start Wearing Purple – listen HERE!  Hütz’ personal story  is all too pertinent to what this world is facing at this moment! In 1992 Hütz his family, fleeing the Chernobyl meltdown in Ukraine arrived in Burlington, Vermont through a refugee resettlement program. I first became familiar with Hütz and his band Gogol Bordello through his lead role in the 2005 film Everything Is Illuminated!

 

THE LONG READ:
More about the work and my collage palette. This is a palette of colors, textures and memories, gathered up from far-flung places I had the good fortune to explore in past decades. The eye notices something valuable in the common, in refuse, in things that routinely pass through our fingers and are ignored. If one takes notice, these things offer a source of visual resonance and deep cultural significance – why else would I add to  my luggage collections of paper bags, found advertisement fliers and postcards, used tram tickets, candy wrappers, sugar packets and food labels?!

Michelle spoke in her response about the quality of the papers I am using. Yes, much of this material came from my several decades of travels in Central and Eastern Europe. Some of it came from works I had done during youthful art studies in the High School of Music and Art and Harpur College…. all these early papers carry a whiff of past times. Old tempera paintings on cheap, fragile papers, faded paper bags and wrapping paper of varying shades of brown, tram tickets, advertising fliers and pamphlets in many languages… Their muted voices speak softly of a time existing no longer. For me personally, handling these bits and pieces evokes many memories and associations.

As I work, I think about what can spin off these small pieces. Digital manipulations of pieces of work have always interested me, and if I go there, I’ll share some of those as well over the course of the month of March. My original thoughts were that after the project is done, these compositions could be the starting point for a new series of paintings. It also occurs to me that I could use the textured collages for frottage work (rubbings). Often a completed series offers material for subsequent works – a thread to be followed. That’s how I work – following visual threads, searching for a greater comprehension through the language of vision.

Once again, if you have time and inclination to respond, I welcome further questions and comments!

 

– Diane Sophrin
Montpelier, Vermont
March 1, 2022