Cut it Out!, ep.009-David Crunelle, How can artists improve their focus?

Cut it Out!, ep.008- Mary McCleary, How Can We Become Better Artists?

Red Wizard's collage work on display at Revolution Art Gallery Buffalo, NY

I am very happy to be invited to show my work at Revolution Gallery this summer. Revolution Gallery is an awesome place and the owners are super nice. It is located on Hertle avenue in north Buffalo. Hertle avenue has been exploding with new business and good vibes as more young people have moved into the area. Revolution is a perfect spot to meet up with friends for some great art and good conversation (which is something we all crave these days)

My work on display is called “Inter-dimensional Jest”. I think it is the best collage I have made to date. As I experiment with different types of source material, I am beginning to have more fun. There are a lot of different pieces to this collage. I used everything from old maps to children’s books. The finished piece is 11”x14”. It is available for sale at revolution gallery’s site: Cut it Out 2021 Show

Cut it Out!, ep.005- Kike Congrains, Curator of #CollageWave & Collage Historian

Enrique "Kike" Congrains is collage artist from Lima, Peru. He has shown his work in exhibitions in Peru, as well as Argentina, Spain, England, Hong Kong, and Norway at the Scandinavian Collage Museum. He’s the founder and curator of CollageWave, an annual show for established and emerging Peruvian collagists. Participated as a speaker in Kolaj Fest 2018 and 2019 in New Orleans. He teaches collage workshops to underprivileged kids and is writing a book on Latin American collage.

Cut it Out!, ep.004- Morgan Jesse Lappin

Morgan Jesse Lappin b. 1979 is a visual artist, entertainer, musician and image-maker Lappin first started creating collage art in 2007 for a clothing company creating original designs. In 2008, Lappin moved to Brooklyn and began working with paper to create contemporary collages. His art, like his mind, is a combination of comedy and chaos with elements of music, vintage horror and sci-fi. Lappin’s work ranges from seven-foot- long cartoon metropolises, to fictional album covers, to take-out Greek diner coffee cups embedded with tiny paper worlds. 

He uses nostalgic material from his childhood from the 80s, such as VHS Tape boxes, video game cartridges, and any other 80's house hold items that could cause you to experience flashbacks. Having a background in collecting and curating, he set out to assemble some of his favorite collage artists from NYC, and so in 2013 the Brooklyn Collage Collective was born. The BCC has now exhibited all over the world and has a strong global presence amongst collage makers and collectors alike. 

In 2017, Lappin collaborated with The Very Warm, a parent company of Weatherproof, using Lappin’s original collages to design outerwear for men and women which sold-out with Nordstrom’s. In 2018, Lappin was chosen as a guest speaker at Kolaj Fest, a multi-day festival & symposium about contemporary collage and its role in art, culture, and society.

Cut it Out!, ep.003- Goof Craft aka Alex Dorney: Collage Artist & Vintage Seller

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:

1. Are you making a wine label for a mass-produced wine?

2. Are you making a label for some specialty wine you made at home? (less than 50 bottles?)

3. Does your wine label need to have government warnings on them?

4. 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?

5. 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.