The process of art-making, particularly in the Western World, tends to be, with some notable exceptions, the practice of the individual; a singular artist expressing individual ideas in a visual form. Collis and Morris are two artists that have worked and exhibited extensively individually in their own individualistic ways of expression.

Collis is, generally, a figurative painter in acrylic and oils, working, usually, from the live motif; Morris is, generally, an abstract painter whose works often crossover into sculptural forms. In a broader area of research, they have ventured to examine the value and means of joining forces to both see how new work can be generated from collaboration and the effect of two diverse approaches on concept and practice.

To this end ‘Dice and Shell’ is one such work from what is intended to be a larger body of work, to be exhibited publicly alongside evidence of the collaborative process that took place. This work can be seen as a metaphor for collaboration – Morris generated the backdrop board from house-paints, washed and sanded – after which Collis chose disparate objects that needed to visually ‘collaborate’ on and with the painting after which a three-dimensional object (a Monopoly-piece toy dog) was adhered to the shelf-like structure of the sculptural background – thus giving a technical and visual crossover and merging of the two artist’s approaches.