Collage is a Feeling

Collage is my favorite art practice. I love shuffling through the many boxes in my studio crammed with paper pieces. Paper I have harvested from old books, magazines, or estate sale finds like postcards, wallpaper and handwritten letters. There is a calm that comes from foraging and exploring these small curated collections. I move slower in these moments, my body and my mind.

As I search my stash, piles begin to accumulate on my desk. In a way it’s like building a color palette because it all starts with color for me. There is usually one paper scrap that sparks where a piece begins and the rest flows from there. It’s a notion of heck yes that is the color I’m feeling right now.

A space without words emerges and everything is just a feeling, an openness to whatever will come next.

I welcome the unexpected in my art.

A technique I have been using for a few years is to make one large piece and then cut it down into smaller pieces. Each smaller piece is like another discovery, an exploration of what can happen when I let go of the need for control. Thank you Lydia Rink for introducing me to this way of working.

Here is a piece I made this week – a paper collage on 7″ x 10″ mixed media paper.

My original plan truly was to make one large piece, but after I let this sit for a day it wasn’t working for me as a whole. I couldn’t find the focal point and there seemed to be 2 conversations going on, they needed breathing room. I also didn’t want to paste over and cover any parts up, which is sometimes my approach if a piece isn’t quite “there” yet.

Here is what happened when I cut it up –
3 strips that I might use in another collage, or maybe as bookmarks
+ 2 new collages that I will sit with until I know what they are saying to me.

I find it so interesting to see the unexpected compositions that come out of editing / cutting / cropping a larger piece down. It’s also a fun process to sit with these newly cropped pieces individually and see what they prompt or generate.

Essentially – how do they make me feel? Is there something in the subject matter or the color that soaks in, sending me insights? It’s similar to when I begin a piece with that one paper scrap that instigates the collage – I have to find a meditative state where things just flow.

Sometimes I think of it like the state I would have to get in when looking at those optical illusion magic eye posters from the 90’s. You have to pay attention but not try too hard, participate but also relax enough to see the picture, to see what it’s waiting to unveil.

Side note … this history of magic eye is an incredible read!

Thank you for reading my brief process chronicle! I would love to know what you think & I will share more soon about the 2 smaller collage above once I spend more time with them.