There’s a great new effort underway to document the everyday fabricators, makers, crafters, and artists at the heart of today’s DIY movement. Its called Makeshift Magazine: A Journal of Hidden Creativity and their first issue is out. If you support their launch by contributing to their Kickstarter campaign, you’ll get a copy! While the magazine [...]

No, I haven’t had that but it is the theme of an imagined piece of artwork that I put together for the subscription art service Papir Masse. Back in July PM issued a call for submissions, “summer postcards” – whimsical, sultry, true or imagined, PM was looking for some steamy summer reading and art. I [...]

A friend and fellow arts educator/booster recently put me in touch with long-time Vermont artist Timothy Fisher. The paint on his website was peeling and needed a little touch up. This was a great way to encounter another stunning Vermont folk artist. I don’t know alot about Timothy yet, but the few bits I’ve gleaned [...]

Continuing to work on wood panel I’ve been trying to loosen up from a conventional texture-collage approach. What else can be done with a rich and varied texture as background? Instead of a intentional color what happens when you go completely loose and forget about whether it makes sense from a composition standpoint? What happens [...]

In April MixedMedia/Peace Tiles was able to support two American artist-educators in their travel to Cyprus to work with young people there through the arts. The goal was to surface a ‘visual voice’ on the partition, peace, and the prospect for dialogue to get there. You can read about that process here. Below is a [...]

A bit of Magritte along with a humorous dose of techno-reactionism, whipped together this piece for Howard Rheingold, who long ago (think “SmartMobs”) got me excited about the large-scale social potential of mobile devices. He once lent me a vintage copy of Whole Earth Review for a paper I was putting together with Robert Cavalier [...]

For family, friends, and kindred spirits

For a while I’ve been working to “blow up” my collages – break out of the small-scale mold that has been impressed on me by the Peace Tiles work. Recently, the folks at the Green Mountain Film Festival created an opportunity to go large – with the necessary level of risk involved to really push [...]

About a year ago a friend I’d met at Goucher College during a Peace Tiles workshop I’d run provided me with an opportunity to push forward an idea I’d had for a while: reproduce children’s artwork produced in a Peace Tiles workshop in a way that would be appropriate to a lively public environment and [...]

One of the delights in taking a meander to – and through – a good antique or salvage shop is the discovery of once functional objects that have been shorn, busted, unmade and unusable. Yet a glimmer of their former utility is there – something to suggest that it should, or once would, do something. [...]

The poem that is the subject of this box – a steamy summery kind of musing, complete with blueberries, olympics, and humidity – is taken from the Fall 2006 ESOPUS magazine. Even though the poems, written in the ’80s by Vincent Katz, are about a breakup, I found them to be much more immediate, intimate, [...]

A few summers ago I experimented with thin, 3/16-inch plywood to produce textural finishes on top of which anyone could compose a visual engaging, personalized collage. I then took the dried mixedmedia work, sanded it up a bit, and wrapped in an arresting detail/section from a magazine cover. I composed little packages of collage items [...]

Around the holidays last year I’d made a promise to knock out a washboard table with a collage top for a family member. I’d gotten the basic idea from the remarkable Victoria Romanoff in Ithaca, New York at a meet up we’d had years ago.This go around, I’d found a couple of pricier washboards with glass rubbing plates. Cleaning [...]

Paris Review 188 has a lovely collection of eleven collages by the American poet John Ashbery, 81. He’s a very interesting fellow, and if I’d ever been at Bard would have enjoyed learning from him. Academically credentialed, literarily plugged in, culturally invested – at least through the ’70s. Its not clear to me what has roused [...]

The German artist Martin Kippenberger who died in 1997 has a large installation of his work that sprawls among the white galleries of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. I’m not terribly familiar with this artist, but impressed that he’d turn a Gerhard Richter painting into a table – he’s as playful and anti-establishment as [...]

Andres Myers is a mixed media artist who’s work stands out from the usual. Its almost otherworldly. Familiar too. Layers of color like lacquer, applied carefully and used sculpturally – paper, cloth, plaster, tape, paint, wire – you name it, its there. Its also deliciously abstract – a lollipop that fell onto a sprinkles-covered ice [...]

Love this idea of the ICE – I just might have to enter for the fun of it:Artists each make 13 collages (more or less), size not bigger than A4 (about 8″ X 10″ or 20cm X 26cm), and send them to me in New Zealand, to arrive by 20th March, 2009. One from each artist [...]

I’m settling into my new role here at MIT as the IDEAS Competition coordinator. Its a great place to be – the Media Lab, Arts department, Architecture and Urban Studies – all contained within this vast engine of applied research. My role here is to support student interest in applying their ingenuity to community development [...]

In memoriam Perhaps more later…

While I was in Ithaca last week, I had the pleasure of meeting Victoria Romanoff, restorationist and artist. One of the pieces of ‘functional salvage art’ she introduced me to was her “washboard table.” The idea is elegantly simple: for an open-faced (front and back) table, join two antique washboards together with a top surface [...]

During the weekend of April 11-13, more than a dozen Twinfield staff, parents and students helped to sort, record, and mount the more than 450 “Peace Tiles” that would compose a new mural in the school’s cafeteria. The Peace Tiles – individual collages on 8-inch square wood panel – each responded to the question, “What [...]

Mine is the bottom right. The “cloud” text says, Children of the earth moulders of clay, movers of rock. In making the tile, I was struck by how well the lighting worked between the girl and the cloudy background I’d painted. That was a pleasing result. The concept continues my interest in the representation of [...]

Had a just lovely workshop with 32 AmeriCorps/VISTA members (these are young people typically just out of university who are spending a year volunteering in a community. Many in this group are working on environmental education and with at-risk populations, which is to say young people who are disproportionately likely to drop out of school, [...]

Crossing the border from Richford, Vermont into Sutton, Canada is always a delight. Not only is Richford this post-industrial gem of a Vermont town just waiting for a revival, Sutton is this understated gourmet haven (yes, it even boasts a cheese shop, chocolate museum and creperie among other delights) with a vibrant arts community. Sutton [...]

Today marks the final day of my work with Twinfield students. All in all it was a lovely experience. The students were so welcoming, and most eager to experiment and “play,” which is a big part of what its all about. I think its fair to say that they are really excited to see what [...]

[From the Times Argus ] High school students, parents and teachers worked side by side in Twinfield’s cafeteria Tuesday, absorbed in combining paints, bits of paper, lettering and treasures they had brought from home to create tiles that express their sense of place. In another part of the building, the elementary students were creating their [...]

Begins tomorrow morning. I’ve worked hard to develop a set of materials that I hope can effectively guide classrooms into thinking about the topic, “What is my place,” while not taxing teachers. Tomorrow morning I spend the day making 45-min presentations to all of the grades. Its a bit like a charrette. In K-4 we [...]

The Global Peace Tiles Project has a new guide for educators aimed at generating reflection and dialogue around the topics of identity and place. The “topic pack,” which is 12 pages, includes six activities and several discussion starters. In addition to a look at the book, “The Big World and the Little House,” users of [...]

Poster I whipped out (I love Pages) for an upcoming mural project – February 11-13 – the largest one yet that I’ve been a part of – that will engage all students and staff in an exploration of the question, “What is my place?” The aim is to encourage students to think about where they [...]

I’ve been putting alot of thought into ways to communicate the possibilities for creating Peace Tiles – outside of the workshop environment. I’ve noticed that one of the challenges – both in communicating the essence of “collage” as well as the possibilities for creativity within that 8-inch square “sandbox” I like to call a Peace [...]

At the end of “The Prophet,” in the company of the seeress Almitra, Almustafa bids farewell to the people of Orphalese, speaking of the misty nature of wanderer. But also about comings again, and truth and the fulfillment of love. “It is life in quest of life in bodies that fear the grave,” he says [...]

A recent re-reading of Khalil Gibran’s “The Prophet” got me thinking about journey’s recently, beginnings and endings. I’ve been in the studio a bit lately as well, going through some old family photographs, letters… bits and pieces of lives strewn across the globe with these vignettes of universality. A journey is an unwritten story… and [...]

MixedMedia is all about appropriation – the process of selecting, manipulating, integrating “found” works into new arrangement, compositions. So when I came across the Walker Art Center + Soap Factory = Festival of Appropriation, I was intrigued! On Thursday November 29, Walker Art Center will host a film collage presentation and Circuit Bending Workshop with [...]

A few weeks ago I was sent an interesting link from my father about an interesting group in Canada that makes large-scale murals from individual fine-art paintings. The results were striking, and got me thinking about the possibilities of using mosaic techniques for Peace Tiles – online as well as using physical Peace Tiles. I [...]

Writing artist statements and coming up with clever titles for works is probably the least pleasant aspect of promoting one’s work and sense of purpose as an artist. You gotta be somebody; the works need context. Well, I tend to like to create an “atmosphere” with a body of work – something palpable, a space [...]

In getting ready for a small show I am putting up locally, I’ve been obsessing over the archetypes of journeys – and how any “journey” has a beginning, middle, and an end. Rather Oedipal: four legs, two legs, three legs… Anyway, its all a big swill right now though some gems are beginning to emerge. [...]

How gorgeous of everyone to come on up (and over) to the Green Mountain State for the first ever Peace Tiles “happening!” We hailed from Morocco, Canada, the Land of L.A., Oregon, Germany, the midwest and Longisland…! Just the best mixing up of people ever. The workshop opened Thursday evening with some great local food [...]

A draft agenda for MixedMedia’s 2007 Peace Tiles workshop is available to download. Click here.

Continuing my experiments with what i am calling the Madou technique, composed this image using sand, string, Ugandan bark cloth, printed cloth, paper, wood and acrylic paint. I wasn’t working with any idea more direct than the sense I got from Madou’s work of things tied together, like the mask used by the disfigured character [...]

I’ve been having fun over the last several weeks preparing invitations to our MixedMedia workshop welcome celebration. More than 25 unique collages have been created and delivered. Each is made of paper and acrylic on 1/4-inch wood panel.

I’ve often wondered about the possibility of creating an online collage tool: a fun, creative space through which anyone could upload images, create, and share collages. In doing some searching on the web I came across the National Gallery of Arts resources for kids, among them their Collage Machine. What fun!

Had a really fun time working with high school students in the art program at Cabot School in Vermont. Two classes, about 1.5hrs each – had to whip through my introduction on collage so they could get the work.  The first group was a sophomores with whom I’d already worked. Their task today was to [...]

Via the OntheCommons.org blog and their guest blogger Don Russell of Provisions Library in Washington, DC I encountered Swoon, a 30-something New York Street artist who mixes up graffiti and decollage. The New York Times has a wonderful audio slideshow of her work that can be found in alleyways and intimate side-streets across the city. [...]

My dear friend-colleague-artist co-conspirator Darlene Charneco was telling me about some opportunities for collaboration that are opening up this summer, and pointed me to the website of the Moroccan artist Salima Raoui. In the “Paintings” section of her website Salima has the following quote from the surrealist poet Paul Eluard (French): It is the warm [...]

Had a wonderful opportunity today to work with a group of highschool students from our town school – one senior and five sophomores – to discuss and work with collage. It was a fun opportunity to free-flow about the roots of collage, how I got the process and techniques I’m now using as well as [...]

The title of a song from Porgy and Bess caught my eye. I began with a piece that was to explore, using pulpy, sumptuous tones and textures the tied up lustrous bundle of desire that a woman is when at her powers full.  I had selected a diaphanous image of my “Venus” of pale blues [...]

This time of year, my thoughts flit from mystery cults to “Venus” by Rubens in the Uffizzi, not unlike the sparrows in the front yard that make their way between our cranberry tree with its first timid buds and the seed feeder on the porch. As I work the soil with my hands and scrub [...]

A friend and colleague over in Salt Spring, British Columbia just returned from a volunteer trip to Lesotho, in Southern Africa, where she was helping to organize and plant some food gardens.  When she went there, she brought some Peace Tiles made by young people in here community. When she returned, she brought along some [...]

An old friend from my days at the Corcoran School of Art, New York City based collage artist Glenn Fischer, has finally gotten around to freshening the paint on his website, so I thought I’d point it out.  Spartan but effective, glennfischer.com presents his latest work – very ovally – as well as an archive [...]

Just back from a wonderful two nights in Montréal where the wash of history, art, and commerce never ceases to reinvigorate my satisfaction with Canada. Of course, coming from a Vermonter, that might not sound so special: what expectations of culture can one hold for the least significant state in the Union? Quips aside, Montréal [...]

I was trying to think up a way to bring some excitement and “buzz” to this year’s 5th of May activities that we’ll have at our home this year. I got to thinking about creating personalized invitations that still have a standard look and feel and don’t tax too much in their production demand. Then [...]

Thanks so much, Lars, for that beautiful welcome, I really appreciate it. I’m thrilled to be joining this quickly growing, enthusiastic group of mixed media art aficionados. I wanted to write a bit about my process in creating the 13 pieces, called “Madonna & Child OR Re-parenting My Inner Child”, series #3, which were meant [...]

Nick Bantock, the celebrated illustrator, writer and yes collage artist bares some of his trade secrets in this lush volume from Chronicle Books. Nick writes it best: Imagine a young woman sitting in the accounts payable department of an Italian trading office in 1910. The afternoon is dragging interminably. She drifts into a reverie and [...]

So I was pedaling around the internet early this morning, and I arrived at the online doorstep of the Long Island artist Kasha. This great big blue knocker was hanging in the middle of this ancient wood-slab door with wrought-iron hinges. A crow was off in the distance, noisily grinding his beak away against the [...]

These days it seems that way to me: I keep finding the coolest people doing great work north of the 45th parallel. My most recent encounter is Gerard Dubois, a French illustrator with a light, classical touch, who lives with his family in Montréal, Canada.  He seems to get around quite a bit, selling corporate [...]

I want to make a quick footnote here to welcome the artist Mary Bogdan to mixedmedia. Mary has generously agreed to join me and – hopefully! – a growing number of international mixed media artists to catalogue the contemporary field of mixed media arts as well as describe, from time to time, some of our [...]

There’s something kinda cool going on in the photosharing site Flickr with “artist trading cards.” I’m not sure what it is (artists making playing card-sized works to swap?), how it started (a couple of years, max?) or how widespread it is as an activity (alot are mixed media) … But from what I can tell [...]

My friend Darlene Charneco, who has been a constant source of inspiration, recently introduced me to the work of her father, the painter Nestor Charneco. I can’t wait to see these lush, saturated works in person some day. The convergence of utopian visions, cultural heritage, and flesh as subject result in some very beguiling works [...]

There’s a sweet show up at Capitol Grounds in Montpelier, our local coffee joint.  The show features 12 framed works by watercolor artists Linda Maney.  Her work doesn’t stop with watercolor: these abstract compositions make use of bright color on paper that has bee torn, recomposed, and then complimented with kraypon strokes and acrylic.  A [...]

I really enjoyed a recent visit to the member-owned Arts Sutton gallery in Sutton, Quebec where I encountered Mary Bogdan’s “Reparenting my inner child” series. While I was much less captivated in what I saw of collage on the walls than the stirring images of Mary’s constructions that I encountered in her book, “Mary Bogdan” [...]

Dan Eldon was a young photojournalist for Reuters covering the civil war in Somalia in 1992 when he was caught in a crossfire and killed. The legacy of this vibrant young man lives on in the journals he left behind. Excerpts from these journals have been beautifully reproduced along with a biography exploring Dan’s life [...]

Ever wondered what secrets the person next to you carries with them? Do you have a secret you’ve never been able to tell. Anyone? If so, the PostSecret project is for you. Sometimes whimsical, sometimes outrageous, often predictable, and always delightful. The PostSecret project was conceived by small business owner and blogger Frank Warren as [...]