From my deepest archives (circa 2009), when all my playing with paper took place on the outside of padded mailers for books. (We had WAY too many books, so I was de-accessioning like mad through paperbackswap.com.) This is the only book-mailer collage in the style I was struggling to invent that was separate from the computer-generated address label. It's pretty typical of my rough-hewn early collage efforts: more drawing and doodling than actual collage elements.
In terms of sources, it's amazing to me how little has changed. I was into stickers, so that's where the Earth came from. I was just starting to collect postcards: the lotus was from a postcard in a bulk batch from Pomegranate. The vine-cum-umbilical-cord came from an advertisement in a magazine in my dentist's office, which I surreptitiously tore out and made off with it. =laugh=
The Earth Mother I drew, colored with markers, then glued to a piece of red construction paper. (Her right hand was supposed to be holding the vine/cord, but it didn't work out quite right.) The border was a doodle I'd already done on a piece of white printer paper. I colored it with markers and glued onto the rest of the piece.
When I say "little has changed," I mean that even today, my sources are junk mail, catalogs, contemporary magazines, stickers, postcards, colored paper, and my own drawings (only when I can't come up with what I need in any other fashion). Plus, a few years ago, I started collecting "cutter books" in themes like animals, the circus, magic, and so on. I love Taschen--their catalog and their books!
And I still steal images, and sometimes whole magazines (!), from the waiting rooms of my dentist and my doctors.
But I don't have any vintage materials, nor do I go to yard sales or library sales to find them. I envy those of you who have stacks of old magazines and stuff. No one in my family saved those sorts of materials, and I'm too much of a recluse to go out looking for them... =sigh=
All of this is interesting to me Fi. The things you use, in addition to your drawings, are not in my cache of collage elements at all (with the exception of some Taschen books). Being an antiques & collectibles dealer I have a ton of vintage photographs and books and magazines. I do have a lot of pre-cut pieces and I keep them in plastic boxes that I pick up at craft stores, like MICHAEL'S & JOANN FABRICS. I have some of my books and magazines sorted according to topic, but in general I have several shelves of books and magazines and I usually just pull one out at random and let that be the inspiration for a collage. Unless, of course, there is a theme involved! My photograph collection is sorted according to the subject of the photo and I keep those in plastic drawers. I have a nice room with a big worktable so I always have something going on and I never have to clean it up! I also sew and my sewing machine is on the table, always ready to be of use.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip about plastic boxes at Michael's & Joann's, Angie. awe have those stores 'round here, so as soon as I'm capabe of walking that farvand standing up for that long, I'm starting to have some subjects like "The Beach" that would do well in a clear plastic box.
DeleteSuch a beautiful color red Fi! I always tend to go for the orange and blue group, but I love the red and green combo.
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