Collage shortcuts

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MAKE AN EFFORT
Well, I have been solitary in my house for 6 days now in order to “create” and I feel the urge to make a sort of checkup.
When we were leaving Geneva, I said to myself that maybe I would take up painting again in order ”to see if by chance” before handing over the unused roll of canvas to my friend C. Well, no taste for brushes and colors.
As for paper, scissors and glue, there is nothing different from my working rhythm in Geneva, a part from the joy of listening to music at higher levels and disposing of a much bigger working space. So it’s as usual: one collage per day. My actual collages are more demanding surely because they are invested with the same importance as my former paintings, whereas before they were more a sort of think tank or playground without finality.
Another point might be the huge number of collage already made so that certain themes are already well explored which makes it quite a challenge to invent something new: collages are meant to surprise me!
And, last not least, it’s springtime and when I see the sun shine, I feel the urge to go out and enjoy the day, play golf or just take a walk with my wife. And when I come home, I’d say to myself: Well now you have to make your daily collage. Make an effort!

FAIS UN EFFORT !
Cela fait 6 jours que je me retrouve seul dans notre maison « pour créer » et j’ai envie de faire un bilan.
En partant, je me suis dit que j’allais peut-être peindre un peu « pour voir si jamais » avant de léguer mon rouleau de toile inutilisé à C. Eh bien, zéro envie.
Côté papier, ciseaux, colle : rien de différent par rapport à mon rythme de travail à Genève, à part le plaisir de pouvoir écouter de la musique à des niveaux confortables et de disposer d’un espace de travail beaucoup plus vaste. Donc : un collage par jour. Car mes collages actuels me demandent plus, vu qu’ils sont investis du rôle qu’occupait la peinture auparavant et qu’auparavant ils étaient davantage un terrain d’expérimentation et de jeu sans conséquence.
Un autre facteur pourrait être le nombre énorme de collages déjà faits et que certains thèmes y sont déjà pas mal explorés de sorte que je dois me surpasser pour trouver du nouveau. Le but de mes collages étant de me surprendre moi-même…
Et puis, last not least, c’est le printemps et quand le soleil brille, j’ai envie de sortir, de goûter la douceur du jour ou de faire une partie de golf, ou de me promener avec ma femme tout simplement. Mais en rentrant, je me dis : Allons, tu n’as pas fait ton collage journalier. Fais un effort !

Of course it's the artist, not the food I am talking of. His paintings impressed me a lot when I saw them for the first time. Now, I think that maybe he repeated his formula in his late years. But still the George Dyer's series are great. I always dreamed of making à face like he was able to do. With this collage I perhaps approached a little his creative power, I hope. Anyway he puts the onlooker on fire. As for my bacon, I am still not bringing much home despite my willingness to sell my works, collages and photos.
But as bacon is no good for my cholesterol level, I''ll have to go on with vegees.

Here the link to the bigger view of it.

After a 90`speech during a presentation of my prints on canvas to some people at Chantal Q. 's studio in St. Sulpice, I drove home and wondered about my performance. For the first time, I was absolutely convinced of the value of my works, feeling completely at ease while speaking about them.
I felt so self-confident!
But when I went back to my desk, I was paralyzed. Of course, the hurdle was too high to jump over = being so proud of my collages meant that I had to put the stakes very high or even higher from now on.
Having understood what was going on, I decided to move only bits of paper on desk and to wait for an outcome: either nothing - which would mean a vacation from art, or (hopefully) a new and satisfying /surprising collage.
Well, I made a new collage today. I don't know if it is a masterpiece but it is at least mainstream quality. In my over 2000 collages there are some very special ones that I consider as very well done, but I can't be a genius every day. It's like exercising for THE collage to come.
That's how I feel about this these days.

17/03/10

07:37:00 pm, by admin , 201 words
Categories: Art, Collage
SELF-CONFIDENCE

After a 90`speech during a presentation of my prints on canvas to some people at Chantal Q. 's studio in St. Sulpice, I drove home and wondered about my performance. For the first time, I was absolutely convinced of the value of my works, feeling completely at ease while speaking about them.
I felt so self-confident!
But when I went back to my desk, I was paralyzed. Of course, the hurdle was too high to jump over = being so proud of my collages meant that I had to put the stakes very high or even higher from now on.
Having understood what was going on, I decided to move only bits of paper on desk and to wait for an outcome: either nothing - which would mean a vacation from art, or (hopefully) a new and satisfying /surprising collage.
Well, I made a new collage today. I don't know if it is a masterpiece but it is at least mainstream quality. In my over 2000 collages there are some very special ones that I consider as very well done, but I can't be a genius every day. It's like exercising for THE collage to come.
That's how I feel about this these days.

www.archives.stephanus.com/images/Collagesdeuxmilledix/big/49.jpg" alt="" title="Crunch it, collage,march 10" />

The only comments that I get here are from spammers. Thanks to them, I am actively learning a bunch of stupid sayings in English. This blog is meant for people who love art and are interested in the process of creation. But this is the world we are living in. As for me, I am still trying to squeeze out from my head some interesting pictures and as I see it, the lemon is not out of juice. Whereas some of my spammers-commentators...
As for this collage, the applause that gets the crunched head seems to me symptomatic for the “heroes” of our time. When I read about them, I always think of Robert Musil’s Man without qualities where the hero reflects on the expression “the brilliant racehorse” (das geniale Rennpferd) in a newspaper of that time. Genius seems to be reserved for scientists or musicians – there is generally no doubt permitted. In the field of art, there are many racehorses, but no geniuses as for ex. Titian, Veronesi. These days I am looking at their paintings and marvel about their art. Back to the comments to my posts: please give me at least quotations from great artists instead of those stupid sayings. In order to help you, here some examples:
Painting is just another way of keeping a diary. Pablo Picasso
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. Pablo Picasso
Art is the only way to run away without leaving home. Twyla Tharp
What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit. John Updike
All great art comes from a sense of outrage. Glenn Close
Hope that will help.

This collage has an interesting outcome. I started with the Van Gogh, transformed it as usual, finally sacrificing the master's portrait to the collage scissors. At the end, I was quite satisfied. But when I had it scanned and examined it on my computer screen, I found that I had to take off some words. I started wiping letters out. The word "leather" had to be changed because of its lack of meaningfulness in this context, so I worked on the L which became an I and then I saw it in a stroke: This is the title! My hidden artist is really working underground!

Ce collage a une fin intéressante. Partant du portrait de Van Gogh et le transformant comme à l'accoutumée, sacrifiant sur l'autel du collage le portrait du maître, le résultat me sembla OK. Mais en le voyant affiché à mon écran, je trouvai qu'il fallait enlever des textes publicitaires peu intéressants. Le mot "leather" devait être changé. Et lorsque le L devint un I je le vis immédiatement: C'est mon titre! Mon artiste caché a été encore bien malin!

Another collage « in progress ». It started from a Cranach painting on venal love. I progressively hid the main scene, took off more and more elements and finished with a collage that has but a far relationship with the original painting. And I am asking myself if this isn’t a logical process of appropriation of the picture. During the making of the collage, I imprint my manner on alien fragments that I barely chose. It’s about finding a coherence in incoherence, to assemble the pieces like dominoes. The collision of the fragments produces associations and meanings. Seen like this, the fragmentary nature of collage is only faint. It suggests a whole while showing the void that underlies it, an absence of images or the possibility of others to come.

Un nouveau collage « in progress ». Parti d’une peinture de Cranach représentant l’amour vénal, j’ai progressivement recouvert la scène, enlevé de plus en plus d’éléments pour me retrouver avec un collage qui n’a avec la peinture initiale qu’un lointain rapport thématique. Et je me demande si ce n’est pas un processus d’appropriation logique de l’image. Au fur et à mesure du travail, j’imprime ma manière à des fragments qui me sont étrangers et que je ne fais que choisir. L’enjeu est sans doute de trouver une cohérence dans l’incohérence, d’assembler les morceaux comme un jeu de dominos. Le choc des fragments produit des associations d’idées et du sens. Vu ainsi, le côté fragmentaire du collage n’est que feint. Il suggère une totalité tout en montrant un vide sous-jacent, une absence d’image ou la possibilité d’autres images en devenir.

Because I have too many choices and I am unable to decide. Maybe the problem is that I want to preserve the main figure (right) instead of changing the whole picture. Here is where I am for the moment. It’s a war scene, from an old etching. I am torn between Bosch and Goya, but I know that my picture is “second hand”, it is laid back into the past. These variations may behave as a suite, but for the moment I don’t see any logical bind between these different states. Maybe one of those will stand out from the lot, unless I change the picture thoroughly. For the moment, I just want to get rid of the problem and free my mind. So I post them here in my blog. You can tell me which one you prefer.

Add. feb 15th:
Finally I decided to change the whole picture. The focus has shifted to the victim of a bomb, explosion or earthquake. And, quite naturally, I came to link it to crucifixions and to my reading of R.Arnheim's The power of the center.

Is this the final word? Anyway, it's the experience that counts. To me it means that I must be able to shuffle the cards again, that I mustn't give up early, let my imagination do its work and focus on the process, not on the outcome.

Le 14 fév.
Je suis perplexe, car j’ai trop de possibilités et je me sens incapable de choisir.Peut-être que je veux préserver la figure principale (à droite) au lieu de tout chambouler. Voilà où j’en suis pour l’instant. C’est une scène de guerre d’après une gravure ancienne. Je me trouve pris entre Bosch et Goya, mais je sais que mon collage et de “seconde main”, il se situe dans le passé. Ces variations pourraient se combiner en une suite, mais pour le moment je ne vois aucun lien entre les différents stades. Il se peut que l’une des étapes émergera enfin, à moins que je ne change tout. Aujourd’hui, je veux juste me débarrasser du problème pour libérer mon esprit. Voilà pourquoi je mets tout sur ce blog. Vous pouvez faire votre choix à ma place.

Le 15 fév.
J’ai décidé de tout changer, l’accent s’est mis sur la victime d’un bombardement, d’une explosion ou d’un tremblement de terre. Et assez naturellement j’ai pensé à des crucifixions et ma lecture de Rudolf Arnheim où il analyse la notion de centre.
Est-ce le mot de la fin ? De toute façon, seule l’expérience compte. Cela veut dire pour moi que je dois être capable de tout remettre en question, ne pas abandonner trop vite et laisser faire mon imagination et surtout me concentrer sur le processus créatif, pas sur le résultat.

This collage is quite funny because at first, I transformed a painting by sticking on it some animal - a sloth? - from the wilderness. I liked the contrast between animality and the golden cross, listening to Otis Taylor's House of Crosses. But then I felt that it was too close to the planet of apes style and I feared the visit of Charlton Heston's spectre. So I went back to basics, to the original painting, chasing the sloth and letting the human beast out. With collage, I prefer avoiding a style which is too close to pure illustration.

The link to the bigger picture

Ce collage est assez rigolo, car tout d'abord j'ai transformé une peinture en y collant un animal sauvage, je crois qu'ilé s'agit d'un paresseux. J'ai aimé le contraste entre la bestialité et la croix dorée tout en écoutant Otis Taylor "The House of Crosses". Mais j'ai vite senti que cela devenait trop à la sauce planète des singes et me mis à craindre l'apparition du spectre de Charlton Heston. Je suis donc revenu à l'oeuvre initiale, chassant le paresseux pour laisser la bête humaine se manifester.
En collage, je préfère éviter un style qui serait trop proche d'une simple illustration.

DESKSHOTS
I have been stuck during 2 days, not knowing what to do on my beloved desk. I felt quite empty, a bit depressed, a little sick, but I decided not to enter this state that I know too well and did this or that without thinking too much about collage. Suddenly I had the idea of making pictures of the desk in order to keep a trace from the “disorder” on it. But soon after, the collage machine was launched again.
After showing in this blog how some collages undergo huge modifications, I feel that it is interesting to step à little back in order to see the whole working surface. This might be a regular subject, or even webcammed , but for the moment I’ll close this window again and focus on the individual works.

Après 2 jours de blocage sans savoir faire sur ma tablette bien aimée, je me suis senti assez vide, un peu déprimé et malade. Mais j’ai décidé de ne pas nourrir cet état que je connais trop bien et me suis occupé ailleurs. Tout d’un coup j’ai eu l’idée de photographier ma tablette afin d’en fixer le « désordre ». Et peu après, la machine à coller s’est remise en marche.
Après avoirt montré ici comment un collage pouvait se métamorphoser, je trouve intéressant de prendre un peu de hauteur afin de découvrir la totalité de la surface de travail. Cela pourrait constituer un sujet de webcam ou de photos prises à intervalle régulier, mais pour l’instant, je préfère refermer cette fenêtre et me concentrer sur l’œuvre elle-même.

This collage is a commentary on the news, as my very first collages in the 60s. The initial picture was a photo of the demonstrators in Teheran, the hand red from blood.
As usual, I didn’t want to fall into illustration or make some caricature, I prefer using rimes and free association. It’s a difficult subject as everybody knows, but it’s not the first time that I make collages on (religious) fanaticism (cf.collage 339 , 419 , 897 , 964 , 1834 ) In my view the chador has nothing to do with religion but everything with how men look at women. Instead of changing their look, they force women to veil and to be subordinate of them. That’s why the masculine figure has an eroticized forehead, but veiled of course. Underneath, a clock, a trigger and then the blood. Blind violence, no look to others. The veiled eye of the mute woman, the bloody eye of the victim which is a rising hand one tries to suffocate.

Ce collage est un commentaire sur l’actualité, tout comme mes premiers collages des années 60. Le point de départ :une photo des manifestants iraniens à Téhéran, à la main ensanglantée.
Comme toujours, je n’ai pas voulu donner dans une illustration, ni faire une caricature, j’ai plutôt utilisé les rimes et les associations d’idées. C’est un sujet scabreux de nos jours, mais ce n’est pas la première fois que je traite du fanatisme (religieux) (collages 339, 419 , 897 , 964 , 1834). Pour moi, le tchador n’a rien à voir avec la religion, mais avec le regard sur la femme. C’est pourquoi la figure masculine a eu son front « érotisé », mais voilé bien entendu. Dessous l’horloge, un compteur et encore en dessous, le sang. Violence aveugle, sans regard sur les autres. L’œil voilé de la femme muette, l’œil ensanglanté de la victime qui est une main qui se lève, mais qu’on veut étouffer.