From Carpet Offcuts to Celebrity Walls: The Art of Keith Collins

COVER’s Rachel Meek learns how celebrated artist Keith Collins has carved out a unique Pop Art style practice using waste materials and bold talent, attracting a star-studded cast of followers for the past fifty years

A Born Artist

At the International Surface Event (tise), January 2025, a spectacular portrait of John Lennon in full Sgt. Pepper-era regalia made a big impact on those navigating the labyrinthian walkways at the huge carpet and flooring trade show – home of COVER Connect Las Vegas.

Made up of collaged carpet offcuts, the piece is by Keith Collins, a passionate artist whose email sign off -‘always in a creative way’- is representative of his ongoing, vibrant practice which, over the past fifty years, has been decorated with celebrity fans and show-business encounters.

A year on from our initial meeting, I caught up with Collins, when he had just set up his booth at the Palm Springs Modernism Show in California to discuss his illustrious career.

‘I didn’t become an artist. I was born an artist,’ he states, simultaneously humble, confident and matter-of-fact. ‘I’m excited about creating every day, either working on a current project, or creating something new.’

Seemingly, his joyful enthusiasm for his craft has been with him all along, as has his faith in his ability to forge his own path, as well as his love for vintage cars. (His other preferred annual exhibition in California is the automotive show Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.)

Early Hustle and Defining Moments

 ‘In between that show in August and this, I’m just very busy creating,’ he says. By 1974, Collins had been dumpster diving locally, in four or five locations around Hollywood, to source materials to make art.

 His aunt had already taught him the art of collaging store-bought carpet squares. Among some of the garbage he encountered, he found some carpet scraps and was drawn to their textural quality. He enjoyed working with them so much, that, when he heard that a local carpet business was closing, he asked its owner what he wanted for all his remaining inventory.

The response was $2,200. So, he sold his 1959 Porsche for $2,200 to fund the purchase.

 ‘All of my friends thought I was crazy!’ he recalls. ‘My two best friends were laughing so hard they were on their backs in the middle of the street. But I said, look, this idea’s going to work.’ It has done so.

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Another early milestone came in 1976 when he auditioned to appear on the TV game show Match Game. With around 200 men in the room, he was called up seventh: ‘It was a Mark Goodson production, so he personally was there. I stood up and I said, “I have no idea what these guys are here for. I’m your guy, you know?” And he said, “You’re right, come on.” And that was it. Wow!’

Aged twenty-one, Collins won $10,000 on the show by getting the answer to the last question correct-and, with that, he established his business making collaged art.

His Los Angeles studio is full of carpet-industry waste assembled over the past five decades.

 When asked what he favours, he talks about collecting colours and textures -‘I have an array of new and old stock. I deal with a combination of wools, acrylics and man-made fibres. I like the really good quality shaggy stuff because I like using different pile heights. I appreciate odd colours like chartreuse, bright and burnt oranges, teals; black is a really good colour to use. My inventory contains almost any colour you can imagine, even ones they don’t make now.’

To create a design, he joins cut patches of carpet together using an adhesive process and applies a jute burlap and latex backing.

From Studio to Celebrity Commissions

‘My clients range from royalty to gangsters,’ Collins says, before he tells me about some particularly memorable encounters with famous fans. One of around fifteen pieces he made for Michael Jackson in the 1980s was a commissioned portrait of Elizabeth Taylor, which he gifted to her on her birthday (Google it for video footage).

 He got an audience with Jackson when he hung a piece featuring his logo outside his studio and was later flown by him first-class to personally deliver another work.

‘The real art of all this is the art of business,’ Collins says. ‘There are a lot of creative people out there but you have to work out how to translate creativity into dollars.’

He credits his mentor and friend, the late artist Ernie Barnes, with teaching him to ‘pump it up’ with his presentation by hyping unveilings of new work.

Other tapestry commissions over the years have come from the head of Panasonic in Japan and the professional boxer and promoter Floyd Mayweather. The film director and screenwriter Frank Darabont ordered a four-piece portrait series of The Beatles having seen Collins’s portrait of John Lennon at a show.

While many of his works belong on the wall, he has enjoyed giving himself the freedom to create more flowing creations with the Ocean series of rugs which work brilliantly on the floor.

When Collins decided to start painting, around thirty years ago, his first piece was bought by Otis Chandler, publisher of the Los Angeles Times. ‘I woke up in the morning, I said, you know what? I think I can paint. I think it’s the same idea, just let me paint. So I started.’

This buoyant enthusiasm balanced by a grounded belief in his own creative process and a business savvy approach has generated some amazing stories so far. To hear more, listen to the Keith Collins interview on the COVER Conversations podcast.

Words by Rachel Meek