Wednesday 2 November 2011

Studio Series: collage of Gauguin's Yellow Christ

Collage: Gauguin's Yellow Christ © Karen Thiessen 2008
If you want to understand an artwork inside and out, try collaging it. My collage teacher assigned each student a work of art to collage. Initially I was resistant to the idea until I was half-way through. At that point I started noticing detail after detail, and then I became obsessed. My intention was to get the feel for Yellow Christ, not copy it slavishly. I'll leave you with an apt quote from John Cage: "If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all."

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