25 Easy Pieces: After Katrina

Private Collection

Artist Bio & Statement

I have been making collages for over 20 years, most of the time as part of a long "friendship in collage" with my friend Charles Farrell. I also count Bill Matthews, my brother, and Charter Weeks, my father, as collage gurus. Add to the list: Ray Johnson, Kurt Schwitters, Hannah Hoch, Man Ray, Romare Bearden, Robert Frank, Peter Beard, Wolf Vostell and Walker Evans.

This is my second show. The first came a few years back at Book Works in West Asheville, NC. It was a collaborative show with Charles Farrell entitled STEALING EXPERIENCE.

My collages have appeared in Asheville Poetry Review's Jazz Issue and We Generous (a collection of my poems from Red Hen Press) and a detail of one recently served as the cover of the Iron Horse Review's Special Poetry Month issue (2010).

Earlier this year, during a stint working on staff at the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, I curated a collage show of Ray Johnson's early work and kept a blog record of the whole process, conception to closing night blow-out. The show was called From BMC to NYC: The Tutelary Years of Ray Johnson (1943-1967).

For me collage, the art of making collage, is all about creating "easy pieces": work that flows out of a good groove, a spirited session at the art table; or a long walk on which you find a piece of tossed-aside packaging that sparks an idea; or after coming back from a scout at one of the area antique stores, you have a pile of old LIFE magazines under your arm...

I began by working with postcards--and continue to do so today, using the postal service as a "triangulating" force--but have grown into playing with larger formats. I use simple glue sticks and household scissors and try to tear the paper as much as cut. It is rare when I start a collage with a theme or narrative in mind; one move leads to the other, one strategy creates or forces another. The title comes last, a sprig of mint on the top.

I also enjoy collaborating with book artists and other writers on chapbooks, letterpress broadsides and group postcard projects. The work in the show is presented for the most part using old and recycled frames. Ray Johnson is the patron saint of many things, including this show.

--Sebastian Matthews

25 Easy Pieces

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Friday, December 3, 2010

After Katrina

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