STATEMENT

 

COLLABORATION ORIGINS  

In the winter of 2011, Marty Gordon, Tim Manthey and Craig van den Bosch began their friendship
and artistic collaboration. Contemplations on the Dialectical Utopian Vision, a collage exhibition
curated by van den Bosch at the Fremont Abbey Arts Center in Seattle initially introduced the three
artists to one another and showcased Manthey and Gordon’s first collaborative works of art. They began the journals that same year.

 

The images on this site are a sampling of both the graphic novel and journals created by Gordon, Manthey and van den Bosch.

 

THE JOURNALS

For Cryogenic Nude America Collection Process, each artist initiated a journal, rotating them among one another at regular meetings. These meetings, full of surprise, laughter and sometimes delightful disgust, became a source of friendship and inspiration that pushed each artist outside of their creative comfort zone. While managing to reach a collaborative compromise, the artists established a few ground rules agreeing that no image would be sacred, giving each other complete freedom to add to, cover over or even destroy one another”s work. Working within these parameters, Gordon, Manthey and van den Bosch finished the journals in February of 2012. No permanent injuries of a physical or psychological nature occurred to the artist ego, at least not any that will be admitted to. Gordon, Manthey and van den Bosch began work on three collaborative collage journals in August of 2011. The journals were created using the Exquisite Corpse technique invented by the Surrealists around the early twentieth century.

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THE GRAPHIC NOVEL 

Chronicling the origin stories of THE COLLAGEMONAUTS; Space Jesus, Netter E. Nuff the Space Doctor and Thorak the Space Ape, this FIVE issue collection guides us through a whacky homage to science fiction comics, movies and literature. Exploring the perils and rewards of the MICROVERSE through the eyes of these hapless wanderers, we join their quest to find a new home and themselves. Will they survive those that try to thwart them? Find out what happens in this unique visual extravaganza of hand-cut collage collaboration goodness! Thrust into universal fame by astronomical adventures, three men have vowed to chart a course where normal folk fear to tread…the perilous path beyond what is known! They call themselves… THE COLLAGEMONAUTS!

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Finishing the original journal collaboration, the three began working on larger collage projects
including the graphic novel. During this phase, an artist friend dubbed the
three with the moniker Collagemonauts which seemed fitting given the themes and motifs that
emerged naturally throughout their work; space, religion, indigenous people, and medical science.
The Collagemonauts continue to stretch the boundaries of art, the universe and everything.

For this graphic novel, we FIRST STARTED with the image. NEXT, WE used found word bubbles.
finally , strung it all together with our own scripted storyline. Every panel is hand cut COLLAGE and
worked on collaboratively.

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