Affinity for Collage

Affinity for Collage

march 25 – april 22, 2022

Affinity for Collage was made possible by the artists, the co-curators Craig Bunch and Professor Mari Omori,
and Lone Star College-Kingwood’s support staff. This has been a novel and exciting adventure. Craig Bunch
has provided invaluable research, editing, and kept communications flowing from beginning to end. Mari
Omori and Angie Spargur installed the Creation Station, where visitors could create their own collages and
post them on the gallery Facebook page. We wish to thank Moody Gallery for their generous loan of Al
Souza’s work and graphic designer Taylor Anderson for this catalog. Enjoy the show!

Kris Larson
Director, Lone Star College-Kingwood Fine Art Gallery

The term “collage” comes from the French verb coller, meaning to glue or stick together. In Modernist art,
it begins with Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, who in 1912 began incorporating found materials
including newspaper and wallpaper into their compositions. The earliest known examples date to the second
century B.C., when paper was invented in China. In tenth-century Japan, as paper became more abundant,
calligraphers incorporated collaged papers to beautiful effect. Mary Delany (1700-1788) produced nearly
1,000 realistic botanical collages, which she called “paper mosaicks.” The 19th century was a hotbed of
collage creation from patchwork quilts to Victorian scrapbooks; these creators were usually women. The
famed writer Hans Christian Andersen was also an artist who delighted in fashioning whimsical collages as
well as a remarkable collaged eight-sided folding screen.

Collage was a principal method of the Dada artists including Hannah Höch, Kurt Schwitters, and Max
Ernst, beginning before 1920. Ernst was the most notable Surrealist practitioner of collage, even producing
collage novels created from 19th-century engravings. Photomontage was another important early 20th-
century technique, often mass-produced and used towards political ends. Peter Blake’s famous cover for
the Beatles’ 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is an iconic example of photomontage.
No history of collage and its offshoots would be complete without considering other pioneering creators
including John Heartfield, Robert Rauschenberg, Romare Bearden, and David Hockney.

Affinity for Collage brings together a selection of contemporary artists notable for the range of techniques
they employ and results they achieve. Some works are highly planned, while others rely heavily on chance
and the subconscious. Artists range from a few just starting out to acknowledged masters. One work consists
of two pieces of paper glued together, while others are remarkably multi-dimensional. Supplementing them
are several works created long ago by unknown artists and intended to represent a few of the many sources
from which an affinity for collage springs.

Craig Bunch
Artist, Affinity for Collage



Artists

Lydia Bodnar-Balahutrak.....................................................1
Maddie Brown..................................................................3
Craig Bunch......................................................................5
Scott Calhoun....................................................................9
Suzi Gablik.....................................................................13
Scott Gordon...................................................................15
Faith Hahn......................................................................21
Dana Harper...................................................................23
Mary McCleary...............................................................25
Susy Medeski..................................................................27
Venessa Monokian...........................................................31
Mari Omori.....................................................................41
Angelica Paez.................................................................45
Nancy Pettway................................................................55
Russell Prince...................................................................57
Howard Sherman.............................................................61
Al Souza.........................................................................63
Loans by Private Collectors (Artists Unknown)......................67



Lydia Bodnar-Balahutrak

Collage is my way of piecing together fragments of text and figuration and creating visual narratives.
Through my artmaking, I strive to bear witness to meaningful past and current events, to probe cultural and
historic ties, and perpetuate a discourse between the written word and rendered imagery.

My work begins with collecting news articles from various documentary sources that address meaningful socio-
political issues. I select and arrange the written material onto canvas or paper in a sort of self-perpetuating
dialogue and build a collaged ground upon which I create metaphoric imagery in paint, charcoal, and
wax. At the same time, I am examining the nature of print media, how information is disseminated, what is
revealed and what is concealed. My ongoing process of layering and abrading words and images reflects
my interest in how we come to know history – how experiences submerge, resurface, and unravel over time.

Choker, a work of collaged print media, oil, and wax on canvas (96” x 76”) is a modern version of a
fourth-century ancient gold pectoral, excavated in 1971 from a burial ground in southern Ukraine. It’s a
metaphor for the living ties that bind Ukraine’s past with the present, depicting the lyricism of fauna and flora
as well as warring mythical griffins. The ground carries news accounts of Ukraine’s continuing struggle with
Russia’s relentless interference and invasions since Ukraine’s declaration of independence in 1991. Some
images and text are visible, but largely hidden, shrouded in a haze. But the words of Ukraine’s poet Taras
Shevchenko loom large, exhorting Ukrainians to have hope, to seek freedom and justice, and to persevere.

Lydia Bodnar-Balahutrak received her MFA in painting from George Washington University, Washington,
D.C. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, she moved to Houston in 1977, where she continues to live and
work. In 1991, an IREX grant enabled her to travel to Ukraine, her ancestral homeland, for the first time.
The trip marked a turning point in her creative work and world view. Since then, she has given lectures and
had one-person shows throughout Texas and in New York City. A bilingual monograph about her art was
published in 2005. Her artwork is included in numerous private and public collections, and a solo exhibit
travelling to five art venues in Ukraine has been planned. Most recently, her artwork was acquired for the
City of Houston Civic Art Collection for permanent display at Hobby Airport.

Left: Choker, 2019-2021, 96 x 76 inches, collaged print media, oil, and wax on canvas



Maddie Brown

When I make art, I incorporate daily occurrences and observations into my pieces. I enjoy creating odd,
eye-catching art that immediately draws in the viewers’ attention and enhances their perception of reality.
A Surreal Slumber is based on how an average night’s sleep can subtly take a dark turn. When creating this
piece, it was important that I brought the bedroom to life by using cloth as the walls; viewers are able to be
transported into what the room feels like.
Maddie Brown is a full-time student at Lone Star College-Kingwood and currently resides in Kingwood, Texas.
When it’s time to go to work, she enjoys substitute teaching at elementary campuses. She believes teaching
art to young minds is where her heart and passion burns.

Left: A Surreal Slumber, 2022, 18 x 24 inches, Prismacolor, watercolor, and cloth



Craig Bunch

Art has many purposes. Multitudes. And, to quote from Nishida Kitaro’s words engraved on a stone along
Kyoto’s Philosopher’s Walk: “I will walk the way that I make my own.”

A native Houstonian, Craig Bunch was a librarian and teacher in public schools in Houston and Coldspring
from 1986 to 2011. He retired as Assistant Librarian at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio in 2018.
A studio art major at the University of Houston from 1973-75, he graduated with degrees in philosophy and
psychology. He never made much art, preferring to look at other people’s art instead—pretty obsessively.
But he always thought that collage would be his medium. And in March 2020, free time, the pandemic, and
a stash of old Life magazines led to his first collage. More than 1,100 collages later, he is still pursuing the
A+ collage (which seems to happen about one attempt in fifty). In 2021, he chose 100 of his best collages
and self-published Life Magazine Collages with Blurb.

Texas A&M University Press published his book The Art of Found Objects: Interviews with Texas Artists in
2016. The same press will soon publish Dreams, Visions, Other Worlds: Interviews with Texas Artists. Craig’s
lifelong fascination with dreams and half-century love of surrealist art fueled that effort.

Other publication highlights are “Sam Steinberg: A House of Cardboard or a Marble Palace?” (Folk Art,
Summer 1996), “The Philosopher’s Walk” (Kyoto Journal, 2007), and, as editor, the anthology of work by
his creative writing students at Hamilton Middle School in Houston (Spring 2009).

Following the publication of his book in 2016, Lone Star College-Kingwood presented The Art of Found
Objects, an exhibition of fourteen artists conceived by Mari Omori and curated by Kris Larson. He was
equally thrilled to guest curate The Art of Found Objects: Enigma Variations at the Art Museum of Southeast
Texas in Beaumont from December 2018 to March 2019. That exhibition featured the art of Steve Brudniak,
Marilyn Lanfear, Angelica Paez, Ward Sanders, and Kelly Sears. It included Forrest Bess, Maudee Carron,
Clyde Connell, Charles Dellschau, Vernon Fisher, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Felix “Fox” Harris, Bert Long, Jesse
Lott, Mary McCleary, David McManaway, Dario Robleto, and Jonathan Rosenstein.

Singing Sailor, 2021, 11 x 8 1/2 inches, paper collage

Higher and Higher, 2021, 10 x 8 inches, paper collage



Scott Calhoun

I pick bits and pieces out of the flow of printed images passing in front of us. I want to tear them from their
intended use and form them into something to do with feelings. I keep at it.

I was born in Dallas in 1971, then lived in Scotland for a few years as a child. Collecting vinyl records and
staring at sleeves designed by Vaughn Olivier, Peter Saville, and others fed my first love of images. When
I got to art school, my afternoons were spent poring over all the books in the library. I wanted to make art
out of all the visual material that so fascinated me. Working in museum libraries for the past 24 years has
exposed me to so many subjects beyond my initial curiosity.

The most direct route would be to cut up my source material and mix it into the space of my own painting.
Selecting printed material and using it at the outset for a series of alterations, edits, blunders, errors, and
compromises. I take my chances and see what to clean up from the mess.

My work has been included in exhibitions with Jackie Klempay, Susanne Vielmetter, Holly Johnson, Mixture
Contemporary Art, and Taka Ishii. I currently live in Brooklyn.

The Luxury of Pearls, 2004, 8 x 10 inches, collage on paper

Affair of the Birds, 2004, 8 x 10 inches, collage on paper



Suzi Gablik

“This is the thing that set my work apart from other collage artists, the displacement of the objects and the
fact that they ended up resembling the real world, but were not of the real world.”

I used painting in my collage to make a single unified image. My work was somewhere between Bob
Rauschenberg’s technique of juxtaposing objects to create hybrid images that did not belong together and
Magritte in his use of only representational imagery to place things outside of normal, conventional ways
of seeing them. So that reality becomes a combination of familiar objects which, in my case, over time
coalesce into a single unified image. This is the thing that sets my work apart from other collage artists: the
displacement of the objects and the fact that they ended up resembling the real world but were not of the real
world. In other words, they were realistic, but also totally invented and imagined.

Suzi Gablik has had a long and distinguished career as artist, teacher, art historian, and critic. She attended
Black Mountain College in 1951, followed by Hunter College, where she studied under Robert Motherwell
and graduated in 1955. Her books include Magritte (1970), Progress in Art (1977), Has Modernism Failed?
(1982), The Reenchantment of Art (1992), Conversations Before the End of Time (1995), and Living the
Magical Life: An Oracular Adventure (2002). Her art is in the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s permanent
collection, and her papers are in the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art. In 2003, the Women’s Caucus
for Art awarded her a National Lifetime Achievement Award. She lives in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Left: Untitled (desert scene), 1967, 28 x 28 inches, paper collage on canvas



Scott Gordon

I am a scavenger… trolling the world for its unwanted discards, then reassembling those humble fragments
into objects that speak to the fragility and nobility of existence.

I have worked exclusively on or with paper for over 30 years. It is inexpensive, readily available,
easy to store, easy to mark, easy to manipulate; easy to crumble, rip, shred, cut, fold, and tear. And it is
everywhere. In fact, it is so ubiquitous that we have become blind to it and take it for granted. It can even
be seen as a nuisance.

And yet paper is never silent. It is always communicating. Spanning the distances, it provides a glimpse into
the sum of our past and current conditions. It records our need for reckoning while at the same time providing
an accounting of lives that left no monument.

In seeking to legitimize paper collage as an art-making practice at the turn of the last century,
the art critic Guillaume Apollinaire noted that Picasso’s collages were made of cultural castoffs that were “soaked in
humanity.” It is ultimately this aspect of paper that I find the most compelling—its staining with our marks. As such,
it compels us to slow down, step in closer, peer in, scan, read, piece together, attempt to decipher, and
to question.

My work, then, is a form of remembrance, not of specific memories but of memory in general—of stories that
have long since settled in the dust. They are a gathering of assertions of hope –that our being here may have
yet mattered or at the very least sparkled briefly in the constant shimmer of stars.

Scott Gordon (paperman) is a native Californian. He received his master’s degree in Fine Art from California
State University-Northridge. His work can be found in many public collections in the United States and
numerous private collections throughout the world. He maintains a studio in Ventura, California, where he is
a voracious scavenger and avid collector of all things paper.

Left: Dust Machine, 2001, 23 1/2 x 20 3/8 inches, paper collage

Untitled (one), 2009, 14 x 11 inches, paper collage

Untitled (London), 2009, 14 x 11 inches, paper collage

New York, 2009, 14 x 11 inches, paper collage

Untitled (linatone), 2009, 14 x 11 inches, paper collage



Faith Hahn

I was inspired to create my piece Time Flies Either Way when I was exploring the subject of “time” as my
theme work in class and thought what better way to portray a subject of “time” than with collage. Creating
with collage gave me the opportunity to work with different aspects of time, such as creating the collage with
pages of an old book from my dad and making the iris of the collage out of pictures of my eyes from many
different years. I think time is personal, and I wanted to combine my own view of time and how I perceive
it, and connect it to art.

Art has always been a significant part of my life because I grew up around the Houston art culture. I have
always loved how collage looked but never tried creating it myself until last fall during my art class with Mari
Omori, when I was encouraged to try collage. I fell in love with it, and being a photographer, I liked the tie
between my passion for photography and creating art out of pictures and magazines.

Left: Eye Collage, Drawing II, 2021, 18 x 24 inches, paper, ink



Dana Harper

The practice of making collage is a psychoanalytic process that I use to make visual poetry. Physically
selecting, cutting, arranging and gluing together images in new compositions is a transcendental meditation.
Without preconceptions, I follow a chain of intuition from beginning to end. Often, this is futile aesthetically,
but that’s not necessarily the main objective.

Although I try to work from a state of flow without preconceived ideas, in retrospect, it is clear that certain
themes are prevalent in my collages. One important theme that appears often is the idea of the inner self
manifested externally in a physical form. When this abstract and vast inner self takes tangible form, it can be
depicted in many ways. For example, it can blossom or erupt out of a conventional, more limited persona,
like an animated constructivist sculpture bursting from a seed pod. In my work, the inner self can take the
form of some kind of enigma that its respective host unexpectedly encounters in their environment, or can be
more like a shadow, previously unnoticed. Inside the field of the collage, the enigma can represent a portal
to another cosmic destination, a long-forgotten childhood home, a village from a previous life, a cavernous
barn full of every possession one ever owned, a soul with an impossible request, or a devastating message
in the form of an abstract poem. Like interpreting dreams, where the inner and outer selves are perceived
intertwined, these are a few examples of the kinds of things that I think about and feel when looking at my
own work.

Dana Roy Harper was born (1972) and raised in Houston, Texas. He studied at the University of Houston
and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His MFA is from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
He has lived in Prague, Czech Republic, since 2015.

Left: Untitled, 2011, 23 11 3/4 x 10 1/2 inches framed, paper, ink



Mary McCleary

I make my collages by attaching materials such as paper, rag board, foil, paint, beads, typed text, painted
sticks, string, leather, small plastic toys, and other found objects to heavy paper, much in the way a painter
builds layer upon layer of paint on canvas. My aim is that the obsessive images that result from this method
of working convey an intensity which the viewer finds compelling. I am interested in the spatial complexity
and visual tensions that come from the collages being illusionistic, while at the same time composed of three-
dimensional objects that often retain their own identity. Although my subject matter is often from history,
science, or literature, at times I select an image for nothing more than its resonance or poetic quality. Some
works refer to a specific narrative while others only hint at one. I like the irony of using materials that are often
trivial, foolish, and temporal to express ideas of what is significant, timeless, and transcendent.

Born in Houston, Texas, in 1951, Mary Fielding McCleary received her B.F.A., in printmaking/drawing at
Texas Christian University and her M.F.A. in graphics from the University of Oklahoma. In 2011, she was
named Texas Artist of the Year by the Art League of Houston. In 2019, she was named Texas 2-D Artist of the
Year by the Texas Legislature. She is Regent’s Professor of Art Emeritus at Stephen F. Austin State University,
in Nacogdoches, Texas, where she taught from 1975 to 2005. Since 1970, McCleary has participated
in over 350 one-person and group exhibits in museums and galleries in 29 states, Mexico, Canada, and
Russia. These venues include the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the National Museum of Women
in the Arts in Washington, D.C., MOBIA in New York City, the Grey Gallery at NYU, the Parrish Art Museum
in Water Mill, NY, the Boston Museum of Art, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Contemporary Arts Museum
Houston, the San Antonio Museum of Art, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City.

Left: In His Dreams He Was a Big Dog, 2009, 17 x 17 inches, cloth, beads, plastic, fabric



Susy Medeski

Creativity is something I’m very passionate about. Visual arts have best served my need to create. I have tried
many mediums and methods over the years, and I love them all. The tactile nature of the visual arts is most
rewarding. However, I’m a practical person at heart and when I can create something that’s beautiful and
useful, all the better. I held an art exhibit entitled a time to Mourn, a time to Dance in 2017 which included
a self-published book of the extensive variety of art projects in the show.

I love the ocean and its creatures great and small. I created Breaching Whale and Adagio for Right Whales
to bring awareness to the plight of the right whales who are currently categorized as functionally extinct
because they are being killed faster than they can procreate. My hope is that the voice of America would
influence the policy and regulations for shipping and military training before it’s too late for these magnificent
creatures.

Susy Medeski believes that it’s important to preserve the crafts that have served people for thousands of
years. Her work includes crocheting, quilting, ceramics, furniture making, marquetry, and wood crafting. She
is as comfortable with power tools as with a paintbrush and a camera.

She has been married to her husband Joe for 36 years, has four wonderful children, a son-in-law, and
a rambunctious whippet named Mach.

It is her love for God that drives her to reach out and try to better the lives of others using her gifts and talents.
When not making art, she teaches art, sewing, and crocheting classes to students ages 5-18 and adults,
continuing the art and crafts legacy. Susy has lived in Kingwood, Texas, for 17 years.

Breaching Whale, 2022, 33 x 23 inches, fabric confetti collage

Adagio for Right Whales, 2022, 52 x 42 inches, fabric applique



Venessa Monokian

Artist Venessa Monokian was born and raised in Miami. She currently lives in Houston, Texas, where she is a
member artist at BOX 13 ArtSpace. Monokian uses her work to investigate ideas about her environment. This
inquiry extends beyond just the tangible and also investigates psychological elements which are incorporated
into the final work. How the viewer physically interacts with these pieces is as much a part of the final
experience as the works themselves. This experience becomes a partnership between the artist, the work,
and the person viewing it.

Monokian received her Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts from Florida International University.
She has worked for nearly a decade as an adjunct professor at Florida International University, where she
teaches photography courses remotely. She has also instructed in the Art Department at Miami Dade College.

Monokian was a resident artist at ArtCenter South Florida (now Oolite Arts) from 2009 to 2013, and she
completed a three-month residency at Panal 361 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 2011, she was featured
in the WLRN documentary by Emmy and Oscar-winning filmmaker Andrew Hevia, Rising Tide: A Story of
Miami Artists.

She was selected for a solo show as part of the Featuring Photography exhibition at Miami’s Deering Estate.
She received honorable mentions for both the 2013 Florida Biennial at Art and Culture Center Hollywood
and Miami New Times’ 2014 MasterMind Award.

Monokian has shown her work internationally including at Lawndale Art Center in Houston; Metropolitan
Gallery in Austin; the Front Gallery in New Orleans; Mac Fine Art in Fort Lauderdale; Academy of Fine Arts
in Warsaw, Poland; and Mister Pink Galeria De Arte in Valencia, Spain. She has been featured in Shoutout
HTX; Voyage Houston; and Playful Creations, an ArtStreet segment on WLRN.

Pocket Forest – mapa de la artieBA – #8, 2013, 5 1/4 x 4 1/8 inches, hand-cut collage

Pocket Forest – 31, 2013, 5 1/4 x 4 1/8 inches, hand-cut collage

Pocket Forest – welcome berlin – 01, 2013, 6 x 4 1/8 inches, hand-cut collage

Pocket Forest – whipe – 02, 2013, 4 1/2 x 4 inches, hand-cut collage

Pocket Forest – mapa de la artes – 09, 2013, 5 1/4 x 4 1/8 inches, hand-cut collage

Pocket Forest – mapa de teatro – china – 34, 2013, 5 1/4 x 4 1/8 inches, hand-cut collage

Pocket Forest – mapa de la artes – 09, 2013, 5 1/4 x 4 1/8 inches, hand-cut collage

Pocket Forest – whipe – 03, 2013, 4 1/2 x 4 inches, hand-cut collage



Mari Omori

As a baby boomer growing up during the post-war era, I have difficulty throwing resources away; I see
possibilities in materials and objects that come into my everyday life. Celebration of Life #1 and #2 are
constructed from the color test prints made for the photobook, Batiked Life!, a yearlong project that began in
2020. This project documented my two-month artist-in-residency at the Babaran Segaragunun Culture House
in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in 2018, during my sabbatical research project, the Art of Indonesian Batik. The
book includes my essay, map of Indonesia, historical batik works, my batik works, and acknowledgements.
Batiked Life! (106 pages, color, hard cover) is available on Blurb.com.

Born and raised in Japan, Mari Omori is a multimedia artist, art educator, and curator who received her
MFA from UCLA and BA from California State University-Northridge. The artist has received a number of
awards including two Sabbatical Research Grants along with International Exploration Grants and Travel
Grants from Lone Star College System in 2018 and 2008; the Babaran Segragunung Culture House AIR,
Jogyakarta, Indonesia, in 2018; the Mino Culture Art Project AIR, Japan, in 2008; and Palm Beach County
Cultural AIR Grant, FL, in 2006.

Her short-term research projects include The Past Made Visible on cochineal ink in Oaxaca, Mexico, in
2013; Pilgrimage on post-earthquake Tohoku, Japan, in 2016; and From a Distance: Contemporary Texas
Sculpture, exploring time and materiality in sculptures, Hilmsen, Germany, in 2018.

Working in materials as diverse as fiber, bronze, installation, book publication, and video projection, the artist
explores the concepts of time, identity, and transformation. Her work has been in exhibitions internationally
and in the US. Her works are in private and public collections including the Museum of Fine Arts Houston;
the Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi; Mino Washi/Paper Museum, Gifu-Prefecture, Japan; and
Lone Star College-Kingwood. Mari Omori is a Professor of Art at LSC-Kingwood, a position she has held
since 2001.

Batiked Life! Celebration of Life #1, 2021, 48 x 36 inches, paper collage

Batiked Life! Celebration of Life #2, 2021, 42 inches diameter, MEDIUM