Friday, 17 April 2015

How Do Your Dreams Influence Your Art?

HUGO'S XYZ - COLLAGE
I love returning to Art History. It is a comforting place...like a warm sweater on a cold night...nurturing, enveloping, familiar. And every time I return I discover something new and inspiring.

The National Collage Society hosts a Postcard Exhibit annually. April 2, 2015 to May 12, 2015 marks the 18th Annual Exhibit. The entries, all 4" x 6" postcard size, are on show at the Tucson Jewish Community Center Art Gallery in Tuscon, Arizona.

Lately I have read a lot of Art History books and articles. They have influenced my thinking while awake and asleep. And oh the dreams! One night I found myself at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich, listening to Hugo Ball reciting a Sound Poem. Like most dreams, images juxtaposed themselves without thought of cohesion...just random images shooting through the kaleidoscope of my nocturnal mind.

I felt my Muse was encouraging me to return to the world of the Sound Poem. And so began my entry for the show.

The substrate for the collage is a canvas board. The photo of Hugo in his shaman's hat and Cubist costume took center stage. I paid homage to his poem by incorporating the title KARAWANE. I added metallic acrylic paint sponged on to canvas. It was finished by with a Swiss postage stamp, and a Dada inspired pointing finger and the word Cacodylic.

The Society chose sixteen winners from the entries. I am delighted and honoured to be among them. You can view the collage work chosen here.

Musings by day and night shape our world as artists. How do your dreams influence your Art?