A story to tell

Scissors, cereal boxes, and glue are the tools of the trade for “pop artist” Michael Albert, and on Thursday, July 27 he visited the Island Free Library to share his art and enthusiasm with residents and visitors to Block Island. It was part of a 90-city tour throughout the United States and Canada, mainly to libraries to augment their summer reading programs. So far, this was Albert’s 60th program of the summer, and he was as fresh as ever.

For the first part of the two-hour program, Albert talked about himself and his art, how he came to it, and the journey it set him on. He held up several examples of his work over the years that he has made into posters, and he let each participant take one home at the end of the program.

If only one word was used to describe Albert, it would be playful – whether he’s playing with art supplies or words. He considers himself a career artist, although it’s an avocation he did not discover until attending New York University as a business major in the 1980s. “I didn’t think about it until I was 19,” he says.

Growing up on Long Island as the middle child in a family of three boys, Albert said, “We didn’t do art at home.” But while attending college in Manhattan, Albert found he liked studying subjects beyond business, and he especially liked going to museums.

And then he found himself doodling in his dorm room, which led to doing more ambitious pieces. He held up one of the first pieces he did, saying, “It’s a self-portrait. It’s me and my stuff.” The title of the piece is “The Victim,” he said, “because I thought I was a victim of advertising.”

While “The Victim” was a crayon drawing, Albert’s art has evolved into the creation of intricate collages. “My main art form for the past 25 years has been cutting up cereal boxes for collages,” he told the group at the library. “They’re full of fun stuff to discover,” he said, including logos, pictures, and letters. His style, he says is “Cerealism.”

Albert also uses other types of packaging, repurposing things that usually go straight into the trash. “There’s so much stuff we waste,” he said.

Those letters especially have been an inspiration over the years as he has explored historical and literary themes. Most of his works take months to make. One large poster includes the initials of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, another has the preamble to the Constitution of the United States. “I love the idea of hiding messages in my work,” he says.

A 32- by 20-inch collage includes the Gettysburg Address. “‘Four score and seven years ago’ is one of the most famous phrases in history,” he says. It took him five months to make.

As an exercise in mathematics, he has done one collage extending the decimal number for pi to 777 digits. It took three years to collect the numbers, he said, and eight months to do.

For all his other interests, Albert did not completely abandon his business education. He years ago started a food distribution business and, continuing with his love of playing with words, came up with the brand “Sir Real.” His product line includes fresh juices and jams, all made with natural ingredients. The artwork on the labels is a play on René Magritte’s self-portrait “The Son of Man” painted by the Belgian surrealist in 1964, that features a man in a black coat and bowler hat with his face partially concealed by a floating green apple.

After Albert’s introductory talk, participants got to work, or play, themselves, cutting up cereal boxes that Albert brought along to start their own collages. Parents, grandparents, and children of all ages, including some teens, were all soon snipping and conversing with one another.

At times the topics got heady, inspired by the act of creation. As one teen pondered why anyone would write an autobiography, another answered, “because you have a story to tell.”