Collage

 

We get so much junk mail. It's also difficult to recycle here, so it makes the abundant junk mail even more depressing. On my way to the mailbox a few days ago, a solution came to me: junk mail collages. I've been wanting to make more collages anyway, so it was a perfect plan. I've made a few already and am hoping to make this a regular habit. A few things I've been thinking about regarding collage and why I am so drawn to this medium:

• You are forced to work within the limits of what you find in the materials before you. You can start with a great vision, but if the words and images aren't in the pages, you have to find something else. I like this obligatory surrender of my design. 
• The final piece is in front of you, you just have to find it and arrange it. To me this is more like sculpting - it is about removing excess to make way for what you want to keep.
• You have to keep going back to the materials, and the potential you see in them changes as your design evolves. I looked through the grocery store advertisements easily thirty times as I made my last collage, and each time I swore there was nothing good left in them. But as I found something to work with in one, I would have to comb through them all again, inevitably finding something that fit with my most recent changes. The value you see in an image or text continually changes based on whether it fits what you need in the moment or not. 

Here's to making more collages in 2021!