Shattered Colors
(collection of collage paintings accompanied by the artist's thoughts, opinions, art philosophy, etc)
"When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressing creature. He becomes interesting to other people. He disturbs, upsets, enlightens, and he opens ways for a better understanding."
Robert Henri
As somebody who appreciates order and prefers fluid transitions between colors I'm still surprised that I was able to develop a series of painting that possess neither. I initially discovered what I came to call "the shattered colors" collage technique during the time in my life when doing something mindless and mechanical seemed like a good therapy. Over the past several years I kept on developing this style farther into something that is borderline 'psychological portraiture'. My technique became heavily influenced by my interest in parapsychology and philosophy. I started drawing upon my intuition to create collage portraits that utilize colors that best describe the inner thoughts as well as the character of the individual I depict. As part of my collages I began using materials that normally end up in a recycling bin, such as old cards, magazines, mass mailers or gift-wrapping; things that we rarely keep, but that nonetheless shape our lives in so many ways.
My collage paintings remain a very good therapy for my soul, so whenever I need to relax I just rip (or cut) paper into tiny pieces and then have a 'gluing party', (not to be confused with parties that involve sniffing glue). Sometimes it takes me several days just to glue stuff to my canvas, because I feel that I can add more pieces to the mess I'm creating. I especially enjoy my work when I don’t predetermine what it is that I'm actually working on. If my collage looks like a face - I make it into a portrait; if it reminds me of some object I search my mind for things that I associate with it. It's a wonderful way for the images in my paintings to find me as opposed to me already having predetermined images to paint.
