The Daily Muse: Michael Cultip, Collage / Mixed Media Artist

After photography, collage is the most democratic modern art technique.

Stuff piles up in everyone’s life and memory, but few, even among collage makers, can reorder it as artfully as Berkeleyan Michael Cutlip.

Collage does not go obsolete because we, in cities especially, cannot avoid seeing reality by bits and pieces, in remnants and flashes of novelty.

The trick for the collage artist is not only to gather material with creative nerve endings exposed but to assemble it in ways true to our experience of perpetually interrupted observation and recall.

Cutlip exhibits widely in Canada and the United States. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Triton Museum of Art, the David & Lucie Packard Foundation, Bloomingdales, among others.

…and now a few words from Michael…

I draw inspiration from most that is naïve. Children are, hands down, the best artists. Their freedom and uninhibited nature taps into that certain energy which all mature artists seek their entire lives.

Urban nature, street art, things old, vintage, warn-out, discarded, natural beauty in its abstract form and simply the moment, the moment of creation – where one move inspires the next. One has to only open his eyes…..beauty is everywhere.

The process is essential. I work in the moment. In my experience, a planned painting is a failed painting. The painting must be free to wander. The best works are those that seem to simply happen.”

To learn more about Michael Cultip or to see even more of his amazing work, follow any of the links below:

WEBSITE  |  FACEBOOK  |  INSTAGRAM

 If you are interested in taking a workshop with Michael, visit his website for upcoming dates and locations.