I recently had a revelation…it occurred to me while I was quietly working in my studio on a new project of combining my photographic prints into collage compositions.
I have sometimes felt at a loss…when people ask what my medium is, I stumble…I don’t paint, I don’t draw, I don’t sculpt with clay, I don’t blow glass.
And suddenly it hit me…I put things together.
Be it pieces of paper, scraps of ephemera, vintage objects, odds and ends that seem disconnected are skillfully composed, co-existing in a harmonious arrangement. As I think back, my art practice from the very beginning has always been about putting things together. I recently hung two paper collages I made 45 years ago using magazine photos and clippings…so interesting to see the consistency through the years of my design aesthetic.
While organizing my studio space, I came across a box of my photographic prints…photos taken over the years of places I have been, vignettes that inspired me, collages I had created. As I thumbed through them, I began to sort them into piles…cohesive images that seemed to play off one another. I grouped them into sets of 4 prints and then I started to move them around, some of them I cropped, some were swapped with another print, some were overlapped…but in the end I had an interesting composition that I organized on a piece of heavy weight watercolor paper and attached them to the paper with a minimal amount of glue and secured the composition with machine stitching in critical places to add textural interest.
As I was working, I felt such a keen intention in what combinations I could create to tell a story as well as the delight in viewing the end collage.
20 of these original photographic collages are now in my Etsy shop, each unique in their design. The image above is an example of one of the collages - it is mounted on a piece of 9” x 12” heavyweight watercolor paper with no additional elements - the two other images shown here in the newsletter with the quotes are just for design purposes - none of the collages in my Etsy shop have quotes on them.
I also wanted you to know that I’m hoping to feature more original art collages in my Etsy shop…I’ve been itching to try some new ideas and summer seems like a great time to dabble and experiment. I will be discontinuing the sale of postcards and petite prints…when my current inventory runs out, I will not be ordering more, giving me more time and resources for future art pursuits.
I hope you have some exciting plans for summer - whether they are creatively inspired or not…just enjoy time for whatever makes you happy.
