My Creative Journey: Part 4 Collage

Dale Chihuly and Seaver Leslie, 1975

In 1980 I was invited to study Art at Parsons School of Design in New York City. My first Class was Graphic Design taught by the most handsome man I had ever met, Seaver Leslie. Seaver had graduated from RISD along side friend Dale Chihuly with whom he collaborated on a wonderful exhibition inspired by James Joyce, Ulysses Cylinders.

The class was uniquely taught through a critique of each students' 8"x10" collage that was hung on the wall every week. We discussed color, texture, space and shape. It was superbly insightful, opening my eyes to the basic ingredients of how to observe art but since I really couldn't draw I mostly loved that the medium was collage, assembled by cutting, ripping, pasting and molding paper.

Layering different forms  to create an image is immensely gratifying. The surprises that emerged were endless both in the texture, color and the shape. You may start out with a particular expected outcome only to be thrilled with a completely different end result.

Seaver Leslie grew up in Maine, studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, and after in England, where he met John Michell, the founder of a victorious antimetric organization. He instantly became an avid 'anti metric' rebel and campaigned tirelessly through his newsletter Footprint. He founded Americans for Customary Weight and Measure and in 1981 invited me to help him coordinate and produce the most talked about event of the decade. The Foot Ball , celebrated in a landmark ferry terminal at the foot of Manhattan gathered together New York's finest where Celebrity judges, including author Tom Wolfe and comedian Charles Rocket, pondered the lower extremeties of contestants to pick the “most beautiful foot,” while fellow fetishists demanded: “Stand up for the foot!”

CONTINUE THE JOURNEY…

written by Marjolein Brugman

Marjolein Brugman is the founder of lighterliving and Aeropilates. “lighterliving is a movement and lifestyle choice we can all make. Let’s make it simple – make one decision a day to be better and watch the small steps lead to big changes. Eat smart, stay active, and you’ll live to feel a lighter life."