Paper Trumpets #7: Pure Grownup Love
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Notes on this collage:
- The love of a woman and her cat can’t be denied. I wonder if that is pure love (or merely purr love). Do cats have the capacity to love? Is pure love the not knowing if another person or species loves you? Cat-love, especially, is like an unspeaking mirror that reflects your affections back to you. Interspecies love is one of the most alarming things in the world to some people.
- To see things falling through space is one of my favorite things in collage art. The thrill of no gravity, or the illusion of no gravity, fills my brain with gleeful dopamine. And of course, cats do that same dopamine thing, especially handsome fellas like this one peering into the frame.
- This cat was taken from a book called Cats: The Complete Book. I got it for $1 at a great used bookstore in Portland called Bingo Books. Their $1 book section has many great treasures. I believe the woman is from a swimwear ad. The look on her face is so relaxed for someone flying through space. Perhaps she knew there was a cat nearby.
- The new issue of Kolaj Magazine is out. It includes a great report on the 2014 International Weird Collage Show in Brooklyn and a chat with Dirty Plotte creator Julie Doucet about how collage plays into her comics.
- The featured collage artist for this installment—the collagist you need to know!—is Isabel Chiara. She’s an innovative Spanish collage artist who has created a number of pieces in GIF format. The more I look at her work, the more I’m amazed. There’s a kind of Monty Python’s Flying Circus vibe to her work and classic paintings are a major influence. She says, “Collage animation using the GIF format allows me to concentrate on two aspects I am particularly interested in. Firstly, I pay much attention to the formal composition of the work of art and have a sort of obsessive tendency to bring to every scene a theatrical element, sometimes even grotesque. Secondly, humor is a feature that defines my work. It enables me to express everything in a more direct way.” One of her pieces has been turned into a Giphoscope and will be displayed at the Big Boys Toys Fair in Dubai in October. This is the first I’ve heard of the Giphoscope and I think it’s a pretty fantastic creation.
