Collage Collection

Early stages:

All developed but in original orientation:

On parade, one by one:

 

Leapfrogging

I notice myself jumping from one thing to another of late, leapfrogging over work in progress to start something new, and not reliably bringing any one set of tasks to full completion.

Oh, well! 

Sure am having fun!

One project I leapt over was a second series of bookmarks in development from a start on my afternoon of Bo's Arts in March. The shiny object distracting me was the Collage Kickstart! class offered by Catherine Rains. What a great kickstart! I went into production, I tell ya!

Then Bo called, and we got together for Bo's Arts Afternoon II at which time I leapt back to some of my starts from our earlier afternoon, picked up one of them, leapt with it over to some of the treasures I'd assembled for my kickstart class, and fused energy from both endeavors to make a collage.

It did not escape my notice, as I reported to a friend after the fact that, in the wake of having rustled up umpteen square feet of papers in minutes, I spent well over a thoroughly contented HOUR crafting a single 3-inch square collage! Hahaha!

Tea and Toast
3 x 3"; acrylic, ink, and collage on watercolor paper
abstract design
2023

Joke's on Me!

When I last posted this piece, it was still a work in progress and I ended by saying, I don't think I'm done yet.

I was not.

I had the feeling of wanting a surprise, of wanting to do something more, something bold.

Well, the surprise was that no matter what my thinks-with-words brain was saying about bold, my art heart evidently had the final say, with subtle I-spy-with-my-little-eye eye-openers.

                                                                  

Let's Twist Nervous Systems Around One Another
And Construct a Place That Wasn't There Before
5 x 5.5"; acrylic, ink, and collage on card stock
abstract seascape
2023

The Layered Look

I have to laugh sometimes at how many gosh-darned layers I wear in winter, not just for outdoor walks that require SO much more time than popping my feet into flip flops in the summer and heading out the door in seconds but also just to stay warm IN THE HOUSE!

I guess my extended series is wanting to stay warm in winter also. Otherwise, why would I be dressing them up in layers?

detail photos of cozying up in collage

 

My Happy Place

Put my paper trimmer into action again today, chopped another segment from a January start, and headed to my happy place of making a bookmark. Making bookmarks never grows old!

Please laugh with me, though. For a confluence of reasons, over the past nearly two years, I began reading via audiobooks and ebooks almost entirely, something I would never have predicted. Let's just look at the data for the past 100 books I've gobbled up: only four were physical books.

I barely use physical bookmarks anymore!

Still, I am in my happy place every single time I paint a bookmark or use one from my collection.

All of the World's Weightiest Questions
Have Passed Through These Rooms
2 x 6" bookmark; acrylic, ink, and collage on paper,
mounted on cardstock
abstract
2022

 

Scrappy, part II

My dad and mom, born in 1926 and 1929 respectively, are the ones whose early childhood years take place during the Great Depression of 1929-1939. 

I'm the baby-boomer who grows up in a time of plenty but who has a mile-high stack of good-on-one-side paper at the ready for further service, who saves fabric scraps and buttons and ribbon and elastic bands, who reuses items until they are threadbare and beyond re-use.

At some point—before I start painting in 2014? after? can't remember—I begin amassing what becomes a scrumptious and sizable collection of print matter of every hue, collected from magazines, calendars, and junk mail, which I sort by color for use as collage. The best!

When I set out to make what becomes the series of postcards featured in my blog the past three days, I'm not thinking collage. But collage is what becomes the fun and flow of making those cards; collage becomes the fuel that sets my creative energy on fire. 

I rummage through my scrap collection looking first to match the background ink colors of magazine pages to the acrylic paint colors I've brushed into place, a very appealing visual task. Then I scrutinize for words that intrigue or resonate or bristle or surprise. Next come the very satisfying tactile tasks of tearing and gluing. Finally, after making discerning selections, affixing them with the greatest of care, and fussing attentively to detail, I subject the completed work to my paper cutter, letting the blade fall where it will with regard to the art, boldly chopping the completed piece into three postcards!

A scrappy little project from a scrappy little artist.

project as painted/collaged on a 5.25 x 11" piece of card stock

that was formerly a calendar page

project chopped into three postcards 

and rearranged just for fun

Scrappy

The word scrappy floated up in a hypnagogic moment of partial wakefulness during the night. It popped into my field of attention a second time in the light of day. 

scrappy • made of scraps; consisting of odds and ends; composed of disorganized, untidy, or incomplete parts; disconnected, disjointed

scrappy • having a determined spirit; feisty; exhibiting firmness of purpose and energetic pursuit of results; manifesting moxie or demonstrating grit; stepping into the arena

YES!

Look Around at the Terrain of Possibility
3.75 x 5.5" postcard, acrylic, collage, and oil pastel
on card stock
abstract
2022

Like Snow, Falling One Flake at a Time

pray for wisdom to
be an agent of change, use
your voice. celebrate!

work in progress

(Parenthetical Project) 11

Now there were even more threads to gather up and spin onto bobbins.

This idiom, previously unknown to me, charms me as I hear it expressed in a lovely and distinct British accent in the audio recording of a novel set in post-WWI Depression-era London. 

Is that a delicious little sentence or what?

Even more threads to gather up.

And spin onto bobbins.

Yes! Gather up those threads! Spin them onto bobbins! Everything in order! Everything in its place!

I say it aloud more than once as I move through my day—it is such an eminently usable assertion.

…

Have you seen my bobbins anywhere?

Even More Threads to Gather Up
4 x 5.5" postcard, acrylic, ink, and collage
abstract
2021

Faces 6

Simple pleasures:

• color-matching paint and print advertising

• tearing paper with quiet intention

• smoothing torn print onto painted paper, feeling the adhesion of one to the other as my finger glides through applied matte medium

The Friend Who Makes Awesome Art
From Found Objects
9 x 12"; acrylic, ink, oil pastel, and collage on drawing paper
abstract face
2021
$45

On My Nightstand, on My Easel (19)

On my nightstand

Inside his head, 
questions 
like race cars 
shuddered in a row, 
waiting to roar off. 
Suddenly 
he let the first one go.

Ouida Sebestyen, I.O.U.'s


On my easel

work in progress, 85 days in (after a long break), 7/12/20
detail
playing with questions
24 x 48" canvas

Streetable #9

The sea has always
whispered to me,
all down my life
it's been there.
And with that endless
restlessness
come other sounds—
seagulls shrieking
and mast wires clinking
as boats shift;
pebbles turning
and waves 
tapping sea-worn rocks.

Jules Hardy, Altered Land

Gurry and Sea-Worn Rocks, Ebb Tide
4 x 6" postcard; acrylic, water-soluble pastel, ink, and collage
abstract
2020

unaltered land

Streetable #8

It used to comfort me, 
as a little girl, 
to look at my mother’s jewelry. 
I used to try on 
the heavy gold bracelets, 
the pearl necklaces, 
the rings, 
all at once. 
I liked pinning the brooches 
in a line down my chest, 
the fabric of my shirt 
sagging from the weight.

Elizabeth Berg, Open House

"All You Need Now, Edith, is Lipstick," Little Bear Said
4 x 6" postcard; acrylic, ink, fabric paint, and collage
abstract
2020

before Edith and Little Bear discovered
the beautiful dressing room with the big mirror

Streetable #7

Every single damn thing 
that we are 
or ever will be 
is dependent on six inches of topsoil 
and the fact that the rain comes 
when it’s needed 
and does not come 
when it is not needed, 
everything, 
every … 
single … 
thing 
comes with that luck.

Gary Paulsen, Clabbered Dirt, Sweet Grass

The Comfort of a Tree's Spiny Bark
4 x 6" postcard; acrylic, pencil, and collage
abstract
2020

neither wearing makeup nor wishing to appear to be

Streetable #6

How have you been? he asks,

after a swallow of coffee,

which always smells so good

but when you taste it

you get a bitter surprise.

And you always

want to taste it again

because how could your nose

be so wrong?

but it is.

Elizabeth Berg, Joy School

After the Percolator Finishes Gurgling and Spitting
4 x 6" postcard; acrylic, pencil, and collage
abstract
2020

before any morning joe

Streetable #5

When I was in third grade, 
I told my fellow students 
that the woman who invented math 
had been killed in a fire. 
It was a good thing, I said, 
because she was putting 
the finishing touches 
on something even worse than math, 
something the schools 
were aching to get their hands on.

Michael Cadnum, Edge

Sharing Things You Found Out Only a Short Time Ago Yourself
4 x 6" postcard; acrylic and collage
abstract
2020

basic idea

Streetable #4

He called 
when he found a house for us. 
A nice ordinary house, 
he promised. 
'You won’t find a single adjective 
to apply to it. 
It’s the kind of house 
that destroys adjectives.'

Rosellen Brown, Before and After

On the Inland Side of Highway 1
4 x 6" postcard; acrylic, latex, pencil, and collage
abstract
2020

unedited

Streetable #3

She saw Georgia's quiet rapture—
she couldn't have been more than ten—
the first time she made
a tidy French embroidery knot.

Jacquelyn Mitchard, A Theory of Relativity

It Feels Like I'm Talking With a Friend
4 x 6" postcard; acrylic, pencil, oil pastel, and collage
abstract
2020

before revision

Streetable #2

Mr. Devlin keeps dropping things
onto the armchair:
a pair of brown leather shoes
all [worn and] creased,
some china plates with chips in them,
a tiny kettle, and
a rolled-up checkered blanket.
These are all things
that Leon would like to touch.

Kit de Waal, My Name Is Leon

Everything Is Old but Nothing Is Dirty
4 x 6" postcard; acrylic, paint stick, oil pastel, and collage
abstract
2020

rough draft

Streetable (1)

Success! I've completed—at least for now—the self-inspired and -directed exploration of neutral thinking and painting with neutrals that I started two weeks ago, and I have a series of ten postcard starts at hand to bring to the point of being 'streetable,' i.e. ready to be seen in the light of day outside the studio. I plan to tidy, edit, or otherwise gussy up each postcard and select an accessory of prose poetry.

- - - - -

And fabric! 
Big square wicker baskets 
lined up on deep wall shelves 
and full of solid or printed 
cottons, 
silks, 
batiks, 
woolens, 
blends—
you name it, 
I had some.

Elizabeth Berg, The Art of Mending

The Sort of Day Where It Never Gets Properly Bright
4 x 6" postcard; acrylic, latex, pencil, and collage
abstract
2020

before makeup