On April 14, 2010, at the height of my new city/ new business owner/ no-time-for-art/ every one is screwing me melancholy, I began to just make a collage, using a glue stick and old magazines I had lying around. Being a newsstand owner, the source material was plentiful. It was a simple creative effort, one that happened more out of desperation than any inspirational spark. It felt good. I decided I would make one every day. It seemed like I could do this for a while, until I got my shit together. The point was really to do it every single day, whether or not I felt like it.
I don't start with any big idea. Just start flipping through old magazines until something materializes. Once it's done, I snap a cell phone picture of it and post it to my Facebook page. Then, I don't think about it again.
Things moved along like this for a while. Pretty soon, people started to expect them. Once in while somebody offered to buy one. A musician friend asked if she could use one as an album cover. Sometimes people didn't like one, and said so. I just kept making them.
Things have gotten a lot better. No more melancholy. Fewer people are trying to screw me. I'm back in the studio now, making real work. But the collages keep creeping into my thoughts. To date, I've done 194. It might actually turn into something. Here are 30 or so notables.
4-14
The very first one. The only positive thing to happen that day.
4-16
I achieve an elegant simplicity I'll be searching for every day after.
4-20
And early success. It's sexy. And any excuse to use text out of context.
4-22
An Earth Day tribute to the wonders of the anus.
5-5
People really like this one. But I'm not so sure.
5-8
I think this the first one Dennis said he liked on Facebook.
5-18
A wry, repeating infinity motif that is lost because everyone just sees tits.
5-25
Also something to do with transcendence and assholes. No longer sure.
5-27
In which I discover the tabloids as a wonderful source for text.
6-3
My fashionable friends swoon.
6-4
I am just so full of joy on this day. Because of this, mostly
6-8
I feel like this is one of the most successful pieces so far.
6-11
I was obviously going through a good period in early June, because I also think this one is just fantastic.
6-18
A week later. Nobody understood my secret tribute to Sylvia Plath, including me.
7-6
Anticipating my birthday, I make magic happen with the shadow.
7-8
Simple, but effective.
7-12
In which I respond to my critics, real and imagined.
7-28
No idea.
8-10
Just two pieces. My gay audience applauds divinely.
8-13
I begin to look behind the faces.
8-21
Why is that one lady eating that other lady?
8-28
Just plain magic.
9-3
I felt like a real artist on Sept 3rd.
9-17
Low brow art magazines are magic to fuck with.
9-24
Rule #1: Always start with a short haired girl.
9-29
Figuring out that the burger and smoking child needed to be furry was a real breakthrough.
10-1
Really losing sight of that whole simplicity thing here. But it somehow manages to really come together.
10-2
My secret weapon: Multiple copies.
10-4
I court controversy with gun and god imagery.
10-6
No really, put your leg into my single face hole.
10-8
Damn close to perfect.
10-11
Abstraction occasionally rears its abstract head.
10-17
Things are getting meta. No one understands.
10-20
That elusive one cut piece.
I've made more as you are reading this, since I've got no idea when Dennis will post this. Since I like symmetry and anniversaries, I may stop making them on April 14, 2011. Who can say.
You can see all of them, even the bad ones, right here:
http://www.collageoftheday.blogspot.com/
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p.s. Hey. Today's guest-post by d.l. Brendan -- or the artist Brendan Lott if you prefer -- is just a total sweetheart, and, the sooner you root around in it, the better. Please do and then talk to Brendan, thank you. And thank you, Brendan, maestro, buddy. So, it being Wednesday aka cleaning/ exile day at the Recollets is bad enough, but they threw me out early this morning, and I was exiled for three plus hours due to some repair work, so I'm starting the p.s. at the time I'm normally finishing it, and I'll be in a real rush, sorry. ** Postitbreakup, Yeah, a bunch of penises made it through security this month, I don't know why. ** Misanthrope, I decided to wait and support Pacific Blush with a bit of cash, so I'll get mine today. Well, if xxBiebsxx likes tossed salad then I'm going to start calling him xBxixexbxsx. ** David Ehrenstein, I haven't seen Lisa Fancher in, gosh, thirty years maybe. Scary. Nice news about the Sofia Coppola, and, of course, I know and love the Chateau. ** Tonyoneill, Is that book called 'We've Got the Neutron Bomb'? I'd guess so since that's the title of a great Weirdos song. 50%? Wow, you're good, Tony. Oh, those 'fighting with the novel' periods ... dude, I know. Hugs. They don't last too long. Don't know that zombie movie, no, unless the French retitled it, which I bet they did or will. I'll look for it. Gracias, man. ** TIM MILLER QUEER PERFORMER, Hey, Tim! Lovely to see you, pal! The cool thing was that while we were remaking and performing 'Them' at 122, posters for your show and non-stop video clips from it were ever-present in the building, so we probably got a really nice lift from that. Wish I could be there to see your show, obviously. I'm telling you, man: bring that stuff to France. Yeah, Tomata was a real doll of a guy. RIP. Best of the best with everything, Mr. Miller. ** Pilgarlic, That must be why Brian Dennehy was so good when he played John Wayne Gacy. Sarah Palin does fit that role, yeah, but just thinking about that makes me nauseous, although I'm obviously not the target audience. ** David, Yeah, the befleshed escorts acquitted themselves unusually well in the profile text department this month. ** Oscar B, What?! Oh, that does really suck. I mean about the 'no book' thing. Sorry for them and for you. Grrr, indeed. Let's talk and meet up later, what do you say? ** Allesfliesst, 1000 bucks isn't much if you get to change someone. Oh, you're probably offline now. Man, what's up with Germany's inability to get with the cyber-program? I hope the shittiness of the company you chose is relative or is just them being insecure. Check back in when you can, and let me know. ** Memoirs of a Heroinhead, Well, hiya to you, Shane. Wait, Tony isn't French?! I don't have a French accent since the only French words I ever say are 'pardon' and 'bon soir'. I think I pronounce them pretty well, though. If your electricity problem isn't over in a day or so, I'll pull out my Oujia board and call in some ex-manpower. ** Sypha, Trent can probably take it, especially now that he's all about middleage spread. Sorry. Writing by hand, yum. I miss that. Yeah, but my 400+ pages were really flabby. ** Bill, Ha ha, good eye, man. On the Vertigo thing. I guess I should spell that out. Although the goodness of your eye is evident in everything. Did you find the right Curran blanket yet? ** _Black_Acrylic, Congrats on the Leeds vic. Me, I say go with the piece on RealDoll. Excellent topic. Obviously, you know the Japanese make and presumably use the most crazy-ass great sex dolls. I read somewhere a while back about one that could break out into a sweat. ** MANCY, Hey. Oh, while I've got you, and since I'm so awful with email, let me go ahead and say that the post with your wonderful work will launch on this blog next Tuesday, the 23rd. Really looking forward to it, and thanks so much! ** JoeM, Hey. Yeah, I'm mightily impressed with your French. How's your accent? Kind of interesting article in the current Mojo detailing how and why, etc. Bowie constructed the Ziggy Stardust character, if you ever look at that magazine. ** Killer Luka, I thought heydude's fag ragging was inadvertently self-incriminating and sexy, but I'm weird. Annie Proulx, really? Her stuff's kind of trad though, isn't it? Trad is hard for me. But I do like that 'lx'. Those porn names of yours are kind of 80s, I think. I don't know. The pun thing isn't so in fashion now, is it? It used to be big. Maybe it's ripe for revival. Maybe you're right. ** Changeling, Inner writers don't die. They're just moody. Yours needs you to live. He'll back. Give him, oh, a week, tops. I don't know 'What We Are Is What We Are'. Never heard of it. I'll see if France is on its agenda. Actually, I find matinees are good for reviving inner writers. I'm not kidding. Sometimes it works. It's weird. That xxBiebsxx kid is everywhere right now. Which reminds he: he owes me royalties. Yeah, sometimes I come across these escorts who seem to be using sex as kind of get rich quick scheme. I don't think it works, though. But maybe it does. How would I know? ** Pisycaca, Hey Montse! I've missed you. You're back and back at work. That's good, right? I'm okay. Yeah, my novel is so close to being finished, it's kind of spooky. My mailbox? You bet I'll check it. Thank you! Awesome to see you! Tons of love. ** Alan, I know her? Oh, her? Interesting. Well, interesting if my her is your her. Well, interesting even she isn't. When will you know? ** Rigby, I like posed pictures because there's more to dismantle. Uh, I don't I do that mix and match thing with people's bodies all that much. Or if I do, I keep it secret from myself. Oh, sometimes I see a girl and wish her body was a boy's. I guess that counts, right? How come London gets lots of new Mexican places and Paris doesn't? Explain that to me. ** L@rstonovich, Oh, I'll go get that free Trumans download. Cool. I bet they have pretty good merch. I need to remember to take my wallet to their show. And fill it first. Cocks, yeah, weird, right? ** Chris Cochrane, Thank you for the Amazon info. I'll get that book by hook or crook. Yes, yes, I saw Ish's tentatively very exciting 'Them' news. I'm completely in, of course. just needing to know the firm dates when they're firm. I hope the lads are game. ** Steevee, Are they finally putting out that Carrey/ McGregor gay film over there? It played for about three seconds about six months. ago I heard it was very meh. Fingers crossed on the new actor prospect. ** Nb, Now that I understand the power of penises, I'm going to work them to my advantage. As opposed to mine's advantage. ** Andrew, Yesterday seemed to be all about heydude. It's weird. First people complain that I favor Emos too much, and then I cut down their involvement to a couple and one of them is all people can talk about. Life is a mystery, God love it. I'm going to look up 'Apanman' post-haste, obviously. ** Creative Massacre, Yeah, ugh, about the wisdom teeth removal. Mine grew in weird too, but apparently I have or had an unusually spacious set of gums, so they survived. Oh, yeah, Piero Manzoni, sure. I think I did a post about or partly about him once. Wild, huh? Glad you feeling better. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, I think the best place of Gay is probably the same place where the Phantom of Opera lives. Failed ghost hunting: There's this old, shut down movie theater on Hollywood Blvd. It's supposedly haunted by the ghosts of a bunch of kids who died in a fire that destroyed a school was once at that location. For a while, you could ghost hunt the theater for a price. My friend Joel and my famous friend with the initials CB and I took the bait. Nada. I didn't eat my nachos because one of my friends who was going to go with me bailed. I might try again tonight. Yikes about your stalker. Sorry, man. Do you know why she stalks you? Is she just completely insane or what? You did a lot in your two days. That was quite interesting. If I wasn't in a rush, I'd query you about a couple of things. I'll just throw the highlights of my two days together into one day 'cos there weren't so many. Novel: I wanted to finish the fifth chapter yesterday, but I didn't manage to. So, that's my goal for today. At the moment, the narrator, who's been on a search to discover more about this weird building in Calais that his late father had secretly built as a gift to his youngest son Alfonse, now dead, and which is partly a weird building because the father had it designed by a cosmetic surgeon instead of an architect -- long story -- and the narrator has just found that the building was based on an illustration in one of Alfonse's mangas that retells the story of The Three Bears through a Japanese sensibility, and now he's talking about having Didier pretend to be Alfonse and go find this weird building, which is currently occupied by the cosmetic surgeon who designed it and his two sons. Otherwise, not much happened. I had coffee with Gisele. She told me how the 'TIHYWD' Japan tour went -- great, apparently -- and we talked about our new maze installation work/ theater piece that I have to start writing the scenario for as soon as I finish my novel. She also told me she bought me a ticket to see Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu) perform at Fondation Cartier tomorrow night, which is cool. And other than that, I just did my usual. Okay, what's the story on your Wednesday? ** Steven Trull, It sounds like a great party indeed. Almost my kind of party. Yeah, they can hear you with their eyes. Pretty trippy, right? I'm glad you're alive too. And I'm glad I'm alive too, strangely. ** JW Veldhoen, Shit, you were sounding so up for a while. No entry usually means 'I'll do it, but don't tell the others'. The first guy's dick's bigness is all camera angle, I'm thinking. I don't link to the ads 'cos I'm not a pimp. I don't know about that sidelong smile thing 'cos my body just kind of does what it does mostly, but I'm sure you're right. Your interpretation feels completely right. ** Okay, I made it, as did you, seemingly. I hand you over to the masterful Brendan Lott now. I'll get back to work. Tomorrow, yes?
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