New find & friend Michael Pajon had some impressive up in Chad’s Get It Together show this weekend (the show was fantastic, but that’s a whole other post). Mike’s collages are incredibly intricate, all cut by hand from vintage ephemera. He’s also got some great etchings & intaglio prints that are really nice too.
I like Mike’s work and Mike himself too! I met him at Tony Fitzpatrick’s studio where he works as T.F’s assistant. His work has a lot of similarities to Tony’s and I wonder how he has found his own visual voice? Does he see himself as being immediately influenced By Fitzpatrick’s collage style? And what kind of work was he doing previous to his current work?
Hmm! Excellent questions indeed, Ms. Dee. You want to do an interview? Maybe another guest post?
Dee~
Super questions…my work was largely print based, i.e. intaglio and relief, but always an emphasis on drawing, nostalgia, and image collecting. I had always found great old books with illustrations, and Childrens coloring books and such, but hadn’t made much work with them. When I began combing through junk and various ephemera or hunting to find Tony items for his collage I began taking home the rejects that I had cut out, or things he didn’t use, and began making things out of them. We happen to use certain materials that give our works a similar appearance. However, my approach to making my work is far different from his own, and when I began making these pieces I was always concerned with the notion that people might only see the similarities, and never fully grasp the major differences in our respective works.
I would definitely say I have been influenced by Tony, assisting in finding and cutting building his work, how could I not be. However that same exercise working daily on collage made me feel more confident that I could take the ideas that I had and use the medium in my own way.