I’ve never really been into collage until now. I signed up for Art Tribe through Louise Fletcher, a wonderful British artist and teacher. She sets the theme for each month and, yup, its collage for March. One of her videos I watched showed some ideas for experimenting with making your own collage paper too. I spent all day yesterday playing with this and now I’m hooked I’m also now viewing bits and scraps of paper as potential supplies for my next art work. Ian, my partner asked me today, “do you want me to keep this envelope?”. It’ll be really bad when I’m going out in the laneway skulking about, rummaging through neighbour’s recycling bin.
What I find interesting and positive about collage is that it gives me a chance to try colours and shapes around the design before committing to them. I think this is going to be really helpful in further developing my style and skill in making art. I also got to use my Gelli pad which is a very cool soft piece of plastic(?) which you can roll paint onto and then make designs, then place paper on it, smooth it and pull it off. This is basically making a print. Here is an example:
The other really fun part was using and old sketchbook to start collaging. I’m collaging and painting over old sketches which makes a nice effect….in my humble opinion. But isn’t that what its all about. Making art should be for yourself, what makes you happy, what intrigues you. At least that’s how I’m doing it. My hope is to develop my own style and voice and I don’t think I’m going to do that making art for other people’s tastes. Of course we all hope that people, at least some, will like some of your art. Right? But I’m letting go of the idea that everyone will like everything.
It’s time to go back to the studio, crank up the music, make a pot of tea and collage!
[envira-gallery id=”219″]
