Alex Dorney is a mixed media artist based in the Shenandoah Valley. His passion for vintage print started from a young age, brought on by a love for flea markets and yard sales. An interest in collage came naturally in high school and he has pursued it ever since. Specifically focusing on product advertisements, he harvests images from the pages of mass market magazines for use in surreal mechanical constructions. He draws influences from the absurd collages of early Dada artists and the stop motion animations of Terry Gilliam. Alex uses a collection of thousands of vintage images to build complex impossible machinery and vehicles to populate his own surreal universe.
Mother Makes Glucose Wine Label Art
Liten Buffel makes super awesome and funky natural wine. This wine label is for a sparkling red. It was made from dozens of different grapes and fruits. ALL FROM ONE DUDE’S small FARM. Mother (earth) makes glucose (sugar).
How to Make a Wine Label with Easy DIY Collage Art
Hello collage friends,
If you follow me, you know that I make wine labels for my friends at Liten Buffel Winery in NY. I have made a handful of wine labels for them and they tell me that the wine with my art on them consistently sell out. They are a natural wine maker. My funky and surreal collages resonate with the natural wine crowd.
Using Collage and Decoupage to Make Your Own Wine Label
The great thing about collage is that you can make awesome art with no drawing or painting skills. The first thing you want to do is determine what is the end goal of your project is. Some questions to consider:
Are you making a wine label for a mass-produced wine?
Are you making a label for some specialty wine you made at home? (less than 50 bottles?)
Does your wine label need to have government warnings on them?
How long do you want your wine label to last? Is this a quick novelty item for a bridal shower, or something you want to last 100 years?
Most importantly, what size label do you need?
Printing at Home vs. Picking a Professional Printing Service
If you are making more than 50 bottles or you need special government warnings, I recommend getting your labels professionally printed. There are services that specialize in label printing such as Niagara Label Company.
Anything less than 50 labels should be doable at home. ( I mean, you can certainly make more, but I don’t think I would want to manually make more than 50 by myself) Keep in mind, wine labels are smaller than most sheets of paper. You will have to cut each sheet of paper several times. ( I will show you how to save time in the following steps.)
Picking your printing service will give you an answer to the most important question: the size of your label. You don’t want to go through hours of work only to make something that won’t fit onto a wine bottle.
Please watch my YouTube video and I will take you through al the steps!
How to Organize Your Collage Cuttings
How to Make Your Own Trading Cards Using Collage: Magic The Gathering Edition
A buddy of mine once called Magic: The Gathering “cardboard crack.” It’s true. There’s an addictive, Golemesque allure to the game. It’s the most popular trading card game in the world for a reason. As Magic has grown globally, so have the prices of its cards. Reserve list pieces like Mox Diamond, which the Red Wizard once pulled from a two-dollar pack back when we first played in the mid-90s, now sells for no less than $500 on Ebay.
In that way, Magic is unlike any other game on the planet. The collectibles themselves—especially in eternal formats like Vintage and Commander—have become essential to playing the game. “Staples,” as they’re referred to in the Magic community. No blue Commander deck, for example, would be complete without Rhystic Study, a once-upon-a-time common enchantment whose price has ballooned to $30 a pop.
Enter proxies—homemade substitutes for any Magic card. For many players, especially those on tight budgets, proxies are the closest they’ll ever get to reserve list gems like Gaea’s Cradle. As a Commander player, this concept has always made a lot of sense to me. I own a copy of Cradle—but I certainly don’t own more.
If I want to slot a pricey into more than one deck—let’s be honest, of course I do—I turn to proxies. If I don’t want to risk damaging a future retirement gift, I turn to proxies. If I want a more flavorful version of the card’s art, I turn to proxies. Here’s where it helps to have the Red Wizard as a brother from another mother. My newly constructed Queen Marchesa Commander deck requires 1/1 Assassin tokens, which currently cost $1.50 on CardKingdom.com.
The tokens aren’t horrible, but coming from someone who values cool-looking accessories, they also aren’t great. The result? The proxy you saw at the top of this page. Now I own something completely unique. Something no one else can claim. A collector’s item all of its own. The nerdy, Golem-like quest marches on.
Cut it Out!, ep.002-Post Wook, Digital Collage Artist & Contemporary Surrealist
Post Wook Shares Her Surreal Wisdom
Post Wook is a digital collage artist and contemporary surrealist artist from California. She boasts over 240,000 instagram followers. People love her surreal landscape collages. She has worked with some big clients such as Toyota and Club Med.
In this episode, Post Wook gives some great insight into collage and its sticky relationship with intellectual property, copyright, and derivative work.
Collage Art and Copyright Law
(this is not legal advice, I am just an ape at a computer)
Copyright is a tough subject in collage. Just like any law case, each work of art needs to be considered and addressed on its own terms and in its own context. Postwook takes copyright very seriously. She mentions that she only uses completely royalty-free images in her work. She also contacts individual photographers about the use of their work. She mentions that many of her clients ask her about the copyright status of her work. As a collage artist, this is certainly something you must consider when preparing work for a paying client.
How to Get More Followers on Social Media
Post Wook and I also discuss the arms race between Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. It has been a challenging year for some creators because these platforms are pushing short video content to their users. Natasha mentions that not all art processes are fun to watch (like a digital collage) and it can be a challenge to find new ways to create content that satisfies the algorithm overlords.
Collage and the Live Music Scene
We are both live music fans, so I was very happy to chat with her about music festivals before COVID. So far every guest on the Cut it Out Podcast has been a music festival fan. Can this be a coincidence? (In Episode 1, Max Malone shares his festival collage mural process). Is there an actual connection between collage artists and music festivals? I have no idea, but I will explore this further in the following episodes!
Please let Red Wizard know if there are any guests you would like to see on the show!
Cut it Out!, ep.001-Max Malone, Professional Collage Artist & Graphic Designer
Welcome to the very first episode of Cut it Out! In this episode I speak with professional collage artist and graphic designer, Maximillian Malone. Max Malone shares with us how he created giant murals using collage materials, how he decorated an entire music venue, and how to get the most out of scanning your collages and other assets.
My goal with this podcast is to interview my favorite collage artists, paper crafters, and other makers. My hope is that we can elevate our favorite craft by learning from each other and sharing our insights.
Cut it Out! is available on all major podcast streaming platforms and YouTube. The audio quality is better on audio only formats, however, the YouTube version allows you to see the artwork that we are discussing. I am super happy with this episode,. and I hope you enjoy!
Bird "Tree" Collage Art Wall Mural, Buffalo, NY
I recently made a mural in Buffalo, NY out of some old scientific illustrations of birds.
These images are interesting to me because they are vintage and painstakingly vivid. Once color photography took off, it didn’t make much sense to illustrate animals this way.
My goal for this room was to increase the sense of well-being. Like indoor plants, images of nature in our homes can increase a sense of peace and wellbeing. Our bodies and minds love nature. When we see it and experience it, we feel better. This is even so for artificial nature. The leaves, birds, and flowers, bring a colorful burst of movement and energy into this room.
The mural is about 13 feet tall.
I very much wish to do more projects like this. If you would like to get an estimate for a mural in your home or business please let me know. Let’s work together!
Romare Bearden: Collage and the Harlem Renaissance
Romare Bearden was born in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1911. His family moved to New York in 1914 as part of the Great Migration, and his intimate experience with the legacy of race in the United States helped define his perspective throughout his life.
Bearden’s career covered many styles and mediums, all self-taught. But it is his collage work that we remember him for today. These moving, poignant pieces pushed the form to new uses, and his work arrived alongside the widespread use of glossy paper in magazines — and it was Bearden who helped define how this new common material could be put to use in fine art.
Romare Bearden’s Inspiration
Influenced by Mexican muralists like Diego Riviera, Bearden included socially conscious themes in his work. His early pieces often depicted scenes from the American South, highlighting not only racial injustice but also the deep reservoir of strength in communities of color.
As the civil rights movement gained more momentum, Bearden pushed further into these political themes. In 1964, he presented his first series of collage work titled Projections. After that point, his collages became the center of his work. By the time he died in 1988, he was considered a leading collage artist. Let’s look at some of his pieces below.
Young Students (1964)
Image source: beardenfoundation.org/collages/
This early collage by Bearden shows lots of energy in the street. Faces made up of multiple images seems to nod to his past as a cubist painter. The scene is absolutely filled, with little negative space, bustling with all the energy of young black people learning and becoming.
Carolina Shout (1974)
image source: beardenfoundation.org/collages/
Here, the skills Bearden honed as a painter are applied to collage. The use of bright color and somewhat abstracted human forms create a lively scene of togetherness. The ability to create collage that is both aesthetically daring and deeply human are trademarks of Bearden’s style.
The Block (1971)
image source: Thenation.com
This extensive work shows the culmination of Bearden’s experiences in Harlem. It is a sprawling epic of a collage, containing masterful storytelling with scenes-within-scenes. This video shows how Bearden would create the elements of his environment with collage:
Bearden experienced the Harlem Renaissance from a young age, a fact that influenced him to become an artist. He opened his first studio in the neighborhood, at the Apollo Theater, no less. And just as Harlem helped define him, he tried to give back with this piece of enormous dimensions (48 inches by 18 feet).
These three pieces help show us why Bearden remains one of the most important artists to ever work in collage. His style is fully his own, and his attention to his subject matter adds to their significance.
He brought a lifetime of self-education and personal experience to his practice. With these, he managed to create pieces that stand as testaments to their time and also as universal stories of humanity that will remain relevant for generations to come.
Get Your FREE Romare Bearden Collage Kit by filling out the form below. (file download)
Liten Buffel Wine Label Art Explained
In this video I explain the art in my 2020 collaboration with Liten Buffel Winery.
Get Your FREE Surreal Collage Kit!
Start Collaging with this FREE five-page Surreal Collage Kit
People often ask me where they can get cool source materials for collages. I have spoken about it at length on my YouTube channel but I always felt like I wasn’t providing the best solution for my followers. I hope this free surreal collage kit will help anyone who wants to experiment with collage making.
You can print this free collage kit at home or your favorite photo/ copy center. It is a downloadable PDF sized at 8.5 x 11 inches (US letter). To get your free kit, I just ask for your email address. Once you print your collage kit, all you will need is a pair of scissors and a glue stick. Please share your collage using the hashtag #RedWizardKit so I can see your weird creation! Get your free kit by clicking the add to cart button below.
If you would like to learn how to use this collage kit, you can watch my free collage lesson by clicking my video below.
Stay tuned, because I will be creating more collage kits soon. I am working on a “Classic Surreal Collage Kit which is inspired by Dali, Man Ray, Rene Magritte, and Max Ernst.
Have fun cutting! - The Red Wizard
Mountain Dew Major Melon Collaboration
Mountain Dew hired me to create some awesome art for their new flavor release, MAJOR MELON!
MIGHTY DINO FLAVOR BATTLE!
Natural History Redux Process Video
In this video I share my art process for the Natural History Redux Poster I created for Coral Morphologic. To work with my client, I created collage “concept sketches”. Something I have never done with collage. Check out Coral Morphologic’s website here.
Natural History Redux Poster with Coral Morphologic
I am honored to have worked with Colin Foord and J.D. McKay of Coral Morphologic. Coral Morphologic creates stunning coral and invertebrate content. I had a blast cutting up their photos to create a poster for the updated release of their film Natural History Redux. The poster can be purchased here. Anything you buy from Coral Morpholgic goes to the science and protection of south Florida’s coral reef. These guys are advocates for the colorful and strange creatures of underwater Miami.
Watch the film Natural History Redux Here:
The 18 x 24-inch finished poster can be purchased here: Coral Morphologic Store
Shoulders of Giants Wine Label
I made an awesome wine label for Liten Buffel Winery.
Pat and Zach at Liten Buffel chose one of my collages to adorn their new red wine. They also named the wine after my collage. Liten Buffel produces only natural wines. I love their wine and working with them has got me hooked on natural wines. I have a limited number of signed prints of the artwork available below:
Celebrating the end of my "How to Collage" lesson series with "How to Glue a Collage"
Red Wizard Wine Review- Juggernaut Russian River Valley Pinot Noir 2018
Petite Petit Wine Review 2017 (Michael David Winery)
This is the first episode of Wine with Red Wizard.
In anticipation of my new wine labels coming out this year, I wanted to start learning more about wine. Enjoy… or not.
How to Collage Part 5: Composition
In this video we learn how to compose a collage and improve the way we communicate visually.
I am excited to say I am continuing my how to collage series. As for now, this is the second last video of the series. After this video, I will make a gluing demonstration video. After the gluing video, most of my youtube videos will be time-lapse videos and Vlog posts. If you would like to see me make certain types of videos please let me know!
Virus Update
Hello Friends.
Unfortunately, just like everything else, I will be postponing my Collage workshops until May. I am the odd duck in my family, several of them are medical doctors and they urge everyone to take social distancing seriously.
We can do this, it is time for the world to act as a team for once. I will be busy creating online courses for my K-8th grade students and posting them to my YouTube channel. I will also be continuing my collage lessons on YouTube as well. If any of you have attended one of my workshops, or have watched one of my lessons you should already know that you can collage with things you have at home. Create new life in this time of death… you can only watch so much Netflix.
Wishing you all the best of health, strength, and creativity.
-The Red Wizard
3/17/20