Artist Statement | Email

Plattekill Falls
Mixed Media Work on Panel, 50 x 38 inches, 2007

Platte Cove, Listen to the River
Mixed Media Work on Panel, 60 x 40 inches, 2007

Stone Bridge on Camelot Rd.

Artists Statement: Collage

I try to push paper to new extremes in collage. My work is close to painting—the image reads as landscape, rock and water. Each piece is made of hundreds of paper scraps glued into position. I change the paper fragments by drawing and painting on them both before and after they are applied to the surface of the page.

I had my first breakthrough into collage when I was spending the summer of 1988 in Palenville, NY. The town has magnificent waterfalls in the Caaterskill Creek, so loved by Asher Durand, Thomas Cole and Sanford Gifford. I was painting at the falls one day and it suddenly occurred to me that I could evoke more of the power and dignity of these places by using collage, I started with torn white paper and charcoal. At first I worked only in black and white. (I won a Pollock-Krasner in 1990 for this series) and in 1999 I began to make satisfying collages in color. I now use paper in all colors, paint, charcoal and archival glue to make the work.

I move between abstraction and figuration making images of primal forces — gravity, light and darkness, endless geological time. Collage satisfies my need to improvise, to work quickly, using accidental and impromptu marks, drawing and painting freely across a textured surface of paper fragments. Layers of paper replicate geological layers of rock under pressure. Small flickering fragments of paper communicate the effects of sunlight and moving shadows.

website: www.mariellabisson.com
video: View a video about Mariella Bisson’s work
email: Mariella Bisson [Email address: mariellabisson #AT# verizon.net - replace #AT# with @ ]