Life Is Collage

Ah yes. Life is collage, isn’t it? It’s a mix of beautiful moments, chopped up chaos, and a whole lot of glue.

Last summer, itching for something new, I decided to step out of my artistic comfort zone and try something completely different. I signed up for a collage workshop at the Ardest Gallery taught by Joseph Staley and the end result was: I loved it!

Prior to that workshop, The last time I had tried collage of any sorts was probably waaaay back in grade school. I had no idea how much fun I’d been missing!

The process of collage, including lots of playful destruction and construction while looking at images and reimagining them in an entirely fresh way, turned out to be a strong compliment to my typical control freakishness and rigid line work. The stages of the process too — cutting out shapes/images, arranging them on a canvas, creating images out of images — turns out to be very cathartic for me in the same way doodling is, only using different tools. I opened up a whole new door to joy.

And it stuck.

Literally.

Like any mindful artist, I haven’t abandoned my organically sound neurographic style. Rather, I’ve begun to incorporate collage techniques into my new works and am expanding my creative horizons as I do it. This first piece I finished, “Collage Queen” featured above, was also the first collage piece I sold. Yee haw! Prints are available.

Meanwhile, lookout for some new collage modes of trippy from yours truly. I can’t wait to see what my own imagination comes up with!

Do you play with collage? What’s your experience been like? Tell me in the comments!