I've dealt with digital collages before, but then lost sight of the subject for a few years. But with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and the related cancelation of all outside activities related to my watercolor painting, such as workshops and festivals, it was time for me to deal with something else again. In any case, I had planned a creative break from painting, after which I would go back to watercolor painting with a fresh wind in my sails. A few weeks earlier, I had already experimented with small collages in Photoshop, but did not take it too serious due to lack of time. Ultimately, a quote from Marie Curie, which I heard on the radio, was decisive for dealing with the collages more intensely. On the one hand, it very well suited the new situation that the virus brought about us, on the other hand, I was interested in the biography of Marie Curie, whose name I knew, but actually knew nothing more about her. So the first one of the collages was created on March 20th, 2020 and it was so much fun that I decided to make a whole series of collages. Since then, a new collage has been created almost every day and I have dealt with the biography of another personality relatively intensively every day. The selection of the people presented here does not follow a scheme. Some of these people came to mind immediately and seemed worth taking care of for a day.
I came across other people by chance on the Internet because I “got stuck” on her face while searching for pictures on the Internet or because I read an interesting article about them. The basic requirement for every one of them, however, was that there is public domain picture material for the respective personality - usually these are people who have died a long time ago. For this project I mainly used the internet as a source of images and information. In addition to Wikipedia, the Library of Congress and the Digital Collection of the New York Public Collection were particularly helpful to me. However, image search is often very tedious and takes a lot of time. In my night shift, I mostly researched for material, biographical information and quotes and then worked on the design of the respective collage on my computer at home during the day. I usually came up with an image and layout idea while doing my research. In addition to the photo material collected in this way, the collages use a lot of other things, for example scans of old magazines, old papers, postcards, foils, painted backgrounds, photos of structures and various textures, etc. It is important to me to give my unique touch to my collages and to create an individual look from all the different materials used. Apparently I managed this quite well, because the response to the publications on various social media platforms was extremely positive and prompted me to design a book from the works created in the past few weeks. It is also important to me to get a paper version of the digitally created works.
I have gotten to know a lot of personalities in the past few weeks, and even if only virtually, it was a nice balance to the current considerable contact restrictions in real life.
The book is available here: https://www.wieland-fineart.com/shop/books/please-do-not-bend-collage-carsten-wieland-vol-1/
More info: wieland-fineart.com
Collage 2020-03-27 Anna May Wong “It´s a pretty sad situation to be rejected by (the) Chinese because I´m `too American`and by American producers because they prefer other races to act Chinese parts.” - Anna May Wong
Collage 2020-04-13 Arlette Dorgère
Collage 2020-03-24 Buster Keaton “Love is the unchanging axis on which the world revolves.” - Buster Keaton
2020-04-25 Collage Camille Clifford
Collage 2020-04-07 Cléo de Mérode
Collage 2020-04-06 Eadweard Muybridge “Only photography has been able to divide human life into a series of moments, each of them has the value of a complete existence.” – Eadweard Muybridge
Collage 2020-03-26 Edgar Allen Poe “Science has not yet taught us if madness is or is not the sublimity of the intelligence.” - Edgar Allen Poe
Collage 2020-04-20 Evelyn Nesbit “Nobody can live in the past or the future without being something of a nut.” - Evelyn Nesbit
Collage 2020-04-15 Fritz Lang “There can be no understanding between the hand and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator.” – Fritz Lang
2020-04-28 Collage Geneviève Lantelme
Collage 2020-04-23 George Sand “Let us accept truth, even when it surprises us and alters our views.” ― George Sand (Letters Of George Sand)
Collage 2020-03-31 Gloria Swanson “Fame was thrilling only until it became grueling. Money was fun only until you ran out of things to buy.” – Gloria Swanson
Collage 2020-03-29 Gustave Eiffel “I’m going to be jealous of this tower. She is more famous than me.” – Gustave Eiffel
Collage 2020-03-23 - Joséphine Baker “All my life, I have maintained that the people of the world can learn to live together in peace if they are not brought up in prejudice.” - Joséphine Baker
Collage 2020-03-28 Jules Verne “We may brave human laws, but we cannot resist natural ones.” ― Jules Verne, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Collage 2020-03-20 Marie Curie “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” - Marie Curie
Collage 2020-03-21 Mark Twain “If you tell the truth, you don´t have to remember anything.” - Mark Twain
Collage 2020-04-08 Nadar “In photography, like in all things, there are people who can see and others who cannot even look.” – Nadar
Collage 2020-04-09 Sarah_Bernhardt “Life begets life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich.” ― Sarah Bernhardt
Collage 2020-04-21 Thomas Alva Edison “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” - Thomas A. Edison
Collage 2020-03-30 Victoria Woodhull “It makes no difference who or what you are, old or young, black or white, pagan, Jew, or Christian, I want to love you all and be loved by you all, and I mean to have your love.” – Victoria Woodhull
Collage 2020-04-03 Walt Whitman „Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.“ — Walt Whitman
Collage 2020-04-10 Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen “Great discoveries are made accidentally less often than the populace likes to think. (Commenting on how an accident led to the discovery of X-rays)” – Wilhelm Röntgen
Collage 2020-04-04 Wright Brothers “If we worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true really is true, then there would be little hope for advance.” – Orville Wright
