CHEETOzine- pre order.

It has now been 588 days since someone let the ball drop for it to become president. It has also been 588 days since I started these collages to comment on the first executive orders it signed while occupying the oval.  (Original collages are 19”x12”, paper on archival paper).  And now I'm finally trying to turn these into the CHEETO zine. The #CHEETOzine ($15ea) will have each of these collages and the executive orders. If you are interested in pre-ordering to help fund this zine please PM me.  I may be setting up a crowd-source-funding page soon, but for the time being, if you are interested in getting the Cheeto ball roiling please consider.  Your support will help finance the zine and other prints as well as a one-of-a-kind book containing all the original collages. 10% of all donations will go toward the Democratic party.  Donors will receive a signed zine and other signed prints of one of these collages.  Now get out there and rally and VOTE! To reserve a CHEETOzine you can send $15 via paypal: trgratkowski@gmail.com. If you want a zine plus a signed copy/print of any collage you like then send $25 (and YOUR ADDRESS) and a pic of the collage you like. THANKS! Original collages are $350 each (DM me)

My scars are valuable lessons I wear on my face for you to see me

My scars are valuable lessons I wear on my face for you to see me, 2018, 52in.x52in., paper- $8,500 

- if interested contact www.waltermacielgallery.com

Experaments from the archives: a new way to buy some affordable art that has never been seen before.

www.etsy.com/shop/tmgratkowski

art life...

Signs you have a very unsuccessful business: (AKA: When you give what you believe in everything you have)

• Your overhead is more than 4X’s your revenue.
• Most of your bills go unpaid.
• Someone is taking 50% of your profits.
• You have not sold anything is over a year.
• You work over 70 hours a week.
• You don’t get paid for working over 70 hours per week.
• You never ever will get a paid vacation.
• 401k?
• Most people don’t know what you do, even after you tell them.
• Most people don’t understand how you make money, even after you tell them.
• Most people assume they can buy your work at serious discounts.
• Most people will buy your products at charitable auctions for lesser sums of money

rather than buy it from you.

• Your entire network of contacts is always financially strapped.

• You hear “you look tired” more than “It's so nice to see you again”.
• You think you can make it home without getting more gas.
• The notice “3-Days To Pay Or Quit” is seen more times than you’ll admit.
• Your only excuse not do go out is because you never have enough time for anything else but to work and it’s not really an excuse.
• NFS is synonymous with  ISF.
• You did a double-take, but your bank account did say .79.
• Most of your acquaintances are never too excited to hear you’ve sold anything..
• You know many people all with a similar story.
• The wine is free more than you go pay for it.

#anartistslife

At some point I stopped participating in the peacefull moments in life.

At some point I stopped participating in the peacefull moments in life, 2018, +/- 48"x48", paper.

Collage Manifesto (part-2)

In order for collage to transcend craft and the surrealist portrayal of slight transformation it must become something it is not; ie: it must be made in the vein of contemporaneous art and the inclusiveness of all its genres and beyond the limits of its myopic process and materiality. Collage must be more like art and less like the limits of gluing paper to transcend the stigma of history and perception. #paintingwithpaper #mashups #jazz #accumulation #verbasizer #collage #manifesto

Collage Manifesto (part-1)

I believe that the quotidian idea of combining two images to make a collage is rather pedantic. I believe that the future of collage (theory) exists, not in the past as and end with surrealism, but in the future. The multi-maximalism of all sources of information existing at the same time in one frame of a moving moment - kind of like what your computer screen/ iPhone can look like at any given moment when surfing the interwebs. A mandate for a new collage theory is a kind of maximalism for stimulation combined with the multiplicity of multitasking. It is that moment between your perception of seeing everything at the same time and your brain beginning to process all this information into a defining moment where everything begins to make sense and you start to separate the noise from the pertinent information needed to understand. Collage should be unknown and unfamiliar, not the derivative, redundant, and appropriated ideas of a group of individuals exploring that same “revolutionary newness” over 98+yrs ago. #justthebegining #collage #manifesto

new art...

For Self Preservation I Have Had To Move Beyond Your Opinion Of Me To Survive., 2018,48x48 (dims vary), paper.

Disparate Sources : Los Angeles Collage April 28- May 6th, 2018

The Ombre Effect Of A Dyslexic Heart

Dyslexic Heart, 2018, 75"x 96"x 9-1/4", paper on wood diptych panel. 

next solo show at WMG in March 2019!