One lovely afternoon I was struck with a huge desire to collage. Usually when this happens, I start to plan… I go to the craft store, second hand store, hardware store, etc. to gather materials to collage. By the time I finally get everything together I have exhausted any creativity and am left overwhelmed trying to come up with a themed composition…and then something comes up, everything gets put on hold and shoved in my closet. (And I wonder why I have stringless ukuleles, stacks of newspaper clippings, and a large assortment of other strange, unnecessary nick-knacks.)
This time was different. I just DID IT! No planning, no shopping. Just grabbed my glue, paintbrush, an old newspaper and some scraps of colored paper. I found some left over 2×4 scraps as the base for my composition. I flipped through the paper and just started taring out pieces of images and text that I thought had interesting lines, shapes, colors, visual texture, etc. As soon as I found something I liked, I immediately glued it down so I couldn’t change my mind later on.
About an hour and a half, I had completed two 2’boards and one 8″ board. I was pleased with the result considering what I had to work with. One of the things that turned out to work really well was the patterns I drew into the glue before it dried. It adds a nice texture that changes with the light. Even though I didn’t plan a theme, the pieces work together because of the limited materials. Don’t over plan, limit materials, and act on the desire to create… seems to work every time.
