“Deep Blue Sea” is a bit different for me.
Collage, the way I do it, is deliberate. I think about each piece before applying it to the artwork, weighing color, placement, size carefully. I’ll often look at a piece for several days before gluing anything down.
It’s a very different process than painting, which for me is energetic and spontaneous.
For this piece, however, I tried to be more free. I glued papers down without agonizing over the placement. After a while, I went over the whole piece with that rusty orange brown to unify the composition. Then I added more papers on top.
Some of my favorite bits are the sequins (look to the left of the cameo), the curved and dashed lines in the upper right (a sewing pattern), and the black bits in the lower right (plastic mesh).
<artgeek>Pardon the momentary collage geekiness: old tissue sewing patterns are the BEST thing ever! When glued down, the tissue vanishes, but the printed lines remain. The effect is SO cool; it’s a great way to add lines to a piece while keeping underlying work visible. </artgeek>
At the end, I love the feeling of being perched on a cliff looking at the coastline below, perhaps the Mediterranean, as I imagine it might be.
Title: Deep Blue Sea
Size: 14 x 11 inches on paper
Medium: Collage, with found paper, acrylic paint, sequins, plastic
Signed: On the back
Exhibits: Ohio Collage Society Members Exhibit 2016