I had anxiety nightmares all night long: Things dissolving into darkness, sticking, crunching, wrinkling, my fingers stuck together. Unimaginable disasters are more easily imagined in the twilight hours.
Recently I had decided to doing collage since the last one--Weaving Bubbles, 24 x 18 inches; my 2nd collage in over 50 years—was a lot of fun and people liked it. That collage is featured in its own blog (02/02/2023) “Glue Gun A Go Go: Weaving Bubbles” and in the 2023 gallery. The artwork also functioned as a tribute to a few of those significant people who left us in 2022; see blog, “Death Series 2022” (01/01.2023).
In retrospect I think I found it fun because I had done a survey on what some of the dead-in-2022 tribute artists had done and was inspired that making a work of collage was really quite wide open. Some artists used swatches of color, paint, bits of anything, etc. Yet I was a bit concerned about permanence: am I using the right materials on the right substrate? (And I really didn’t enjoy using a glue gun for the first time—it tips, it drips, it burns.)
To eliminate those doubts, and the glue gun, I Googled for collage experts since my art training did not include current practices. Now armed with ModPodge, in both matte and gloss finish, a brayer and three cradled wood pieces, and all kinds of warnings, I felt better prepared. Though the brayer is familiar from printmaking, the other materials were unfamiliar. The whole adventure grew to feel like interacting with a whole new culture or language. Hence, the nightmares and questioning all night long. And back to Google.
>Google: What does cradled wood mean?
A cradled panel is a wooden frame with a board attached to it. They accept almost any medium and are excellent for showcasing detailed artwork. Cradled panels are ideal for painting, sculpture, mounting, and so much more. The durable wooden structure can prevent paintings from warping over time.
To avoid unease I played poker on the computer for a few hours before going to the studio. All morning, while playing cards, I’d been questioning so what does collage offer that painting, drawing on paper or canvas, and my usual mixed media (acrylic paint, ink, watercolor, colored pencil, pigment marker, graphite, gel and Micron pen) doesn’t? For me collage offers texture, inherent color variety, easy patterning, and a wealth of juxtapositions.
>Google says:
Collages help in structuring, developing, analysing and presenting visual issues that are difficult to express in words. You could think of shape characteristics, colour palette, compositional issues and so on.
That may be lovely and true, yet it is not quite what I intend and, in my opinion not exclusive to collage. My basic approach in making art is to produce something motivating, engaging, directing the viewer to interpret within his/her/their own framework.
Further Googling brought me to this article and citation: Gersh-Nesic, Beth. "How Is Collage Used in Art?" ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/art-history-definition-collage-183196. A brief excerpt reads:
What collage offers artists that cannot be found in flat work alone is the opportunity to add commentary through familiar imagery and objects. It adds to the dimension of the pieces and can further illustrate a point. We have seen this often in contemporary art.Mar 2, 2019.
After sustained uncertainty, my primary learning remembrance is that it sucks to be in a feeling state of not knowing enough. Perhaps I’ve gained some renewed empathy for the absolute misery and uncomfortableness of being an unsure beginner. With all creativity there is no guarantee of where one is going. When the whole endeavor—but not the intention—is foreign, the added excitement may pour into distress.
To relieve some of that distress I sought buttons. One of my favorite activities, besides polishing copper pennies, was to be allowed to play with my Grandma’s button drawer. She had hundreds of buttons! Some big, some fancy, colored, jeweled, small or plain. They were kept in a long narrow box fitted into her treadle sewing machine. The machine looked something like this that I found at https://victoriancollections.net.au/items/5216073119403a17c4ba14f5:
Recently I had decided to doing collage since the last one--Weaving Bubbles, 24 x 18 inches; my 2nd collage in over 50 years—was a lot of fun and people liked it. That collage is featured in its own blog (02/02/2023) “Glue Gun A Go Go: Weaving Bubbles” and in the 2023 gallery. The artwork also functioned as a tribute to a few of those significant people who left us in 2022; see blog, “Death Series 2022” (01/01.2023).
In retrospect I think I found it fun because I had done a survey on what some of the dead-in-2022 tribute artists had done and was inspired that making a work of collage was really quite wide open. Some artists used swatches of color, paint, bits of anything, etc. Yet I was a bit concerned about permanence: am I using the right materials on the right substrate? (And I really didn’t enjoy using a glue gun for the first time—it tips, it drips, it burns.)
To eliminate those doubts, and the glue gun, I Googled for collage experts since my art training did not include current practices. Now armed with ModPodge, in both matte and gloss finish, a brayer and three cradled wood pieces, and all kinds of warnings, I felt better prepared. Though the brayer is familiar from printmaking, the other materials were unfamiliar. The whole adventure grew to feel like interacting with a whole new culture or language. Hence, the nightmares and questioning all night long. And back to Google.
>Google: What does cradled wood mean?
A cradled panel is a wooden frame with a board attached to it. They accept almost any medium and are excellent for showcasing detailed artwork. Cradled panels are ideal for painting, sculpture, mounting, and so much more. The durable wooden structure can prevent paintings from warping over time.
To avoid unease I played poker on the computer for a few hours before going to the studio. All morning, while playing cards, I’d been questioning so what does collage offer that painting, drawing on paper or canvas, and my usual mixed media (acrylic paint, ink, watercolor, colored pencil, pigment marker, graphite, gel and Micron pen) doesn’t? For me collage offers texture, inherent color variety, easy patterning, and a wealth of juxtapositions.
>Google says:
Collages help in structuring, developing, analysing and presenting visual issues that are difficult to express in words. You could think of shape characteristics, colour palette, compositional issues and so on.
That may be lovely and true, yet it is not quite what I intend and, in my opinion not exclusive to collage. My basic approach in making art is to produce something motivating, engaging, directing the viewer to interpret within his/her/their own framework.
Further Googling brought me to this article and citation: Gersh-Nesic, Beth. "How Is Collage Used in Art?" ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/art-history-definition-collage-183196. A brief excerpt reads:
What collage offers artists that cannot be found in flat work alone is the opportunity to add commentary through familiar imagery and objects. It adds to the dimension of the pieces and can further illustrate a point. We have seen this often in contemporary art.Mar 2, 2019.
After sustained uncertainty, my primary learning remembrance is that it sucks to be in a feeling state of not knowing enough. Perhaps I’ve gained some renewed empathy for the absolute misery and uncomfortableness of being an unsure beginner. With all creativity there is no guarantee of where one is going. When the whole endeavor—but not the intention—is foreign, the added excitement may pour into distress.
To relieve some of that distress I sought buttons. One of my favorite activities, besides polishing copper pennies, was to be allowed to play with my Grandma’s button drawer. She had hundreds of buttons! Some big, some fancy, colored, jeweled, small or plain. They were kept in a long narrow box fitted into her treadle sewing machine. The machine looked something like this that I found at https://victoriancollections.net.au/items/5216073119403a17c4ba14f5:
I am not one to collect stuff, though I will admit to having my own button collection for a while seeing as how it was small, portable, and inexpensive. That collection is long gone, yet I’ve managed to have a few small bags of buttons, mostly from new or discarded clothing. It’s nothing like Grandma’s, but times change.
At this point I’m calm again with Button Cascade germinating in the studio. Hope the ModPodge holds them. Thanks for listening.
At this point I’m calm again with Button Cascade germinating in the studio. Hope the ModPodge holds them. Thanks for listening.