Nomadic Canvas
the life of a traveling mixed media artist
Steve Tierney is a nomadic warrior aka traveling mixed media Artist. Originating from Australia, he has travelled and worked in multiple international locations, and has held solo and group exhibitions of his art in Australia, Tokyo, Cambodia and México since 2003.
Tierney has graciously put together a compilation of a “typical” day in the locations he has visited over the last few years. His daily events vary quite a bit in the countries of Mexico, Cambodia, Argentina, Nicaragua and Australia, from noodles in The Russian Market to scouring the vintage books stores of San Telmo.
Here is a “collage” of a day in the life of a collage artist. Enjoy as we live vicariously through his daily footsteps in foreign lands.
9AM (In Mexico)
Mornings and late afternoons are the best time to be walking around the streets of Oaxaca, Mexico. It steadily gets hotter and hotter, until around midday, when it’s difficult to walk anywhere for more than 5 minutes in direct sun. Usually by 9am, I would have gone for a walk to my friend’s café for a coffee and to pick up some fresh fruit from the market. I like to start working early, so once I have a coffee in hand, the ideas start flowing. Now I’m either working on finishing an ongoing image, or cutting into some new magazines I found the day before.
11AM (In Australia)
When I’m working in the studio I generally have at least two to three artworks going at once. With collage, not every piece of the puzzle fits into place right away, so I tend to have a couple of works in progress, switching pieces between them throughout a day, week or even a month. A face will move from one background to another, and back again multiple times. It could get thrown back on to the image pile, only to be given another chance twenty minutes later when the perfect shape or object appears that holds it all in place.
Last Summer (Australia) I spent 3 months in Sydney preparing for a solo exhibition titled “BETWEEN”. I was lucky enough to have my friend Brad Eastman share his studio space with me. On most days, by 11am, we were both already hard at work, me cutting and pasting, him spraying some giant panel for his own exhibition. It was a nice change to be sharing a space with someone, as I’m usually working remotely and am fairly isolated.
1 PM (In Cambodia)
When Cambodia is fully in the grip of hot season, life in the studio or anywhere without air conditioning is horrific. Daytime temperatures easily reach 40 degrees celsius, at which time even the locals are melting. Working with small pieces of paper and cutting and gluing collage is really difficult with a fan on, so by around 1pm, things get really frustrating.
This is when I jump on my moto and head down to the Russian Market to get some noodles. The market is hectic and the ride down is like a scene out of an Indiana Jones movie. It feels as if at any moment, the absolute worse could happen, but it usually doesn’t. I head into the centre of the market, take a seat and order my noodles, sweat bricks, drink a fresh passion fruit juice with soda and ice, and for a moment feel like a human again. Then I ride my moto back home for post-lunch shower, and attempt to work again in front of the fan.
3PM (In Nicaragua)
When I lived in Cambodia between 2011 and 2012, I thought it couldn’t get any hotter. I was wrong. In October of 2014, I went to live in Granada, Nicaragua for a few months. By 3pm I would have left all my work sitting on the desk in my makeshift studio, and be swimming in the pool. Generally I’d work really early in the morning, and again at night. It was the only way to get by.
5PM (In Argentina)
I spent 4 months living in Buenos Aires between June and October of this year [2015]. Before arriving in the country, I made contact with a couple of artists living there, and had planned to work with them. Being a nomadic artist, I am forced to give up a lot of my collage resources regularly, like magazines and books, as they just weigh me down. This is something I imagine a lot of collage artists could never do as we are all hoarders at heart. Over the years I’ve actually learned to appreciate starting new each time I go anywhere. So when I arrive in a country, I like to go exploring for new material, and the interesting thing that happens is that each work I make takes influence from that place in some way.
At 5pm in Buenos Aires, I would have either been leafing through one of thousands of antique magazines or books on sale in the hundreds of stores scattered through San Telmo, or I’d be cutting up images in the studio space of Carolina Chocron, a fellow collage artist, who opened up her space to me and shared most of her materials, tools and even some new ideas, during what was without a doubt one of the most influential journeys for my professional development as a mixed media artist.
8PM (In Australia)
When I’m home in Australia, this is the time to catch up with family and friends. By 8pm I could usually be found drinking at The Courthouse Hotel in Newtown, Sydney, where most of my friends live. I love the lifestyle of summer in Sydney, and it’s a great feeling to be a tourist in your own hometown. If I hadn’t already spent a full day working in Brad’s studio, I would probably have just returned home from the beach, in which case a beer was definitely on the menu.
12 AM (In Mexico)
Drunk on Mezcal!… Screaming a whole load of rubbish in Spanish.
Words, Images, and Artwork by Steve Tierney
