SAXTONS RIVER, Vt. – Three Vermont artists will present their collaborative works, titled “Merge Collages: A Show and Tell Experience,” at Main Street Arts (MSA) in Saxtons River, Vt. They are also offering two workshops to learn how to create Merge Collages.
The art exhibit will open with an event on Saturday, Sept. 9, from 5-8 p.m., and runs through Oct. 29. The workshops are held on Sundays, Sept. 24 and Oct. 15, at 2 p.m. There is a fee for these workshops.
The art show will display a number of collaborative and individual works of Matthew J. Peake, Gordon Korstange, and Gretchen Abendschein. Individual pieces will be available for purchase, with a portion of the sales going to MSA.
“We have chosen some of our Merge Collages for your viewing pleasure, along with the written descriptions. Feel free to ask us any questions as you view them,” said Peake.
According to Peake, the collaborative works stem from a game the three artists play. “For the past two years on many Thursday mornings, you would find the three of us sitting around a table piled high with magazines and picture cards to play Merge Collage,” he said.
The game begins by each player offering up a rule (like a Surrealist game), such as “begin with an image in the center of the blank paper,” or “each image has to have the color blue somewhere in it,” or “add a word on each of the last three turns.”
Then colored pieces of paper are passed out, and the first part of the game begins. Each chooses a magazine or card out of the stack, and begins looking for an image that they connect to, for reasons each may not know, and that fits the three rules. Then, out come the scissors and the rubber cement brush.
After 10 minutes, a chime rings and they pass the collage either right or left, and continue looking for images that will interact with what has already been created. They repeat this process for three rounds.
On the next three rounds, each puts one small random word somewhere on the emerging collage (some of the earlier collages may not have the three words). One last turn remains to add a finishing image. Then they set them up and discuss how the merging process went and what was the result.
Finally, they each take one collage home to write about it. This could be primarily description, but it could also be something more, such as “describe but go beyond the frame,” or “make one of the figures or objects speak.” The three words must be incorporated into the description.
The two workshops will basically follow the same game in groups of three attendees, with guidance from the artists.
Abendschein said of her work, “Alone, I create from an inner landscape of dreamlike images that speak the language of symbolism. Through my paintings, I step into a timeless realm of altered dimensions. My artwork is a meditation inspired by the fertile unknown ground within.
“Together, we suspend investment in the finished product in celebration of the process, relinquishing individual control to the whims of another’s artistic sensibilities. We form three facets of one integrated collage-making entity,” she continued. “Alone, I write about the collages we create together.”
Korstange shared his experience with collages. “As a poet and musician, I’m happy to be making collages one day a week instead of staring all morning at one of my poems that needs…well, something. Or practicing a raga for a gig that exists only in my mind. But every Thursday, I can join my friends around a big table and glue images down on paper like a third grader (I so loved finger painting).
“This time around I bring my interests in Dada and Surrealism to the cooperative games we play, plus the challenge of writing an Ekphrastic – Greek for ‘description,’ where at least there are multiple images to tickle the imagination,” Korstange continued. “I wish to thank my mentor, GorMatt StrangePeak of Happenstance, Vt., for guiding me on the path of Merge Collage.”
Peake said, “I began my professional career in 1982 as a family physician in rural Vermont. After 24 years, I left my practice of medicine to pursue a full-time career in the creative arts. That pursuit has taken me from painting in pastel, acrylic, and oil, to composing in collage and assemblage; to inventing some unique ways of exhibiting artwork; to dancing and teaching dance; and to writing in diverse genres.
“Collaboration as a way of creating became a focus of mine from the very beginning of my creative career, and has continued in my art-making with many individuals and groups, the most recent examples being with Merge Collage artists, Gordon and Gretchen,” he continued.
Main Street Arts’ mission is to be a catalyst for arts and community, fostering creative expression through artistic experiences, accessible to all.
For more information or questions, please contact MSA at 802-869-2960 or info@mainstreetarts.org.