The very first collage I made was in seventh grade art class. It depicted a girl walking under a tree in autumn on a bright sunny day. I was very literal at the time, so the girl’s skirt was made of cloth, the tree of twigs, bark, and leaves, with a sky-blue painted background. The process of making the collage was more satisfying than the end result. I didn’t try my hand at collage again for decades, but clearly something about collage made an impression, because this is one of only two pieces I remember from that class so long ago. (The other was a collaged folder that I remember only because I saved it for many years.)
There are many ways to begin a collage, such as using a reference photograph or picture and reconstructing it with pieces of paper that may match the original or be wildly different in hue or shape. In the process of laying out collage materials, the artist may add or subtract what gets included in the work; the end result could be a remarkable likeness of the reference work, or something unrecognizable. There are some amazing collage artists who layer thousands of pieces of papers of all kinds to create a portrait or scene, like an intricate mosaic. That is not me, or at least not yet.
I often begin with one material and wonder how I might use it in a collage. In my latest piece, I began with a support paper left over from making other collage papers. It had sat around in my studio for a few years, unloved. One day, I “saw” potential for flowers in the top left corner and an assortment of leaves in the corner below. I had been practicing painting peonies and I thought I could use some of them in a collage. Other flower images started to emerge from the colors on the paper. As I started to add more pieces to the picture, I decided to paint over the white and add more variety in the bottom right quadrant. The circled areas show the peony and leaves that I originally saw on this support paper.
The photo on the right is slightly out of sequence but shows the original unpainted white background and the peony I initially laid out on the left. One of the enjoyable features of collage making is that, unlike painting, you aren’t committed until you paste the pieces down. Until then you can add, subtract, and move pieces around until you get a desired result. When I got closer to a final view, I took photos so I would know where to reposition them.
To check out the the final version, Summer Garden, head over to the Gallery.
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