Collage Mixed Media

My inspiration comes from a life-long fascination with the “art” materials I find day-to-day.  Security envelopes, caps, junk mail, leaves, bubble wrap, labels, pudding cups, barcodes, lids, maps, produce mesh, coffee cup sleeves, and magazine ads impart both a visual and physical “feel” to collage that ignites my imagination and motivates me to create.  I approach each work as an opportunity to communicate my love for the colors, textures, and graphic elements inherent in these short-lived castoffs.  I strive to give them new form and context and to express an alternative possibility of what could be.

Collage provides the perfect platform to weave found materials and textures into art that reacquaints us with the ephemera that encompasses our daily life.  These seemingly disparate elements are unified with the conscious use of various media such as acrylics, inks, paint sticks, pencils, markers, specialty papers, and photographs.

My works are intended to function on multiple levels: close-up the work reveals minute details of the materials, then physical layering interrelates them, and finally the composition addresses the intent of the piece.  Along the way, layers are added and subtracted, concealed and revealed, connections and tensions are developed, and with a little luck, a surprise or discovery unfolds.