and another car

Vermont

car collages

Growing up in South Africa, during the early apartheid years, most cultural artifacts such as magazines were imported. My parents subscribed to magazines from America and England that arrived via mail boat about 2 months after publication. My earliest collage memories consist of cutting out food ads from McCall's magazines and pasting them in a special scrap book. A couple of years ago I came across a rare stash of magazines that featured amazing car ads from the fifties. Of course, some deeply buried memory urged me to cut them out and turn them into collages. The results were pasted into a vintage, recycled stamp album. Last night I discovered that the album has removeable pages, so I promptly dismembered it and started scanning. Here's no.1.

going native

One of my perennial battles in my collage work is to create layers of imagery. This collage is an experiment with transfer gel that didn't quite work the way I wanted but,as they say there are no mistakes, only steps to success. I think its the waiting for layers of gel to dry that gets to me and I ruin things with impatience.

men only

This is another one of those early collages that I recently found in a piles while tidying my studio. Done in the days I was working on a larger scale, it is fascinating to look back at these "lost" images.

hero

This is one of the earliest collages I ever did, a mash up of comic pages that was an attempt to express my feelings in being conscripted and forced tofight for a cause I did not believe in. Hence the ironic title.

single

Single sleeves are a never ending source of visual imagery. Naturally I collect them and here I've used some of my duplicates to create a collage with smaller collages framed within the circles of the sleeves. It is hung in our house but unfortunately has started to fade from the sunlight but I still like it anyway.

lighters

As a slightly obsessive collector of ephemera, a walk along the beach cannot be complete without bringing back a few treasures offered up by the tides. Apart from the usual stones, shells and bits of natural beauty, I gathered these discarded lighters over a number of seasons and it has become a source of memories of days of sunburnt necks and sandy feet and treasure hunting in the tidal zone.

Moon walk

Last night I happened to watch the full moon as it appeared like a round of cheddar on the horizon and slowly got lighter and smaller as it rose in the night sky. A brilliant and spectacular reminder to enjoy the glory of nature after a rather hectic and unpleasant day.

5soul

my obsessive cards

In my studio I have dozens of boxes that hold bits and pieces I have cut out and collected. Its always a bit of a treasure hunt to grab random boxes and have diverse bits of ephemera merge into a pleasing piece of collage. Synchronicity!

Some more ATCs

Jozi jol

Just to explain, Jozi is a nickname for the city of Johannesburg and a jol is a party or good time. I hope the image lives up to its title.

kelp

It makes me nervous

Another one of the series where I tried to incorporate a bit of drawing into the collage. I am trying to improve my drawing by making it a habit to carry a sketchbook with me but, as I work from home, this strategy maybe needs a rethink!

alligator skin

I seem to be in the mood to create long, dark, slightly sinister images right now. Maybe its the moon, maybe its my dark side filtering through? Maybe I'm subconsciously reflecting the horrible politics happening in Africa right now? By the way, doesn't old Mad Bob Mugabe look just like a croc? Google him if you want to compare.

voodooboogie

going nowhere slowly

Aaah the idea of a road trip. Just taking off for destinations unknown. Life as a journey, not a detination.

subtropicale

Think of the scent of the frangipani flowers, hot winds blowing in the night, dogs barking and distant music and laughter, raucous and slightly sinister. African night.

Festival

Another one of my collages back from the dead. Funny how much of my work is jazz-inspired. Listening to McCoy Mrubata's Tears of Joy.