art, etc.: kurt schwitters- dada- collage- etc

Saturday, December 20, 2008

kurt schwitters- dada- collage- etc

dd w/utensils- switzerland 12.20.2008

i've been browsing kurt schwitters online, getting inspired, before i began attacking magazines and newspapers -with scissors, glue, staples and tape- to begin collage mania. he's always been an inspiration... as was dada... [as was german expressionism... as was... as was...]

speaking of dada: i made a lot of fotos of spiegelgasse 1 -where cabaret voltaire was [birthplace of dada] originally- years ago, long before the swiss decided to resurrect/memorialize it. i'd been appalled that such a legendary art birthplace was totally ignored; didnt even have a plaque on a wall outside, etc; even the kunsthaus zurich only had a small section dedicated to dada.

i asked friends to save magazines and newspapers for me before i came over; whatever i dont use in collage i will rip up/recycle and use to make papier mache'- maybe some masks? it is nearing carnival time- why throw stuff out when you can recycle it as ART?

anyway... more kurt schitters and more coffee & cigs.... then onto snipping, ripping, tearing, gluing, taping and pasting....
[c] 2008 doug duffey

about this blog

this blog is where i post some of my drawings, paintings, collages, mixed media, photomontage, scans, videos, etc.- all of which i have been doing for as long as i can remember.

i began painting and making collage in the 60s; but even as a child i was always drawing/painting. i've continued doing both 'off and on' [more off than on] since.

i have periods where i'll get into art projects and do them until they run their course; but, as with my photography, i don't really have as much time as i'd like to have to devote to art.

i started doing a lot of brush and ink 'drawings', and pen and ink drawings in the 80s- [none of which have been scanned yet]- i might just photograph them, as they are too big to scan.

i didn't do collage for a long time, but began again in the early 90s in new orleans. i didn't do many there, but rather 'primed the pump' to begin to do them again. i was mostly doing abstract images, with a lot of torn color paper. when i'd leave and go on the road to work for long periods of time, i began doing them daily-as a form of entertainment, as something to fill time before and after shows. i began doing a lot of collages from xeroxed images i'd scan at local libraries, when i was working in towns for weeks... but i got tired of the only b&w images... so i'd do pen and ink drawings in between.

when i got to Europe in the early 90s i was staying a month in Basel- at a hotel on the Rhine. again i began doing collage as a means of entertainment [i was also making a lot of fotos]. i began using bits & pieces of found paper, discarded magazines, ripping paper off posters and billboards, using scotch tape as well as glue-sticks.

i began using small books to do the collages in, as they were easier to transport.
i did a lot of different series when i was spending long periods in brussels, berlin, rotterdam, den haag, and switzerland. some have been scanned and i will post some when i run across them.

most of the paintings i've posted on this site [shot w/a polaroid camera] are the smaller ones. in new orleans i had one big room in my house that i used only for painting- [and one as a darkroom]- i'd paint on 6 foot pieces of plywood, or big pieces of wood. i left most of those in storage buildings or outside [covered] until they ruined- so... some i burned- [i should have photographed them as they burned!] and some are still in my shed.

influenced by dada, german expressionism, primitive art, cocteau, picasso and art brut [outsider art]- i'm continuously discovering and being inspired by little known or unknown [by me and many] artists, thanks to great tv documentaries i see when i am in europe. always a new window/door opens...