Collage is a colloquial art. It uses ordinary “language” from everyday life. And yet, its essence is dialectic. To interpret a collage, one has to peel away the layers of meaning embedded in it. The collagist interprets a reality, a memory, a dre, or whatever, and the viewer, in turn, performs a sort of “decollage” of the artwork and re-interprets it as s/he wants. One might argue that this is true of all forms of art. True, but the difference with collage is that it is literally made of bits and pieces which “existed” in a prior form. Ford Mustang Ford Orion Most collages are narrative. Whether abstract or figurative, the very fact that collage is created with “borrowed” elements from other media, makes it a complex subject of study. Collage, in essence, derives its meaning from using ordinary elements (newspaper clippings, old photographs,etc.) and altering them to create them anew. It re-combines disparate elements and reshapes them into a different reality. What I love about collage is its temporal quality. It is built moment-by-moment. The process is the message: each artistic decision a choice, each layer, a meaning upon meaning.

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