Latest Collages

 I had a flurry of making collages over the winter break. Here are some of my favourites, all made with vintage papers and the occasional extra item - there's a postage stamp in one of them for example. They're all posted into a book that I'm gradually filling with collages, so some of the photos may not perfectly show the finished collage, but you get the idea! 

For the first one here, I was wanting to give an impression of how motoring was seen in the 1930s, which is very different to the way that I (as a non-driver) see it in the current day.  

  The collage below brings together some ideas for Spring fashion, there seemed to be a strange fashion for tweed for Spring in the 1930s, to me it seems far too heavy a fabric for Spring. 

Next up is a collage for summer, again the 1930s woman seems to be obsessed with the right clothes for Spring (though this time she does seem to be more appropriately dressed!)

 

 

And finally, this is my favourite! The wee bit of text says 'it is human nature to put things off' and the pictures come from a variety of sources including a postage stamp (though again two portraits from the same 1930s magazine - it's proving to be a great collage resource!)

 

 

 

 

The Paper Garden by Molly Peacock

 

Subtitled Mrs Delany begins her life's work at 72, this is the biography of Mary Delaney who lived a very creative life but only discovered her true calling at 72 by effectively inventing collage as an art form.

I first came across Mary Delaney's collages at the excellent Cut and Paste exhibition (showing at the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art until 27 October (you can read my review of the exhibition here).

I was therefore delighted to find this book soon afterwards. It is in part a biography of Mary Delaney, following her early unhappy marriage, her life as a well connected, creative woman, a feminist really well before that term was even thought of and her late, happy marriage and her blooming into her art form. The book is illustrated with several of Delaney's collages, which are truly beautiful, exquisitely observed portraits of flowers made from cut out paper and sometimes incorporating parts of the actual plant.

I found it annoying though how much Molly Peacock wrote about herself in this book, sure, fair enough to detail the research involved in finding out about Mr Delaney but the sections about Peacock's own life detracted from the concept of biography. I also thought she imposed too much of her own interpretations into the presentation of the collages, with far too much use of metaphor to try to relate each picture to some aspect of Mary Delaney's life.

However overall I am glad I read the book, Mrs Delaney was a fascinating woman and it's great to read about someone who so successfully reinvented herself at such an advanced age! And the collages are amazing.

You can see a selection of Mrs Delaney's collages on the British Museum website. 

The Paper Garden by Molly Peacock published by Bloomsbury.

Fun with Collage

Yesterday I went to the excellent Cut and Paste: 400 Years of Collage exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art 2 (you can read my review of the exhibition here).

I came back from the exhibition inspired and spent the evening creating my own collages. Although I admire many different types of collages, I like to keep the ones I make simple (too many collage elements can look really cluttered unless you really know what you're doing). I make a lot of greetings cards, many of which are decorated with simple collages. All my collages incorporate cuttings from magazines and other small upcycled paper elements.

Last night though I wanted to experiment a little. The collages are still very simple but are unlikely to adorn greetings cards. Taking inspiration from the history of political protest and commentary in collage art I made some, like the one below to make a point about disappearing seabirds

Then I made a series with the faces cut out and replaced with a grid like pattern, to represent the anonymous aspect to certain elements of modern life, this one is the best I think

and some I made just for fun

Cut and Paste - 400 Years of Collage

If you're at all interested in collage, Cut and Paste is a wonderful exhibition to see and it won't be touring so you need to catch it in Edinburgh.

Spread over 5 rooms in the Gallery of Modern Art 2 this collection of collage gives a concise, informative and inspiring history of the art form.

The exhibition casts its net wide in its interpretation of collage, including crazy patchwork, decoupaged vases and collections of memorabilia. But the focus is on collage as most widely understood, art made with paper and other items (including buttons, metal and even in one case a starfish) glued onto card or another base.

The original collages were often just accidental, in that the artist added paper to an artwork that had gone wrong and corrected it on the new paper.

Collage really came into its own in the Victorian period with the fashion for scrapbooking, card making and the like. In the 1850s you could buy kits to make your own collages, with all the small pieces required to dress your characters etc. A precursor to the sticker books that are still popular today.

In the Victorian period, collage was almost entirely an amateur pursuit. Later though it developed into a genre of art used by world renowned artists including Picasso and Matisse. It still remains a very accessible, democratic form of art that can be enjoyed by those of us who can't paint or draw with any degree of expertise.

Collage has often been used as an indicator of artistic rebellion, being used by artists to protest wars, repressive regimes and the patriarchy. Pictures on display include a couple of the Merz collages by dissident German artist Kurt Schwitters and Fish Circus by Eileen Agar. Ther are also a couple of videos, including Carolee Schneeman making herself into a living collage with stills of the results of her collage which are protests against the Vietnam War. Add in the priceless reactions of her cat and this is a remarkable video. Towards the end of the exhibition you can see collaged mock ups of the set for Terry Gilliam's brilliant and weird film Brazil.

Cut and Paste is showing until Sunday 27 October at Gallery of Modern Art 2, Belford Road. Full price tickets start at £11. Concessions are available.

The Gallery of Modern Art 1 across the road contains a number of free exhibitions.

When you have experienced enough art for the day, both galleries have fine cafes and both are situated right by the Water of Leith. If you're very lucky (as I was) you will see kingfishers flying around (this is one of their favourite spots along the river).

Once Were Fields

Green becomes concrete
for wheels to glide over
quicker.

Inexorable as rainfall
landscape flies past,
transmutes into shopping malls,
office blocks and science parks.

Grey sky reflects in glass houses
and everyone is throwing stones.


Poem previously published in The Journal and originally posted on this blog in 2007. Still a sadly relevant poem.

The collage is made from 100% recycled magazines and is a detail from a flier, on the reverse of which there is a copy of the poem against the background of a photo of a city street. 

I posted another poem from the past today on my Shapeshifting Green blog, you can read it here. 

Mothers Day Card

In the UK, Mothers Day is just a week on Sunday! Here's the card I made for my Mum, using only scrap card and paper.

Autumnal Designs

I made these autumnal bookmarks and notelet from office waste, leaves found in a book and scraps torn from a Japanese poetry magazine. You can see an earlier card on the same theme here.

Inspire Me Thursday

Floral

flowers painted
on my wellington boots -
insects hover.

Mothers Day Card

22 March is Mother's Day here in the UK. Here is the card I've made for my Mum (who definitely doesn't read my blog!). It's made from office waste card and scrap paper with details drawn on in environmentally friendly black marker pen. I've made it so early to fit in with the prompt:

Flowers for Arty Girlz Challenge

Valentine for a Bunny Lover

This is the Valentine's Day card I've made for Crafty Green Boyfriend. I was going to wait before posting it but as it fits in with Arty Girlz this week, here it is... The card is reused from a business folder, the rabbit and heart were cut out of scrap paper.

Red and White for Arty Girlz Challenge

Transparent

This is made from an extract of a page of Prakalpana Literature, I was once asked to review (thanks to Gerald for reminding me of the journal name) along with a small part of a larger photo, showing the Taj Mahal, a chocolate wrapper from an Indian restuarant, a transparent picture from a rice packet and a random piece of patterned transparent plastic. Currently it is just a collage but i may make it into a card.

for Arty Girlz Transparent Challenge

collage for Japanese Inn

I made this collage from an old Japanese postcard, a scrap taken from a Japanese poetry journal and a photo of my childhood Japanese penpal. It's currently sitting in the copy of Oliver Statler's wonderful Japanese Inn that I'm reading. I suspect that neither book or collage will actually leave my possession.....

Collages for Books

I often make little collages out of scrap materials and put them inside books that I give away to second hand shops or via Bookcrossing. This one is more interesting than most and will be inside the copy of Gao Xingjian's novel One Man's Bible when I give it away. The collage is made out of a recycled envelope (itself made from a recycled German map - one of the characters in the novel is German) with a photo of Hong Kong (part of the novel takes place in Hong Kong), some Chinese lettering and a picture of a book. On the back there are more cuttings from magazines. Of course I've also written in the address of this blog.....

Altered Book

I mentioned a while ago that I had found the perfect book to alter (because there are missing pages and pages repeated) and I've now at last started working on it. This is the first page I've altered. The text is about monitoring moths at sand dunes, so I illustrated it appropriately using a magazine photo of sand dunes and drawing a moth, randomly chosen from my book of moths and butterflies. I've not decided yet what to do with the facing page, though I'll probably add more moths!

Poetry Collage cards

Just a small selection of my latest poetry cards, made from 100% reused materials including out of date office documents, magazines and cardboard folders. The smallest one is a Japanese phone card.

Framed Collage

This is a framed collage for the bathroom. I bought several second-hand frames and painted them with poster paints (there's a bit of a dilemma, poster paints fade quickly, but they are probably more environmentally friendly than acrylics and certainly more convenient than emulsion unless you're decorating the house which we're not! Natural Collection no longer seems to stock their 100% natural paints - does anyone know anywhere that sells genuinely natural paints that can be used for this type of work?). The frame is finished off with a seahorse stamp. The collage is a couple of photos from magazines (the smaller picture is a boat, the light caught it so it may not be clear!) and a French postage stamp.

haiga - light

A collage of old magazine images and reused wrapping paper to illustrate a haiku. The haiku is one of those I posted for One Deep Breath earlier this week:

clouds across the sun -

shade and light patchwork

the fields.

Light for Inspire Me Thursday

Silence

There's the silence of peaceful contemplation, the silence of a quiet area of natural beauty, the silence of losing yourself in a good book. I wanted so much to post something positive about silence here, but the image of the bird with its beak tied shut wouldn't leave me alone so here it is!

Materials - reclaimed office paper (the textured recycled type), gold wrapping paper, photo of birds feathers. All 100% recycled and cut to size where necessary. Detail added in environmentally friendly marker pen (made by www.rosinco.com and available in the UK through the Natural Collection).

Silence for Inspire Me Thursday.

Foliage

sunlight glows through leaves

to dapple the woodland floor -

seedlings emerge.

Foilage for Inspire Me Thursday.

collage materials 100% reclaimed - black chocolate box filler, old wrapping paper, picture from magazine, foil(age).

To learn how you can help to preserve ancient woodland and trees, please visit the Woodland Trust.

Home

Inspire Me Thursday this week challenged us to a) create a piece of art for the home and b) to create a piece of artwork on the theme of home. The framed picture here is made from reused office card and flower and butterfly shapes cut from the same patterned paper from a catalogue as I had used to cover the frame (which I posted earlier when it was still empty). I can't claim any credit for the crafting in the second piece, but its a beautiful piece on the theme of home - a birds nest that we found on the ground fallen from a tree a year or so ago.