Keith Maddy’s collages are a wild ride. Many collage

artists work flat and the fragments present themselves

arranged on a plane; the occasional overlapping of pa-

per may suggest depth or may simply edit the fragment

being covered. Maddy works deep. He builds a plane

of images from comic books, old childrens’ stories, and

Old text books, and works out from there, adding lines

and intricately cut out illustrations. The result is a col-

lage that comes at the viewer like a rolling semi-truck

in a 3D action movie.

“I use vintage materials because of the colour that I am

attracted to and because of the quality of the paper,”

said Maddy. That palette is a myriad of soft browns

interrupted by deep reds and off oranges with smat-

terings of blues and greens. This kerfuffle of colour

is toned down by squiggly lines of black in Consumption

Pendulum or in a pattern of S & H Green Stamps in

Beyond the Grid. The effect of this technique is to

Bring harmony and calm to stormy, energetic works.

“My collages are complex exercises in precision, detail,

composition, colour, movement and a sense of joy and

playfulness,” said Maddy. The discipline is evident in

the work.

A native of Massachusetts, Maddy works out of the his-

toric Fenway Studios in Boston. He is a product of the

Massachusetts College of Art and Design and has exhibited

extensively in the greater Boston area. Several of his

collages were featured in Mixed Media Collage by Quarry

Books in 2007; 100 Boston Artists by Schiffer Publishing in

2012 and Cloth Paper Scissors by Interweave Press in 2013.

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