Trevor Blake: Collage 1988 – 2010
Trevor Blake: Quit While You Are A Head. Digital image. 1 April 2010.
Trevor Blake: Collage 1988 – 2010
May 2011
Sound Grounds Coffee House
3711 Belmont St, Portland Oregon 97214 United States
Artist’s Statement
My first collages were made in the late 1970s when I was in 8th grade. They were inspired by comic books and advertising, and were meant to be funny. Collage was a way of making a picture that including elements I could not yet draw to my satisfaction. In the 1990s I worked in used book stores. The source material for my collages improved. Collage became a way of making a picture instead of a substitution for drawing. In the 2000s I’ve started learning how to use a computer to make collages.
Collages are evidence that meaning of an image is in the mind of the artist and the viewer, not in the image itself. There is no minimal meaning that is transferred from a source image into a collage. What is seen as the meaning of an image does not reside in the image itself. Therefore laws against hate speech, pornography, and blasphemy are of questionable merit. Projecting meaning onto fragments is how collage works and how the world works. Fortunately, it does work.
Collage is often criminal and immoral, made up of the work of others without credit or compensation. Stating this fact does not excuse it. It may partially cleanse my debt to others that the majority of my works are entered into the public domain.
Collage is enjoyable, inexpensive to produce and encourages design skills. Paper, scissors or a hobby knife, and glue are all that anyone needs.
Choose your meanings and fragments well.
Thank you.
