Facing East and Samyn Series

“Bad Artists Copy. Good Artists Steal” Pablo Picasso
For many of my collages I steal Geometry. I have stolen Geometry from Henri Léger, and Bruce Conner for past series. I take a small section of a painting as a template for the design, which I then develop over time. Making many modifications in the process. For the current series “Facing East” I have stolen small sections of Geometry from Matthew Bielen, an Artist from whom I bought an abstract collage. I ran into his work when I took a Impressionist Landscape painting class in Provence Town, Cape Cod, 2 years ago. Also I like to use Chinese Characters in my work. I just like the way they look. I am not telling any story with the Chinese writing. I don't know what it says. I just like the way they appear in the collage. I also use various papers with different textures, which give the piece almost a 3 dimensional appearance. During the process of making the first “Facing East” Mixed Media, I wasn't happy with the finished collage. I decided to use the idea of Japanese Brush Strokes. I saw some Black Brush Stroke abstract paintings in the background on a TV Show. The artist was Franz Kline. I watched several videos of the Japanese Brush Stroke technique. However when it came time to add the Black Brush stroke to a finished collage, I realized that each attempt was different and I could not rely on myself to make the perfect brush stroke and ruin a collage that took several days to make. So I made several brush strokes on paper and picked the best one, cut it out and pasted it to the collage. As you can see I do a lot of cheating to achieve my final piece. My collage work starts by selecting graphic components to fit together in the geometry, with a color palate and then evolves into a final design. I don't necessarily tell a story. That is up to the observer.
As Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to."

Facing East and Samyn Series

Steve Sweetser Artist's Creative World: Where Imagination Meets Reality

Prices on Request

Samyn Series

Capturing Life Through Steve Sweetser Artist's Lens

Steve Sweetser Artist's Artistic Journey

Facing East and Samyn Series

Steve Sweetser Artist's Creative World: Where Imagination Meets Reality

Prices on Request

Samyn Series

Capturing Life Through Steve Sweetser Artist's Lens

Steve Sweetser Artist's Artistic Journey

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