The Burgeoning Art Correspondence Project

Art collages….interesting.  I usually just kept generic hard copies of prints in a folder on my desk – some I planned to making cards from them, some I had kept from test prints, some I don’t remember why they sit in that folder.  I have found a new way to interact with and a get a new perspective on my photography.

My friend Miles is an established artist in Southern Oregon and throughout the West Coast.  He loves to collaborate on all types of art – poetry, painting/sketches, music, etc. – with absolutely anyone with a creative bent and an open mind and heart.  He is very unique and special and have enjoyed immensely the times where we can see what he has created recently, share ideas, and just vibe some concepts…whether abstract and in their infancy or concrete and palpable.

The art collage below was one recent product of this collaboration.  This is my response to his first collage sent to me.  Here it is displayed within our backyard grapevines, extending the natural environmental of some of the photo sources a bit further.

The subjects in the collage are photos of the natural landscape at Malibu Creek State Park in the Calabasas/Malibu area of Southern California, a lily pond from the Arboretum in Golden Gate Park, and urban areas of New Orleans.  It was really fun to juxtapose all of this visual information from disparate sources, because I have been so rigid (really, too rigid) in how I thought of my photography, it’s distinct framing, subjects, and categories.

So, Miles has brought out new interests in me in terms of my photography and how I display it for others and how I enjoy it for myself.  This is a minor and informal collaboration, and right now we are just having fun with it.  But miles has been encouraging throughout all of it, as if we were on a larger formal project.  That’s the great thing about art – it should be approached the same way no matter what. If it’s not, it’s probably now off the path of where the author’s art should be.

Below is Miles’ first college of the series (up to two now!).  I loved the continuation of lines between the different photos, and the very different subject sources among them.  Miles is very creative at combinations of elements and ideas.  It is how he lives and it makes his life and conversations so creative and so engaging.  An envelope was not even necessary – he sent it as a postcard!

We mail the collages to each other, although we see each other on my trips to Oregon.

This has been a fun start to a long series of collaboration with Miles.  Onto item number 3!