My Picture Fragments Collage Style

I make original designs from colored and patterned papers. My collages are made from numerous paper fragments, used in such a way that their original context is not recognized. What may look like a simple painting is actually a composite of dozens of photographs which I have cut up, rearranged, carefully matched and pieced together, to create an original composition of my own design.

From the day I saw great potential in the pages of National Geographic magazines, I have been cutting and rearranging picture fragments to create collages. (I have since diversified my source materials, of course.)

I use 3-ring binders, each filled with plastic leaf-pages to organize my picture fragments. On the spines of these binders I have written various categories for what kinds of subjects they contain (such as Landscapes; Plants & Agriculture; Water, Sky, Space & Fire; Architecture; Building Materials; Portraits, Fabrics & Misc; etc.).



What I do is file all my new picture fragments into their appropriate pages of these binders so later I can find the exact subject, texture, or color I want. From these I can fabricate just about any object I can imagine.

For instance in my Building Materials binder I have separate pages for finished wood, weathered wood, rotten wood, bricks, musical instrument parts, book parts, parchment, rough stone, polished stone, petrified wood, gems, glass, gold, silver, steel, etc. etc. You get the idea.






I would like to think my recent work is approaching a photorealistic quality and I strive for this goal with every new piece. I hope you enjoy the viewing experience as much as I have enjoyed creating my art.

Here is a detail from my piece, Thought and Memory. If you look closely you can see the individual papers I used to fabricate the hilt and scabbard of the sword. Click here for a full gallery view of this piece on my deviantART page.