Eco Collage

In today’s era of heightened environmental awareness, artists are increasingly turning to junk stores, trash bins and surplus outlets to satisfy their urge to create. Every time I go to place something into my trash bag, I take a second look and ask myself how can I use that creatively in a collage? What most people would causally toss, I select for potential inclusion. It can be anything from jar lids, coffee filters, onion skin, onion bags, broken toys, split open tubes of dried paint, paper doilies, broken costume jewelry... The challenge for me is taking things that are destined for the landfill and integrating them into my art.

The use of everyday objects in art can be traced to American folk art in the 19th and 20th centuries; to the Dada movement in Zurich, Barcelona and New York in the 1910s and early 1920s; and most recently to the work of Alexander Calder, Joseph Cornell, John Chamberlain and Louise Nevelson, among others.

Creative recycling into artwork shows my green side and my effort in caring for the planet. I reuse my sumi-e practice papers by staining them or turn scrap paper into “new” handmade paper; save bits and pieces of miscellaneous junk; and the resulting collages reflect the Zen concepts of harmony and balance that I strive to exemplify.

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Foundation	Can It	Cipher
Gold Rush	Lyrical	Proclivity
Temporal	Trolling