Thanks so much! Texture is one of teh thing I pay the most attention to in my work. I'm always looking for ways to enhance it. Sometimes I'm crumple the paper before gluing it down, and sometimes I'll even use a fine grit sandpaper to add extra wear and distress.
“But, we are characters of contradiction and simultaneity. Supple and barbed. Condemned and redeemed. Broken into wholeness. Stable and trembling. A phosphorescent species born into darkness, and not consumed.” If I had the ability to print these words right now, and then frame on my wall, I would. 🙏
Wow! Thank you so much Kimberly! I don’t consider myself a writer. It’s my least favorite creative thing to do, but it’s so integral to my thinking that it’s a necessary evil, lol. It means I’m always a bit taken aback when someone connects with something I’ve written. So thank you again!
Great point on this Duane: "We are incapable of being anything other than temporal and temperamental." This is the struggle moment to moment. Haha. Attempting to get out of the temporal of time-space, at least mentally, upsets the temperment. Round and round it goes.
Thank you so much! I’ve done a number of those mixed media pieces lately. I’m only just now starting to share them. I’ve been searching for something in them, but haven’t quite found it yet. I can tell that there’s something there, I just haven’t quite figured out how to get to it.
Can’t tell you how high of a compliment that is to me! I like to think of my work as a kind of geology, as layers of history and narrative compounded and compacted over time. Engaging with it becomes a kind of archaeology, you keep digging deeper and unearthing new things. So glad to hear that comes through in way. Thanks again!
like a lot of paintings: both literally -- there are layers of paint, sometimes with entirely different pictures underneath -- and symbolically -- including a particular object is a compacted way to include the deep history it refers to.
'Broken into wholeness. Stable and trembling' What a moment in time we are in, Duane. This ever changing, never changing light. We are spilling home. Connecting with the words that resonate here, thank you,
"This ever changing, never changing light. We are spilling home." This! So gorgeously put! An entire poem in two sentences! Please save this and use it in something!
So glad you got them Dwight! I hope your son is recovering well. Sounds like you’re on the cusp of some exciting work, I’m looking forward to seeing where go. I’ve learned that the only way to get anything sorted out, is to just start making. You can sort it out as you go. It’s an iterative process. It’s a matter of failing forward. That’s the beautiful think about collage, it’s low friction, you can fail quickly, gather data with immediacy, and keep learning.
I took a screenshot as an example of what spoke to me with your words and collage. The valuable opposite contradictions of ourselves that live together, far more than the the sum of the opposites. Like total lightness or darkness cannot be seen or understood without both. One of my favorite images is holding a tiny plant in a clump of soil where it began as a seed breaking open to grow to the light. It could not have existed without both.
Wonderful analogue collages! You can almost sense the texture and the smell through the screen!
Thanks so much! Texture is one of teh thing I pay the most attention to in my work. I'm always looking for ways to enhance it. Sometimes I'm crumple the paper before gluing it down, and sometimes I'll even use a fine grit sandpaper to add extra wear and distress.
A shame that for most of us it's trapped on-screen!
It's one of the reasons I've never been satisfied making digital art. I crave tactile nature of paper.
likewise! hence why I'm turning Substacks into books
(obviously would love to do yours!)
We're waiting for the invite to the gallery/studio room where the magic happens. If only!
There is something that has slotted into place with this series. I agree with Patris. You're on point right now.
Thank you so much! I feel like I’ve been faltering in so many of the pieces I’m currently working on. Its nice to hear.
“But, we are characters of contradiction and simultaneity. Supple and barbed. Condemned and redeemed. Broken into wholeness. Stable and trembling. A phosphorescent species born into darkness, and not consumed.” If I had the ability to print these words right now, and then frame on my wall, I would. 🙏
Wow! Thank you so much Kimberly! I don’t consider myself a writer. It’s my least favorite creative thing to do, but it’s so integral to my thinking that it’s a necessary evil, lol. It means I’m always a bit taken aback when someone connects with something I’ve written. So thank you again!
You only get stronger as you go.. beautiful work!
That’s so kind of you! Thanks so much!
Stunning as always.
Much appreciated Gloria!
Great point on this Duane: "We are incapable of being anything other than temporal and temperamental." This is the struggle moment to moment. Haha. Attempting to get out of the temporal of time-space, at least mentally, upsets the temperment. Round and round it goes.
Beautiful! I really love the mixed media collage at the end.
Thank you so much! I’ve done a number of those mixed media pieces lately. I’m only just now starting to share them. I’ve been searching for something in them, but haven’t quite found it yet. I can tell that there’s something there, I just haven’t quite figured out how to get to it.
> Visibly shifting while hidden in plain sight.
Love the way that the collages seem to do the same thing. You look at them. But then you look again and they seem to have changed.
Can’t tell you how high of a compliment that is to me! I like to think of my work as a kind of geology, as layers of history and narrative compounded and compacted over time. Engaging with it becomes a kind of archaeology, you keep digging deeper and unearthing new things. So glad to hear that comes through in way. Thanks again!
like a lot of paintings: both literally -- there are layers of paint, sometimes with entirely different pictures underneath -- and symbolically -- including a particular object is a compacted way to include the deep history it refers to.
Yes! Exactly! A kind of underpainting or perhaps even an understory.
“we are characters of contradiction and simultaneity.”
And this is our poetry 💛💛💛
Love that idea!
Always keep something beautiful in your mind—Blaise Pascal
Keep some sorrow always in your heart—Pema Chödrön
Saving these!
'Broken into wholeness. Stable and trembling' What a moment in time we are in, Duane. This ever changing, never changing light. We are spilling home. Connecting with the words that resonate here, thank you,
"This ever changing, never changing light. We are spilling home." This! So gorgeously put! An entire poem in two sentences! Please save this and use it in something!
https://theseainme.substack.com/p/spilling-home
(as they used say on all the best children's shows I'd watch, here's one I made earlier...)
Excellent! Restacked!
Oh wow!
Duane, you challenge and inspire me, and you create poetry as much as your collages
Thanks so much Dwight! That really and truly means a lot to me!
I’ve been gone several days helping to take care of my grandson with knee surgery, so I just got back and received the collage bags.
I’ve also been collecting images from magazines, so there is much to mingle and work with these.
I don’t have anything sorted out yet, but my intent is to incorporate these in some way with my own photographic images.
I am a total absolute beginner with collages, so this is where I have to start to find my way somewhere that has meaning
So glad you got them Dwight! I hope your son is recovering well. Sounds like you’re on the cusp of some exciting work, I’m looking forward to seeing where go. I’ve learned that the only way to get anything sorted out, is to just start making. You can sort it out as you go. It’s an iterative process. It’s a matter of failing forward. That’s the beautiful think about collage, it’s low friction, you can fail quickly, gather data with immediacy, and keep learning.
All good advice. I have things scattered all over, moving things around, and in a way, looking for more of a message than composition.
Love that! I often find that the message and the composition are one and the same. Sounds like you're on the right track to me.
I took a screenshot as an example of what spoke to me with your words and collage. The valuable opposite contradictions of ourselves that live together, far more than the the sum of the opposites. Like total lightness or darkness cannot be seen or understood without both. One of my favorite images is holding a tiny plant in a clump of soil where it began as a seed breaking open to grow to the light. It could not have existed without both.
That’s a wonderful example Dwight! Thanks for sharing that!