Collage Botanica Diary, 4: Today Was the Day
I’ve been in hop-in-hop-out conversation with an 8 x 8 inch canvas for a few weeks now, but today was the day the back-and-forth resolved, and we’ve both come away enriched, exercised, and nourished, carrying some scratches and bruises but also smiling at both the joy and the down-and-dirty vulnerable work of it all.
This is my third piece prompted by Amanda Evanston’s Collage Botanica class, Session 1. Every inch of this canvas has been collaged, using paper sourced from magazines, calendar pages, books, and more.
Favorite collage sources used in this piece:
• a 1927 edition of Funk & Wagnalls Practical Standard Dictionary of the English Language given to me by an artist I met on Monhegan Island who’d acquired it from a help-yourself table in front of the grocery store on the lane going through the center of the village;
• bits of fused fabric given to me by artist friend MaryAnn as part of our ongoing exchange of creativity and conversation;
• the non-adhesive strips that protect the adhesive side of Kotex Lightday Liners for packaging purposes and have gray cursive script printed on them; and
• illustrations from the worn-out, barely-holding-together 1950 Better Homes and Gardens Story Book given to me and my sisters by my Aunt Betty in the early 50s.
8 x 8″; acrylic and collage on stretched canvas
semi-abstract collage botanica
2024
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6 responses to “Collage Botanica Diary, 4: Today Was the Day”
This was the day indeed! What an explosion of wonderfulness coming from that mixed berry sparkling water can. I enjoyed the play-by-play of the collage resources…and was tickled to have made the list! And I love that you still have that 50’s Better Homes and Gardens story book from Aunt Betty…and what a wonderful way to preserve it in joy!
Well done…and I’m looking forward to the “conversation” with the next canvas!
MaryAnn, love your referring to this piece as an explosion of wonderfulness—it wasn’t until yesterday when I went to schedule this post that I suddenly saw this floral arrangement as having come from shaking that can of mixed berry sparkling water and then pulling the pop-top to unleash a sudden burst of energy : )
I don’t even know if I’ll use paper or canvas for my next piece, nor what size my substrate will be, but I can already hear voices calling out from my studio! Bring on the conversation!!
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Lola! It was a long convo, gotta say, but we were both committed to doing what it took to come to what turned out to be some sort of exquisite (thank you!) mutual understanding.
Couldn’t tell ya how the magic took place, but it did. This creative process gig fascinates (and, yes, also infuriates) me.
Onward!
I am loving all of the elements, too, Sheila, but it took a surprising amount of time and challenge to reach this point. Very happily, in retrospect, the combined challenge and eventual pleasing-to-me resolution have fired me up creatively. To the same measure that I was challenged en route I am now grateful : )
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