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Created in 2023. Cross of Fire
Much of my work happens by happy accident, meaning I'll find an anchor to build around while experimenting with a new technique. In comparison, other work manifests over a long period of hibernation. The new collage series titled 'Fragments." is such an example.
The building process is one that I've worked with since 2002, the first of which was the work titled Metropolis, a photo collage with painted 2D elements. Cross of Fire uses the process of building the collage first with multiple photographs as small fragments of design and color in much the way mosaic or Persian master weaver uses subtle carpet colors. These fragments must work to support a balance between the positive and negative space of the design. Additional painted layers act as the road map to reinforce the work's structure and dimension. I use shadows and colorful symbols to help lead my viewer's eye. Using a third layer of strong linear so the finished work has a kinetic element. Thus pulling the viewer's eye out and back into the collage, much like Jackson Pollock's painting will do.
Good art should resonate on a variety of levels before it's finished. My goal in Cross of Fire is to give the viewer conceptual anchors while maintaining a visual dialogue.
My work is inspired by textures, colors, and symbolic artifacts, like an old photograph. I have a fascination with found objects that started by watching my mother, Carol Vandermier Levy (1927-2009), a renowned collage and assemblage artist who collected vintage postcards, letters, fabrics, and magazine art reproductions in her work. As a teenager, I began my artistic journey, creating anti-war collages using the Robert Rauchenberg technique of rubbing acetone onto paper to lift images from magazine clips. Ironically, when I returned to art as a full-time endeavor after leaving my business career in 2001, I returned to collage as my technique of choice. Instead of "cut and paste" or rubbing, I used my own digital photographs in Photoshop to assemble the work.
