Let's collage!

celebration of u.s. postal service

See the two jack-o'-lanterns? They're what inspired this collage. For many years I've been frustrated by the fact that the U.S. postal service hasn't ever (that I know of) issued Hallowe'en stamps. They've issued stamps for Ramadan, Kwanzaa, Easter, Valentine's Day, and of course many for Christmas, so why not Hallowe'en? I've written to them at the address for the people who choose the stamps for each year, pointing out that Hallowe'en is second only to Christmas as the most popular holiday in the U.S.--if you go by how much money people spend on decorations, candy, pumpkins, party items, costumes, etc.

And then finally, this year they issued a set of four different smiling jack-o'-lanterns, on a fitting black background. Yay! I do hope they'll do Hallowe'en stamps every year. Now I wish they'd come up with something a little bit scary. =grin=

abstract of abstracts

I love those Colin Johnson collages as much as the rest of y'all, but I don't see him as fulfilling the theme of Horror Vacui. Why? Because there is lots of empty space in his work--like between the little dots. I interpret the theme as meaning there can't be any empty space between collage elements, even if the pieces are very small and close to each other.

Just a comment, that's all...I suppose the wavy dark grey lines at the top of this one could be said to have empty spaces between them, plus the white around and through the photo of the robotic-looking metallic statue, and in the text bits...ah well. =smile= I guess the question is, "When is white, or a solid background color, considered empty space, and when is it not?" Any thoughts on that, y'all?

In case you can't read the caption in the lower right that explains what the four pinkish-red monsters are about, it says, "Night Terrors (detail), oil on panel, by Laurie Hogin, reflect the various stages of psychological disruption due to the use of prescription drugs during the eight hours intended for restorative sleep."

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inspired by

Inspired by Colin Johnson ... now if I look at his collages, I'm not even halfway with mine.
But it is such a nice exercise and it makes you study Colin's work even better.
Not easy at all to make a good composition and think about the colors etc.

Too Much Decor

One from the archives

the vulnerability of empty spaces

From my old, old (2011) archives. People are always telling me my collages are "simple," I guess because I've made quite a few with just 2-5 elements, but in fact, I make many with lots of different stuff on them. I chose this one because it has "empty spaces" right there in the title--inspired by the empty signs and the empty look on the girl's face.

Photo of blonde by Lina Bertucci. Agave leaves by Jillian David. Empty signs by Jeff Brouus. Statue bits from "Laocoön and his Sons" by Gruppo del Laocoonte. (Believe it or not, there's a whole Flickr group devoted to just that one statue!) Mirror is a detail from a painting by Jan van Eyck.

Re. horror vacui: Art is aggressive, always attacking empty spaces--on walls, on canvas, usw. When I make a collage, I'm always aware of how each element not only encroaches on the empty space of plain cardboard, but also the successive elements attack (by overlapping) each other. In last week's fish collage, for example, I struggled for a long time to make sure that none of the fishes' eyes were covered up.