1. Merz/Collage

2. Merz: “Merz stands for freedom from all fetters, for the sake of artistic creation. Freedom is not lack of restraint, but the product of strict artistic discipline.” -Kurt Schwitters Merz is a synonym for the art movement “dada” and the precursor to our modern understanding of collage. Collage: A technique of composing a work of art by pasting on a single surface various materials not normally associated with each other, such as newspaper clippings, parts of photographys, theatre tickets, and fragments of other two dimensional media.

3. Schwitters, who was one of the first Dada artists, was the first artist to use pieces of common media for the time (train tickets etc. from the areas around his house) to make art.

4. Merz, (which is a synonym for Dada a movement that Schwitters was a part of) first works were a reaction against what was considered “art” at the time since no one had ever considered using garbage to make fine art.

10. Merz combines painting and found objects and is the beginning of what we know now and accept as collage.

11. Sometimes portraits can be simple with basic backgrounds and subject matter.

12. They can seem to be complex when this is made with only 6 different types of paper.

21. Found objects can provide both a three dimensional element to your portraits while simultaneously and stealthily injecting allegorical and personalized objects into your work.

22. Images retrieved from: