When my wife and I were expecting our first child I made a switch from using a paintbrush or etching needle in my art to using a common office stapler. Since I have a home studio, I didn’t want the toxicity of these traditional materials to affect our unborn child. All my life I had the need to create but now it was imperative to do so with healthier alternatives.
I think my staple mosaics are not a far departure from the etchings or cityscape oil paintings that I am known for. Staples, just like an etched line, can be bold and graphic or soft and subdued. When I use colored staples, each one acts like a dash of paint in a painting and when viewed from only a few steps back is optically mixed.
The stapling process can take as long as six months, like my most recent creation “Vader”. One mosaic consists of 10,000 to 33,000+ staples. I purchase colored staples and place each one precisely in relation to its location and the color of neighboring staples. The choice of subject matter goes back to my childhood and my continued affinity of the Star Wars universe. I was hooked after the first few minutes of the first movie; it captured my imagination and has continued to live on.
More info: jameshaggerty.net
Limbo
Multi-colored staples on painted board | 40 x 32″ | 21,458 Staples
Me Working On “Did You Hear That?”
The Side
Multi-colored staples on painted board | 40 x 32″ | 10,496 Staples
Detail Of Helmet – The Side
Detail Of Forehead – Limbo
Did You Hear That?
Multi-colored staples on painted board | 29 x 40″ | 33,580 staples
Detail Of Eye -“Did You Hear That?”
Darth
Multi-Colored staples on painted board | 25 x 40″ | 12,352 Staples
Detail Of Nose -“Darth”
“Pencil” And “Eraser”
