Collage
I took my first collage course in fall 2012 at the Toronto School of Art and absolutely loved it. My instructor was Donnely Smallwood, with whom I had my first course at TSA six years prior to that. I made some great creative connections between my life and art in this course and subsequent ones. I realized that I could use some of the items I have been collecting and carrying with me over the years. Specifically, I have kept three sets of items since childhood even with all my moves. In all cases, it has been years since I even looked at them. First, as a child, I collected stamps, likely for about six months and then got bored. Since then my collection has grown mainly through people giving me stamps - I was a 'stamp collector' in their minds. I also have a foreign money collection and finally, postcards that family members have sent me. Now I know I kept them for a reason - to do art!
Canada Goose
This is my latest piece using my collection of round metal objects I find on the ground wherever I go. I have always been fascinated by the depiction of birds in First Nations art and this is my version of a Canada Goose. After quite a long time of thinking about this, putting this together actually came together quite quickly. The gray background is some packing material I picked up off the street. The photo is too red, but it has been hard for me to photograph this and get the non rusted pieces to show up properly. I have a distinct memory of picking up only two of them. The head was in an alley near my workplace several years ago. The body outline is a horseshoe I found in a stream during a trip to the Dominican Republic. Size: 28.5 by 17 inches
This is my latest piece using my collection of round metal objects I find on the ground wherever I go. I have always been fascinated by the depiction of birds in First Nations art and this is my version of a Canada Goose. After quite a long time of thinking about this, putting this together actually came together quite quickly. The gray background is some packing material I picked up off the street. The photo is too red, but it has been hard for me to photograph this and get the non rusted pieces to show up properly. I have a distinct memory of picking up only two of them. The head was in an alley near my workplace several years ago. The body outline is a horseshoe I found in a stream during a trip to the Dominican Republic. Size: 28.5 by 17 inches
Street metal mandala
This was my obsession project. For something close to two years, I have been looking for and collecting round metal objects on the ground - bottle caps, washers, nuts and anything else I could easily pick up. Night or day I have found objects and then put them together. I can't believe how many I found. As with screw stump, I used a part of a door that had been cut out. The copper wire that lines it is also from leftovers from a building electrical upgrade. I think it all started when I changed a gear plate on my bike and they gave me back the old one. Don't know why or what I could possibly do with it but I had it lying around looking at me and I think that eventually led to looking for other round metal objects. Now that I count how many I have found over time, I'm pretty amazed. Before this obsession project, I never realized so many objects in this category could be found on the ground. I think I will still continue adding some more over time, but the whole surface is now covered, so it's 'done'. Size: 18 by 24 inches.
This was my obsession project. For something close to two years, I have been looking for and collecting round metal objects on the ground - bottle caps, washers, nuts and anything else I could easily pick up. Night or day I have found objects and then put them together. I can't believe how many I found. As with screw stump, I used a part of a door that had been cut out. The copper wire that lines it is also from leftovers from a building electrical upgrade. I think it all started when I changed a gear plate on my bike and they gave me back the old one. Don't know why or what I could possibly do with it but I had it lying around looking at me and I think that eventually led to looking for other round metal objects. Now that I count how many I have found over time, I'm pretty amazed. Before this obsession project, I never realized so many objects in this category could be found on the ground. I think I will still continue adding some more over time, but the whole surface is now covered, so it's 'done'. Size: 18 by 24 inches.
American stories
I think in 2010, my wonderful collage teacher Donnelly Smallwood gave us a National Geographic index from back in the day and asked us to create an altered book. I started but did not get too far. Since National Geographic is so iconic, I thought it would make sense to include other iconic American stories too. Always on the back burner, ideas stewed for years but always arose from time to time and I recently finished it in 2016. Definitely with a vintage feel, but still with some contemporary and ideally even some timeless commentaries. Single page size is 7 by 10 inches.
I think in 2010, my wonderful collage teacher Donnelly Smallwood gave us a National Geographic index from back in the day and asked us to create an altered book. I started but did not get too far. Since National Geographic is so iconic, I thought it would make sense to include other iconic American stories too. Always on the back burner, ideas stewed for years but always arose from time to time and I recently finished it in 2016. Definitely with a vintage feel, but still with some contemporary and ideally even some timeless commentaries. Single page size is 7 by 10 inches.
Screw stump
Magic, or at least fun, can happen when you look at the junk around you and decide to make art with it. I had some cut up doors and a pot of random screws lying around my building. The colour of the door pieces is beautiful and I have known for a while that I wanted to do something with them. Then the screws called me. Using a tree stump for my image I put it all together with some acrylic gel to hold the screws together. I added the screws in many sessions, waiting for each small addition to dry before including more. I suppose it is overall an environmental commentary or reflection, the beautiful wood used for doors, the screws used to bring pieces of wood together for our use and the stump image as the source from where it all starts. Let's see if some more ideas turn up for those door pieces that are still lying around. Size: 18 by 24 inches.
Magic, or at least fun, can happen when you look at the junk around you and decide to make art with it. I had some cut up doors and a pot of random screws lying around my building. The colour of the door pieces is beautiful and I have known for a while that I wanted to do something with them. Then the screws called me. Using a tree stump for my image I put it all together with some acrylic gel to hold the screws together. I added the screws in many sessions, waiting for each small addition to dry before including more. I suppose it is overall an environmental commentary or reflection, the beautiful wood used for doors, the screws used to bring pieces of wood together for our use and the stump image as the source from where it all starts. Let's see if some more ideas turn up for those door pieces that are still lying around. Size: 18 by 24 inches.
Love Daddy
In 1973, my father made a business trip to Brazil. He sent my siblings and I quite a number of postcards, in some cases, even consecutive days. Collage is the perfect way to do something with them. I photocopied both sides, giving me excellent reproductions with which to work. The images incorporate various cutting and assembling techniques. The designs themselves are pretty straightforward, but including his written words adds an essential element to all of them. As the person who wrote the postcards is no longer with us and yet I can see so much of his personality in these brief notes. Not an expressive man, the fact that he could happily write Love Daddy at the end of each was meaningful for me and I tried to include those words in each collage whenever I could. Lots of memories and nostalgia for me through these images. Hopefully some fun and whimsy too!
The slideshow below contains two types of work. The two-dimensional are based on different ways of cutting and arranging the front and back of the postcards to really work the words and images into each other. There are also two three-dimensional works - a tie and a baseball hat. I remember my father going to work in a suit and tie every day. That was the style back in the day and I don't think he ever varied during a work day - it would have been such a surprise I think I would have remembered. So making a tie out of copies of the postcards made perfect sense to represent him. Just as a tie was the distinguishing piece of apparel for my father when I was boy, my distinguishing piece of clothing was my baseball cap. I pretty much had it on all summer. It was part of my uniform and identity at the time. It just felt right that represent me in this project, I should make the postcards into a baseball cap.
The slideshow below contains two types of work. The two-dimensional are based on different ways of cutting and arranging the front and back of the postcards to really work the words and images into each other. There are also two three-dimensional works - a tie and a baseball hat. I remember my father going to work in a suit and tie every day. That was the style back in the day and I don't think he ever varied during a work day - it would have been such a surprise I think I would have remembered. So making a tie out of copies of the postcards made perfect sense to represent him. Just as a tie was the distinguishing piece of apparel for my father when I was boy, my distinguishing piece of clothing was my baseball cap. I pretty much had it on all summer. It was part of my uniform and identity at the time. It just felt right that represent me in this project, I should make the postcards into a baseball cap.
Stamp Mandala
The idea for this project came to me in a flash. I knew I had hundreds of used stamps but had not seen any other artist use them in a way that I thought I could build on. And then it came to me, I could create a mandala. I worked on a design based on images I found online and then made some initial decisions on colours to use and away I went. Usually, the artistic process for me has many moments of uncertainty and frustration. I enjoyed this project from the start and knew it would work. I was only impatient to finish and see it complete. Size: 12 inch circle. Not for sale.