I create in my studio called “Rabbit Ears Art Place” or REAP for short. As a collage painter, I combine multiple materials (paper, fabric, and paint) to create eye-catching still lifes. REAP is an excellent word for my collaging activities. Reap means to cut or gather a crop. My crops, so to speak, are the materials I gather to glue onto wood panels. These are the basic structures upon which I build my collage paintings.

I begin the art process by writing playful or whimsical titles for the works. The title comes first because it dictates what the focus of the painting will be. It is the hardest part of creating. I like the challenge of matching a still life with a lighthearted title. The “stills” include real objects, and in some cases these objects may be imaginary or may have a new or unexpected relationship among them. Whichever way it is, I hope the viewer is entertained and delighted.

Once the title is known everything else falls into place. With the still life set up in the studio’s “half bath turned darkroom” I photograph it under the illumination of a single spotlight. After cropping the photo on a computer, I then turn the image so that it sets at an angle. The original photos are passive because the objects are in an upright position and no energy can escape, while the newer photos are tilted and more dynamic. Energy pours out easily and it brings life to the “stills.”

After drawing outlines of shapes with acrylic ink, I rapidly tear or cut paper and fabric, and glue down the pieces in different areas according mostly to whim and sometimes with purpose. Acrylic paint comes next, followed by another “high energy” round of glueing collage paper. My objective is to meld paint and paper into one creation, where the boundaries of each can no longer be deciphered.

My passion for art began when I was four years old. My childhood home, Champion, is a small bedroom community in northeast Ohio. I was told that both of my parents, noticing my excitement to color, bought a roll of butcher paper to save on the cost of individual sheets of paper. Rolling out the paper on the kitchen floor, I remember ambitiously setting out to draw and color on the entire roll in one day. When imagining the possibilities afforded by so much paper, I thought, “This paper keeps rollin’ and rollin’ and I can keep drawin’ and drawin’.” I have been drawin’, and paintin’, and collagin” ever since.