Some of Cecil Touchon’s abstract paintings and collages relate to poetry, others to information and massurrealism. Much of his work uses lettering to create abstract relationships and rhythms. “I spend a lot of my time constructing “collage poetry,” work composed of found texts to achieve collage ‘sounds,’ found from a variety of sources,” he says. “I regard the practice of art making as a spiritual rather than a mechanical activity.” What he means by “spiritual” is somewhat ambiguous. It has to do with one’s personal relationship to the life around him—to his inner promptings. Collage, for Cecil, is the perfect medium for this form of expression, because one’s involvement is based in the development of sensitivity toward the material one is working with, which in almost all cases is ephemeral in nature. To make art from this stance based on “momentary” texts and snippets, to respect them, to order them, to give them a new life is a kind of restoration of the world, a way to symbolically have mercy on the world. “It seems to me that life today is sometimes viewed as a public spectacle, and there is a need to establish a level of excitement and engagement,” he says. “I think that’s why we put a frame around the commercial aspects of the art world, to give them not only protection but a sense of value, dignity—a heroic separation and otherness. The experience of art is a delicate one. In these times of blockbuster movies, fast paced television and commercial advertising and products, perhaps art is more difficult to see as a spectacle.”