Peter Clark's work causes the kind of double take you do when you look at a piece and think, “Oh, very nice!” and then say, “Wait a minute; is that a map?” And then you look again and see not only a map, but postage stamps and maybe part of a cigarette pack and the corner of a label from an old tin; and soon you're wishing you'd brought your magnifying glass so you won't miss a single detail. Peter's garments and dogs and other “beasts” are fabulous constructions incorporating all manner of choice bits from his vast collections of paper ephemera, and they have become popular with collectors across both the US and Europe. He began his collage career as an illustrator who was fascinated by little bits of paper, and it took off from there. The illustration work, in turn, began with a lifelong love of drawing, alongside his wife Karen Nicol, a textile artist we also represent. Plunge into the fascinating world of Peter Clark, who graduated from the Manchester College of Art and who dedicated his career to giving a second chance to abandoned pieces of life.

Peter gets a lot of ideas from talking with people, mainly his wife Karen Nicol. Their daily coffee break over, they return to their studios. If it's going well, then that's it: fabulous! When things do not, he favors taking long, aimless walks through downtown London, looking at people and taking in colors and textures —sometimes all it takes to get things moving in the right direction. Although he does not keep a formal sketchbook, he does carry some sort of notebook and a small digital camera, always on hand to capture what inspires him. Ideas come from anywhere and everywhere: Magazines, fashion, TV, people-watching, walking down streets and through woods, looking at the sky... "I usually do lots of thumbnail sketches to determine how I want the image to look layout-wise. I then either photocopy my chosen sketch to enlarge it or draw it up to the size that I'm happy to work with. I then transfer my drawing onto tracing paper so that I can see my papers through it, like working with a silhouette. Then comes the part that is both the most difficult and the most satisfying, depending on how it goes: assembling the collage. I rummage through the dozens of plastic bins that line the walls of my studio, hoping for that moment of serendipity. When it comes, life is good; and I can lay out the papers and begin working with them. I position these so that the colors work, the line works and the mood works. I want the papers to merge. I want it to feel like I'm painting with pieces of paper! When I'm happy with my choices, I tear, cut, fold, scrunch and rip and compose the piece. Some of this process is very calculated, and some just happen, though one must know that it's happening and go with it. Then there are total accidents that are wonderful: I love this part!"

What he wishes to share through his work? "I look at collage rather like music mixing and multiculturalism: exciting and, if done sensitively, it can go anywhere and do anything. You must avoid the ‘you can do anything on computers these days' syndrome. To that end, I try to resist computer manipulation, preferring instead to do hands-on work with actual pieces of paper and glue. So I hope people are sensitive to these patchworks that encapture pieces of life!"

See the works of Peter Clark