Greetings from London
where I am collecting people, places, and things
I am in London, specifically in the neighborhood of Hackney Wick on the east end of this enormous city, where I am taking part in Contemporary Collage Magazine’s London Collage Project for the next week.
The idea for the Project, which has been nicknamed the London Collage Safari for reasons that will become evident, is to come to London, joining sixteen other artists from various corners of the planet in a shared studio, where we will spend six days making collage from materials sourced here in London, with a pop-up exhibition of the work on the seventh. This constraint, that the materials are sourced in London, is key. We’re all leaving our normal piles of papers and substrates at home, which inherently puts us all quite a ways out of our comfort zone, and forces collaboration and examination in ways that would otherwise not be necessary. I tacked on a few days ahead of the Project for settling in and for the acquisition of stuff I plan to cut and paste, and a few days at the end for playing tourist. Phase one, acquisitions, which is the safari part of this, is sort of wrapping up today, so I am catching up on some social media1 before the doors of the studio are unlocked tomorrow morning and the creating work begins.
People
Since the evening of my arrival, I’ve been meeting the artists with whom I’ll be working next week. The first night, Thursday, I had dinner with
from Australia, Sasha Shalmina from Glasgow, and our ring-leader, from Santa Fe. We showed off some of the pieces of paper stock gleefully removed from walls and trash picked from the sidewalks. We talked about glues and substrates. It was delightful.
Places
On Friday, Jules Nelson-Gal from Sonoma joined us at John Soane’s Museum, itself a collage of things, a cabinet of curiosities stuffed into three connected mansions. An amazing (and free!) place to visit.
Something we all have in common, other than the ability to nerd out on process and materials, is a little anxiety about procuring materials here in London. Joel put out a notice on the group chat that a couple of charity shops in a nearby neighborhood were having a sale, and, at least for me, the materials problem was solved. Two large bags full of old books, maps, stationery, envelopes, and other papers. Enough to use and then put the rest into a common pile for everyone else.
I’ve spent a lot of time these last two days walking. There is no way to wrap my head around this city. But I can at least begin to see my part of it before I retreat to the studio for a week. I walked to an art supply store in Hackney. I met a clerk at the art supply shop, curious about my camera. And a bus repair engineer named Hammad, asking, as I was sitting on some steps drawing, why I came to Hackney. “No one comes to Hackney.”
Yesterday, I went for a run in Victoria Park. Today I walked along the canals. I’m looking for ideas and inspiration.
I’m looking for things.
Things
I think that most collage finds its meaning through juxtaposing imagery or shape or color in some way that creates meaning where there was not any before. A lot of collage is abstraction, or if there is representation, it comes from the material itself.2 As an illustrator, I use collage a little differently than I think a lot of other artists do. What I do is unsurprisingly closer to Eric Carle than it is Kurt Schwitters.
I usually begin by aiming to depict a thing — a bird, or a fish, or a robot, or a truck. I make sketches, and I have an end goal in mind. And then I allow the paper and the glue to push me here and there, divert and subvert, and change my plans maybe just a little. The surprises are my favorite part of the process, but the idea remains in place that I am making a thing. So, while I am acquiring material, I am also thinking about things. Things unique to this trip, maybe unique to London itself. A trash can. A statue. A canal boat.
I have a few ideas right now, but I won’t really know until those doors are unlocked tomorrow. There’s not a lot of time to hem and haw about this. I’ve got to get to work.
Here is a list of all of the artists participating in this London Collage Project and their Instagrams. Take a look, follow what they do.
@clareschmehl : Clare Schmehl
@deborahdanelley : Deborah Danielle
@collagenottinghill : Emily Marbach
@cut_paste : Joel Lambeth
@reginalevinart : Regina Levin
@sasha_collage : Sasha Shalmina
@drydenteri : Teri Dryden
@stevesnidercollage : Steve Snider
@gnmooreca : Graham Moore
@marleneweisman : Marlene Weisman
@michele_bondurant_studio : Michele Bondurant
@loop_conspiracy : Silvio Severino
@julia_nelsongal : Julia Nelson Gal (Jules)
@lesjonescollage : Les Jones
@ceciltouchon : Cecil Touchon
@RickMidlerstudios : Rick Midler
A photo that Jules took of me this morning. I was standing by the canal, drawing a boat. My happy place.
Somehow, I’ve been here for more than two days, photographing and drawing, and I’ve not posted a thing. It’s kind of nice.
I could be completely wrong about this. Part of what I am here for is to learn how others work. I ‘get’ illustration, even illustration by other illustrators. I find myself puzzled by how other collage artists work. Why they chose this scrap and put it there, next to that scrap. Maybe this will be another post.
Funny that London has cats. But you forgot to mention it.
I spy a new author photo. :)