“Afloat.” Ceres Gallery. New York. Solo Show.
Orchids in the snow. How is this for juxtaposition?
“Afloat.” Ceres Gallery. New York. Solo Show.
I mentioned earlier I am building a new studio. I am waiting for the hardwood floor to dry, in order to put down a white particle board floor where I feel free enough to be messy. The space has natural light. Not quite the same amount as my current studio (which I will still keep) and it is equally spacious.
This blogging about my New York City installation benefits me, because I am ready to move on (or back) to painting, (predating my video days) using a much looser method. Going over each one of these tight collages helps me let them go. Let the control go. I love the wild combinations of things, which is a part of me and will not loosen its hold on me, but the execution will be different.
But, for now, by examining these collages, one by one, I am in love with this whimsical way of doing art. Also, how I put up a show, where the pieces drifted and floated around the gallery walls like objects floating on the water’s surface, bumping up against the shore. That was the artwork. The collages, components.
“Afloat.” Ceres Gallery. New York. Solo show.
When I worked on these collages, I would schedule myself to do three a day. I never worked on them all together. Nor did I go back and “fix” one after I had declared it finished. I would slowly proceed on one collage at a time. The deadline was about three a day.
But this one presented all kinds of problems. This one, I struggled with for days. I couldn’t get the “balance” right. Let’s just leave it at that. I look at it now and I am happy with it. Hard won.
“Afloat.” Ceres Gallery. New York. Solo show.
I am talking about these collages over six months after I completed the last one. This one has the night lights from Hong Kong as a background. And a hammock drawn across the bottom. Design took precedence, obviously.
“Afloat.” Ceres Gallery. New York. Solo Show.
Birds of different scale in each aviator lens. Good flow.
“Afloat.” Ceres Gallery. New York. Solo Show.
Frito wrappers cut out. Floating across a background of Aspen trees. Some of these pieces have been sold (a lot actually), but this one was purchased by some very dear friends of mine. It will soon hang in their home in Los Angeles.
Now is a good time to bring up subject matter vs overall aesthetics.
These pieces, one by one, were completed with the main concern being, how the composition, color and design hold the piece together. How each collage “flows” within the square format. I do love the themes of natural disasters, bizarre juxtapositions, and pop imagery. But the main concern always is how each element in the piece “works” to contribute to the total image.
In this blog, I am commenting “after-the-fact” as a viewer. I am looking at these collages anew, long after I have completed them, so my take on them, (assigning meaning to them, etc.) is from a detached take, not from me, the artist.
“Afloat” Image. Ceres Gallery. New York. Solo Show.
Color blue. I have a preference for it. Doesn’t mean it works with paintings/collages just because I like it.
This, to me, expresses the climate changes going on now. Water, canyons, floods, tsunamis. I like the color blue here with the light dull orange.
“Afloat” Image. Ceres Gallery. Solo Show. New York.
This collage contains a huge flower in the foreground, in front of a very large crowd in an outside environment. Like an outdoor concert. The texture of the flower is similar to the “texture” of the crowd, linking them in an almost indecipherable mass of dots.
I have no idea how to comment on this, other than to say I love how two disparate subjects could look alike and form an abstraction.
More later on how this idea formed the making of these collages, rather than my focusing on the eerie, sometimes funny subject matter that does come up.
“Afloat” Image. Ceres Gallery. New York Solo Show.
This one is shown in its exhibition frame. I am back in town and have access to all my photos. This was intentionally done as a “Close-Encounters” thing. The traveling lights in the distance. About to land.
These collages evolved from the whimsical idea of cutting up magazines and seeing what I could do with no paint involved, as I was accustomed to using. I did one, then two. I had so much fun just “playing” (always hating that expression when it comes to artwork, because art is hard WORK.)
My solo show loomed ahead and subject matter was undecided.
I had been working on a video. I worried about focusing only on the video for the show. Working under pressure is never good. And doing animation is meticulous. Being meticulous and being nervous don’t go together.
I decided to continue with these collages, thinking “Oh, I am having so much FUN, it will be easy to RELAX and do them….100 of them….for the solo show.”
I should not admit this, but looking back, I really don’t think making them was FUN. All principles of doing art were involved. And certainly, when I hit 26, after slaving away, the rest seemed to be a torturous number. Looming in the distance.
Much like these space crafts about to land.
Ceres Gallery. New York. Solo Show. Studio shot of one of my 100 collages.
Hollis Hildebrand-Mills 