Morning Collages - Week 2

I can't believe it's been two weeks of this new morning routine. Check out Week 1 here. My mini Poe-themed art journal is filling up fast. What I originally thought was 'just gluing paper to other paper' has become a full creative process. Let me break it down and fill in the blanks as we go.

1. The Gathering Phase: 

You need a supply of images, words, colours that light you up. This has to be its own pre-collage step (the way I do it) because when I sit down to work my magic I don't want to have to search through actual magazines to find stuff. I have a folder that houses all the things I've gathered and I go into that to find my 1-2 things that I want to work with that morning. But anyways, the gathering phase could be setting aside a few hours one afternoon to gather together some source material (in my case it was avant guard art magazines because they have such weirdness in them, which I love). And then you just tear away, collecting any images, entire pages of colour for background, any headlines or other words that you just like. 

That's the key, though. Everything is WHAT YOU LIKE. You don't need to know why, just that you really like it and want to keep it (like a hummingbird next to a skull haha, see below). Eventually you get this folder full of gems that you can eventually work with. But I've realized that it's important to have some time between when you collect the things and when you deploy them in a collage, so-called 'marinating' time in the creative process.

2. The Sorting Phase

This might just be my editor's nitpickyness, but I really like to sort some of these things into categories. I have 3 envelopes that house 'paper scraps', 'words', and 'small images'. I find this helpful for the Creation phase when I might feel like something in particular should be introduced into the burgeoning piece. Whatever works for you is great - even having no system at all, just random chaos. I'm just not that kind of girl :P

3. The Actual Creation Phase

Every morning I pull out my folder full of creative gems and I look through it. I remember why I liked this certain image or that particular texture, and I let myself sort through until something grabs me. I just know. Yep, this is the one for today. So I pull out a few things and make some initial decisions. Then I might pull out one of my envelopes to find words or other tidbits. This process of making micro decisions really serves me in my life because I often have trouble making decisions for fear of making a mistake (perfectionism, my constant companion...).. In a collage, there are no mistakes: the creation emerges in real-time with your input. It's nice to be able to see, quickly, the fruits of your decisions.

her own drawing table up in the loft suite

overlooked a living room

the energy was inventively productive

It gave me security

swing and balance

        levity

inside the artists' cloister

beside her

(I distinctly remember wanting to put so many more words on this, but less is more. "Killing your darlings," even in collage, is so hard.)

Time has collapsed

recognizing who came

before

challenges the cannon

(I like the dark doom of sparkling stars in this collapse of time and space...)

This one is my favourite so far. <3  

In the land of retinal delights nothing is sacred.

This day is the first time I realized I could cut pieces into smaller pieces to make different looking texture. The background behind 'rhetorical weapons' is cut from four different squares. Seems like an obvious thing to do now!

TWO MIRRORS

ARE AT

THE HEART

OF THIS

KALEIDOSCOPE

(Sometimes you need a lot of noise on the page!! Especially if you're entering a kaleidoscopic realm...)

sweet little bird by the window 

that is all

And to end on a fun note.

Some good ol' fashioned FAKE NEWS. :D

Until next week,

-Erika

--

• Check out Week 1 when I hatched this bizarre plan to switch up my morning routine :P
  
  
• Join our Creative Cross-Training course, to find your own creative routine.