Collage

The Moment of Collage Collage

Wow! If this is doing what I think it is doing as I write this, I enter into one of the most magnificent realms I could ever hope to enter. Picasa has become one of the great art tools. I am cruising through one of my old Picasa photo galleries, before I uploaded a deal of my art work on line to Smugmug, and I see this button at the base of my screen - Collage.

Now, talk about putting a carrot in front of a wide-eyed donkey. You are joking are you not? I love the sound of that term - Collage.

I click into a gallery in Picasa and then click Collage. And Picasa offers me more options of randomlessness, thinglessness and nothingness. In particular do I want my Collage as:

Picture Pile: Looks like a pile of scattered pictures

Mosaic: Automatically fit pictures in the page

Frame Mosaic: A mosaic with a prominent centre picture

Grid: Arrange pictures in regular rows and columns

Contact Sheet: Thumbnails with an informative header

Multiple Exposure: Superimpose pictures over one another

Come on - choices, choices - this is starting to sound like The Dice Man.

I navigate the Mouse to the Collage button and press. Random chaos of that instant takes hold and I am presented with a collage of my paintings from one of my on-line galleries. Spooky. I imagine Matisse and fellow collagers thinking all those years ago - there must be something better than scissors no doubt. Hey, do not get me wrong, most of the images included in the collage above were created with paint, paper and careful use of scissors. And all this is happening instantaneously, on line and in real time. Definitely some sort of spooky action at a distance. And boy, oh boy they are still offering Options such as Scramble Collage and Shuffle Pictures.

I have this image in the back of my mind of Michelangelo screening laser images on the roof of a chapel as he shuffles and scrambles before pressing Paint on the Button of his ink-jet paint laser. It may sound ridiculous but that is what we humble artists are being allowed to do in a nanosecond now. I am sure that the speed of light is not a constant.

And all the while a video of Zorba the Greek is pumping out bazouki as Anthony Quinn teaches Alan Bates to dance. Tire of the movie then flick to some music videos of The Twelve Girls Band or Ayisha in French. Certainly the harmonic mix thickens.

So I go into multiple galleries and collage the lot instantaneously. It is sort of like the Show Off feature available on Smugmug. Anyway the very clever process was all available on-line for virtually free. The secret is letting yourself go, leap faithfully into the abyss of technology with the realisation that none of your actions - eg mosaic collaging on line - hurt anybody. Do it for the good and there will be no bad repercussions.

I have a url feed at the base of my Blog - it has a painting of the day (someone else's choice in a land who knows where), some on-line ads (not my choice) and a quote by Michelangelo -

The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.

In that moment amidst all this blaringly glaring technology I am humbled to think that similar acts of digital sleight-of-hand, good old-fashioned prestidigitation (there is such a word!) are taking place in millions of offices and living rooms throughout the entire world-wide-web connected world at any one time. And all this can be shared in an instant with others in what is a mere speck of the divine grace of God.

And are we not all brought kicking and screaming back into reality. I rush to the kitchen and my toast is well and truly burnt on one side. i remember my cooking days on the Coromandel - if you burnt it, eat it. It is all part of the creation of something. I eat burnt toast, margarine and peanut butter in self-imposed silence (no You-tube music) as I contemplate suitable mea culpa.

Anyway, I just noticed some more buttons at the base of Picasa... and today's art piece in the url feed at the base of my Blog is that famous 1932 (?) blue woman by Matisse - cleverly collaged of course.

Oops. forgot to mention that the megapixel magic of Picasa's Collage can best be seen by on-line magnification of the image above - either by mouse click or on-screen magnifier. Best of luck.

collage (depicted above) thanks to Smugmug, Picasa, mfnw, Blogger of Course, Firefox and the Collage button, megapixels on LCD screen, July 2009

inanga