Mixed Media Collaging

This weekend I went to a workshop where we learned to make stencils and use a stamping technique to get silhouette shapes. After choosing an image, we ripped, cut, mixed, matched, painted, and glued to make a collage. It was a bit scary yet exhilarating because you don't really know how it's going to end up. It's a very spontaneous, go-with-the flow, organic process. I really enjoy that kind of process although it's a struggle for me and by the time I made the second piece, I was able to loosen up a little more and just take risks and have fun with it. Here are the two pieces that I made. The first one took about 2 hours and the second one was made really quickly in about 30 or so minutes.

I love words and I really enjoyed incorporating pages of a book and sheet music into these collages.  It was exciting tearing up the pages. ;) When you visit museums, you find that there's so much about artwork that a photograph can't capture. Standing in front of the actual piece, you see texture, the layering of paint, more vibrant colors, and details you wouldn't have noticed. I took some close ups of parts of the first piece so that you can experience the piece a little more.

This is the cut-out from a magazine that I used to make the silhouette. There is a beautiful quality about silhouettes-the lack of detail allows our eyes to focus simply on the shape which can trigger emotions, memories, or thoughts that otherwise may not have come up if there had been lots of details included. I personally enjoy the certain romantic, mysterious, and intriguing quality of them. :)

Hope you enjoyed seeing these collages and hopefully it inspires you to dabble in some art making as well. :)

Thanks for reading! -M