Category Archives: collage

COLLAGE DEMONSTRATION AT THE ATLANTA ART FESTIVAL

Come out to Piedmont Park next weekend, September 17 and 18!   I will be doing inter-active collage demonstrations throughout both days as part of Creation Station.   I will help with people to do a small 5×7 collage they can take with them as long as supplies last.   To make it simple, I have chosen four “suggested designs” and am putting together the materials for these.

The first design is a dress – and while anybody can put together any type of dress they want, I am using the following as an example.

I have included several types of paper, as well as dress patterns, paper from a player piano roll, a french book amd a few other things.  If this is a design that is chosen, this dress particular dress is just a suggestion.  Any type of dress can be done.  Embellishments can be added with thread, stamps or colored pencil.

The second design I am including is a musical piece with collage put on top of a piece of music.  Below is an example using an old recital piece of mine!

I will help people with a simpler design of this, and I have been busy busy punching out different butterflies and birds for this.   I will make copies of the actual music, as well as adding a piece of music called “Yellow Bird” and one called “Dragonfly”.   I will bring a stamp of a butterfly to use as embellishment.

The third design is much smaller.   I did a series several years ago using Tarot cards as the base.  See below for an example.

I am bring a regular pack of playing cards that can be collaged on.  I will bring some sand paper because I like to rough up the surface a bit, as well as some sequins, thread, stamps, envelopes to name a few things I used on these.  I also liked melting crayons on these!  I am bringing a stack of magazines too, so images can be found in them also.   
The fourth design is an abstract piece, using primarily white and neutral pieces of rice paper.   A sample is below:
I will also demonstrate dying paper, using Nev’r Dull on magazine pages, and layering paintings and using a blow torch to work with the layers.
So, come on out – and take home a collage that you have made!!!!!

SPRING CLEANING – or – SHOWING OFF YOUR SOUVENIRS

It is that time of year again – time for Spring Cleaning.  Time to clean out the drawers, organize, and clean,
Below see the collage I did for my niece Mallory using souvenirs she collected after spending a year in Europe.  She didn’t want to put them into an album – she wanted to be able to look at them and share them with her friends.  She recently moved into her first apartment, so I put this together as a housewarming gift for her.

This is an inexpensive way to create a piece of art that is uniquely your own using your memories.   I have done several of these for friends using souvenirs from trips or special events.   I use the original material selectively and copy others, changing the scale and dying the paper.   I then add embelishments that might include rice paper, thread, or anything that is appropriate.

This is another example of what I call a “memory collage”.  My father rebuilt pianos, and also knew how to tune them.  This was something he loved doing and I inherited his book on piano tuning – which included notations my dad had made in his handwriting.  I copied some of this and did a collage entitled “Showing of the Piano” – which is a term piano tuners use when the piano is ready to be played.  This collage keeps my father’s memory alive with something he really loved!

Do you have materials stuck back somewhere that you would like to organize and “show off” in a piece of original art?   I’d be happy to put something together and work closely with what is important to include for a reasonable fee.   If interested, contact me at vickiemartinarts@comcast.net

Also, if you have done collage along these lines, share them with me!

HOW A PENDING LAWSUIT GAVE ME THE ENERGY TO TACKLE A CLOSET IN MY STUDIO.

If you read my blog yesterday, you know I made a commitment to organize what used to be an extra den into a “dream” studio.   Tonight I started with a closet that I’m going to keep my collage paper in.  See below with what I started out with.

First, I guess I should explain the lawsuit.  Back in November, my niece Erin was having car trouble.  (She broke down on I-75 with her 3 year old).  We have a “family” truck, which I was using, so Erin borrowed my car.  On her way to work the next day, she rear ended someone.  As Elvis Costello says, accidents will happen!  I naively thought her insurance would take care of it, BUT in the state of Georgia  a wreck will follow the owner of the car.  Now, I have a little Corolla that I just keep running (I haven’t had a car payment since 1992!)  But, there was absolutely no damage to my car – it was all buffed out by my brother.  So, when the other car was repaired I thought the story was over.  However, I received a call last month from an insurance investigator. The person she hit has hired a lawyer – he apparently started having neck probems six months after the wreck!    My car has since been photographed to show the lack of damage.  I have dreaded hearing an updates.   So, on my way home tonight, my cell phone rang and it was the insurance investigator.  I couldn’t get the phone (I was driving after all), so I don’t know what has transpired.  Of course, I fear the worst.  This got my adrenaline going and I knew I have my “dream” studio to work on, so I came home and tackled the closet you see above.
What you see in it is old halloween costumes, wrapping paper and junk, and some nice rice paper hanging up.  I decided to make it into a collage paper closet.
I began by getting rid of the old Halloween costumes.  Gone is the caterpillar outfit, complete with 6 pairs of children’s tennis shoes.  Gone is the dress I made out of koozie cups (made after seeing a dress made out of flip-flops in Priscilla Queen of the Desert).  I have to admit, I kept the dress I made out of condoms, more on that at a latter date!  The wrapping paper is mostly old, so I put it in the recycling bin, and kept the gift bags and put them in the storage room (which I cleaned out after our garage sale this past weekend).
I hung all my bought paper up on hangers with clothespins, organized by color.  I discovered some beautiful paper that I had stuck in the wierdest places.  I put a shelf in with small pieces left over – as well as tissue paper.  On the left is a shelf with stained paper that I love to use.
The top shelf is my encaustic tools.  
I’m proud of this – it will help me keep organized.  
Next????   The bookshelf and the flat files.
This will be a challenge as I still have “stuff” from when this was a den.  Note the top of the book shelf – those boxes contain pictures from travels – they will go into storage and the rest will be cleaned up and organized as collage material.  I will reserve a shelf for instructional books, DVD’s, and catalogs from shows that feature artists that have inspired me.
I will then tackle the flat file and organize the drawing pads below and clean up around it.  
I’m happy my adrenaline surge caused me to make not only a start, but a plan on how to organize the studio.   Joel even measured my table, which will be 4×6′ with a shelf. 
 But, I still don’t know what the phone call regarding the lawsuit is about.  I guess that will wait until tomorrow.