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Collage & Assemblage by James Michael Starr

James Michael Starr - All Along The Way, 2006
17-1/2 x 11-1/2 x 9-1/2 inches
Cast iron lamp base, cast figurine, croquet ball, miscellaneous hardware

 

 

James Michael Starr - Unfailing Prudence, 2006
56-1/4 x 9-3/4 x 9-1/2 inches
Brass eagle, alarm bell, legs from cast metal figurine, wood newell post, marble base

 

 

James Michael Starr - The Accusation of Inanimate Objects, 2006
5-3/4 x 11-3/4 x 6 inches
Wood shoe last, croquet ball, carved figurine

 

Four more images on page two.

 

Artist's Statement

My work has always been an allegory of the human condition, but I have been surprised as, over the past sixteen months I’ve watched the story-telling imagery become starker and more to the point.

This evolution began with my most recent collages when, early in 2005, I pared down my materials to experiment in highly simplified pastiches of Nineteenth-Century, black-and-white engravings. It was an attempt to strip away decoration and see how little is required to form a complete sentence made from pictures, but in the process I felt I was saying much more.

The idea of carrying over this austerity program into my three-dimensional work was daunting — the term “assemblage” itself seems to carry even more of the implication of mixture and multiple components than does “collage.”

To be sure, it is a constant challenge, not to succumb to mere visual interest by adding intriguing objects and instead hold out for the clarity and substance that only a few carefully chosen elements can convey. But the resulting pieces seem to me to be all the more honest, if at times brutally so.

— James Michael Starr
April 2006

Links to more information about the art of James Michael Starr:

• Complete information about my upcoming shows.

• See more of my work on my web site.

• See another opinion of my work in a critic's review.

• My DallasArtsRevue interview.

Go to Page 2

All works pictured on this page
Copyright 2006 by James Michael Starr
Digital images were provided by the artist.

Christ Above Me photographed by Steve Beasley.
All other photographs by Harrison Evans

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