I live in Kinburn Ontario, a small village west of Ottawa, Canada.
I am a self-employed artist-contractor, fabricating and installing exhibit components for museums and galleries. In the past I maintained a long standing position as Head of Exhibition Preparation with the Canadian Museum of History (nee Canadian Museum of Civilization). As an artist, my work includes; performance, installations, documents, sculpture, photography and collage.
My collage work is all cut and paste. My sources are primarily lifestyle and fashion magazines, large format landscape picture books and recently, movie posters. I collect colours, patterns, textures, odd bits. I cut out things that attract me, a subconscious recognition of potential. These pieces are sorted and filed in clear sleeves. It’s my inventory.
Most of my work is a combination of predetermination and spontaneity. Although I may have intentions, a direction, and maybe even a sketch, finished works are seldom as I expected. My work is technical in many regards: format, layout, proportion, scale, placement; design essentially. But while I am engaged in this activity, working out my technical priorities, I get swept away by surprise juxtapositions, subtleties of colour, shading, perspective, spontaneous decisions. This is when it becomes collage. To arrive at a final image has not only been a process of assembly but it has been a liberating expressive experience. I can’t help but think that collage may be a temporary state of mind.
I use black card as a base for all my constructions.
It’s like a hole in my room.
I need to seal it up.
I use paper and glue.
