2-1-2007_2 by Shawn Hazen

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Shawn Hazen, Chicago
Member Since October 2007
Artist Statement I save the receipts, invoices, bills, and tags from every mundane transaction. I take photos of a lot of graphic or pathetic scenes. I buy old postcards commemorating freeway cloverleafs or obscure civic buildings. It's all "organized" in a big set of Craftsman tool drawers in my basement.

My day job is graphic design, which is always on the computer nowadays. So, when I can, I sit down with all this stuff I've collected and make compositions in a big sketchbook. It's all cutting, ripping, and gluing. And I just keep going until it feels done.

Since I'm a graphic designer by trade, the things that concern me when I'm working on a collage are balance, composition, texture, color. Not narrative. It's purely formal. I like referencing some things that appear to have meaning or purpose like grid or measurement marks, arrows, and typography—I use a lot of rubdown and found type. And of course the photographic elements give a mood and seem to tell a story.

But in all, I'm striving for what amounts to a little abstract painting, and all associations and meaning are provided by the viewer.

I grew up in Seattle, lived in the SF Bay area for about 10 years, and then moved to Chicago, where I am now.