shiny wings

What a surprise. I was cleaning up my studio and I found a bunch of old collages in a box that I'd completely forgotten about. This one includes a pair of beautiful, iridescent butterfly wings that I found and glued into place. Amazing that they haven't lost their colour. (No butterflies were harmed in the making of this collage).

dear Edward

This is my latest collage postcard, experimenting with a mix of techniques, overprinting and using tape to lift bits of image. Now to find someone to send it to.

masekela

Afrojazz is one of my passions so I am often inspired by the music to create. This collage was inspired by trumpet maestro Hugh Masekela.

Pied crow

Don't you think that crows are like the new middle class, all brazen attitude and raucous squawking, strutting around the shopping mall parking lot with stiff little legs and squabbling over fast food trash. They dress in black like gangs of youthful thugs and then they're gone, like a motorcycle gang, as silence descends.

bird pair

Isn't it just the best start to the day to lie in bed for a few moments and listen to the early morning bird song?

A&M

As someone who is a graphic designer and collecting addict, I can't help but take pics of the "township advertising" I come across. The barber poster is a well known design phenomenon, originating in countries like Nigeria and Ghana. Small hair salons spring up all over the place and this postcard features some of the weird and wonderful illustrations that adorn them.

It's goood!

Don't you just love those dodgy paperback cover illustrations from the 50s and 60s? Old Popular Mechanics magazines and proof papers from your local printers? Put them together and you get a tongue-in-cheek postcard that is right now on its way to Henk Van Ooyen in the Netherlands.

Club Africa

Vegas vibe

manga2

This is yet another collage that resulted from my obsession with sweet and gum wrappers. I bought a packet of 100 pieces of gum, chewed the gum, collected the wrapper then wondered what to do with the temporary tattoos that were included. Well, nothing was wasted and here's the result.

manga

Hong Kong cards

Another of my many bits and pieces of ephemera. Advertising cards for Hong Kong transportation companies found by Marlene while teaching there. Mundane yet strangely attractive.

Rain bird

Nothing evokes an African Summer dawn for me more than that quiet before the cicadas start their drone. That time before it is quite light and the rain bird prophesies a change of weather. One of my favourite sounds.

mail art

My partner Marlene is a wonderful Fine Art photographer and we recently returned from a trade show up in Johannesburg. Although I was officially "off work", it is a very hectic time for us and so when I came back I decided to steal some time to do some mail art. Here a re a couple of the cards I posted today.

This collage is based on an image of Nora Jones, one of my favourite singers. The postcard is off to Flora Raducan in Romania.

This is a chaotic layered collage that I have sent to Marni Zainodi in Malaysia.

Finally, a long overdue card entitled Kelp that I sent to Keith Bates in Manchester, England.

Rainbow girl

I'm one of those annoying people who can't go for a walk without stuffing my pockets with stuff I pick up. It doesn't matter if its on the beach, in the bush or in the streets. I found this old film package, so beautiful on its own, and used it to frame another image. Two elements combined to create another image instantly - just like photography in a way.

china mynah

My partner spent 3 months in Hong Kong on a lecturer exchange programme, teaching graphic design. Of course she brought back ther obligatory presents, t-shirts etc. but for me it was easy, just screeds of paper picked up from the streets as she explored the city. The result is that I have a suitcase full of beautiful but indecipherable pieces of raw material for collages. She was struck by the lack of birdlife in Hong Kong, in contrast with our local experience, and this collage is a reflection of that.

metal shop sign

This is from my collection of metal advertising signs. It is from an old trading store in the Transkei and is so typically worn and grungy. Funny to see cigarette advertising that was so typical of the 50s and 60s and has been rendered extinct by the nanny state.

warbler