Magazine paper is tricky to work with. It is thin and easily saturated with adhesive, getting soggy, ripping and smearing the colour. None the less, I love the variations in colour. I created this work using magazine paper and hand cutting hundreds of circles. I wanted to create a layered piece that revealed what was behind the image. I wasn’t excited about where it was going so I abandoned it to a corner of the studio and moved on with other ideas. A few months later when travelling in Italy, I became intrigued with the tile work of Pompeii. I loved how it was excavated to reveal fragments of tile surrounded by blank areas where the tiles were destroyed. When I returned home, I knew exactly what to do with this large 4 foot by 4 foot piece!
Pompeii, 2019 (48 x 48 inches) $2000, canvas
Back from Pompeii, I decided to bury my Art work and excavate it. I covered the whole piece with several layers of posters that I collected from various spots around Peterborough. Once it was nice and dry, I began ripping it, tearing it and sanding it down with a belt sander. This piece would be considered a decollage, the opposite of a collage; instead of the image being build up, it is created by removing pieces of the original image. ...and once again, I was off with a new idea to explore.
Close up image of ‘Pompeii’ where you can see more of the process of sanding tearing away at the paper.
