Like a lot of artists I collect images that have some interesting feature about them. I have a portion of my filing cabinet filed with images from magazines, maps, dancing step diagrams, photos that friends have given me and some, over the years, find their way into an artwork.
I find collage a very interesting, creative medium that throws up surprising results as you shift and move images around. They often create a funny, surreal and at times, unsettling situation with strange metaphors and mirage like results. It can take a lot of tedious scalpel cutting and scissoring to put everything together but I like to keep the overall image fairly uncluttered. It’s interesting how the artwork looks realistic from a distance but close up you can see all the cuts, paste-ups and dobs of paint here and there. The images are mounted on 2-3mm art card and are finished with a varnish. They have a generous white margin that will assist the framer to mount the work in a frame under glass.
With this particular piece I have put together a thought I had about taking your dog for a walk. I think it stemmed from watching space walking astronauts and the fact that animals, too, have gone into space. Makes me grin each time I see the artwork.