This week I have a renewed interest in going into my basement studio. I just got some packets of scrapbooking squares of maps and botanicals in all sorts of colours and types of papers. It’s so exciting to open these neat little packages and touch the different types of paper, look at the designs and feel the excitement of receiving a gift.
But what to do with these little squares of paper and how to integrate them into my artwork is always a challenge. I see some collage work that integrates images and designs so well into mixed media paintings that it’s inspiring. I however, struggle with this integration and see some artwork where collage just didn’t seem to work as well. Artwork where the design of the collage paper is too much part of the new artwork, seems to me to rely too much of someone else’s creativity.
The challenge to make collage integrate well isn’t going to stop me having an adventure with these pieces of paper though. I’ll cut them up, arrange them, glue them down and then hide them. I want to make them part of the painting in such a way that you almost don’t see them, that you can’t tell they are there unless you get up close.
So yes, collage can be hard to get right, but also easy to have a go at doing. The goal, and I think I’ll get there eventually, is to get it just right for me. In the meantime I’ll have a lot of fun trying.
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