Monday, July 11, 2011

More difficult than I thought ...

This weekend I attempted to get serious about making physical collages, using papers, gel medium, fusion material, a tacking iron, paints, etc. I now have paint on my clothes, a mess on the craft counter, and I burned my fingers! The result is something that looks quite stilted and contrived. This picture isn't it.

This is a photomontage I made using a photo of a sailboat mast reflected in the water up the coast, part of the cover of a vintage Japanese book I got in San Diego, scrapes and scratches on a fishing boat hull, and a stamp from an old ledger document a friend of mine gave me.

Doing this is (for me) easier than making a physical collage. Much easier. I can see, however, that more and more collages are in my future (and thank you, K.A., for the cool stuff you sent to me and for the push) and that I might even get good at them. What's especially fun is taking photos of the physical bits and pieces as I'm creating the collage and then using those photos in my photomontages. I'm also using bits of my photomontages in my physical collages.

So the creative spiral continues, as one artform leads to another, as old-fashioned "analog" skills merge with ever-changing digital techniques. It's an exciting time to be an artist, is it not? ©Carol Leigh