Collage & Painting Demonstration.

Years ago, working with scraps of printed magazine pages, I made portraits of famous people - Abraham Lincoln and Bertrand Russell to name a few. My process of gluing layers of small pieces of paper was like building a mosaic. Today, however, my materials are a combination of acrylic paint between layers of black and white paper scraps.

The patterns are small checkerboards, stripes, dots or black shapes I've painted on white paper, then copied various sizes at the local Office max store. Nothing fancy - no ink jet copies. Only black and white because the paint will be the color.

The glue is an acrylic gel medium and compatible to the acrylic paint. When combined or layered, the whole layered painting adheres together.

The creative process takes place during this layering - scraping away, gluing, painting and drawing back in until an image appears. This image will be one of a series about a pre-determined theme. Thank Robrt Rauschenberg. He was one of my earliest influences when I saw his combined mixed media and bedspread glued on a canvas... in a museum?  At that time, I stopped worrying and fussing over "conservation technique".

Watch the video -  So tear, paint and glue. Let 'er rip!