I can hardly believe it’s been ten days since I last updated–time’s gone so quickly.
In that time, I’ve been playing with collage. I have a stack of postcards upon which I’ve made simple mosaic-like patterns from cut-up magazine photos. (And I’ll say this: Real Simple is the most boring lifestyle magazine in existence, but it’s full of photographs that make for excellent paper mosaic fodder–I got eight whole cards’ worth out of one issue).
At any rate, before gluing on the “tile” pieces, I painted each card with a background color that would either coordinate or contrast with the source photo, and some of the results are pretty cool. They invite the addition of paint and other collage elements, and as I’ve worked on them I’ve thought up possible imagery, and even little stories about those images.
I’m pleased with what I’ve managed to get done this week, and I’ve had fun doing it, but as always I’ve had to confront old patterns of negative thinking. This week’s biggies?
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“You haven’t made any finished work, just a bunch of bits and pieces.”
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“Magazine clippings always fade; any finished images you create with them won’t last if you display them.”
Yes, permanency is always an important consideration when creating art for sale. If someone is going to pay good money for your work, with the expectation that it will look as good in 20, 40, or even 100 years as it does right now, you owe it to them to use lightfast, stable materials that will hold up over time.
But that’s not what I’m doing here. I’m not making serious Art; I’m playing. And picking on myself for using magazine clippings is just stupid. It’s also self-defeating, because rather than actually making something it puts me back into the cycle of making something so that I can make something. That habit of endless preparation means that I have lots of stretched and primed canvases on hand, but no finished paintings, or even the beginnings of paintings.
So yes, I will eventually get around to making hand-painted papers, in custom colors, to use in collage. I’ve already done a little bit of that, here and there, as I’ve had the paint on hand while working on other things. But if I start thinking that I must make my own painted papers for paper mosaic and collage, then I’ll get so wrapped up in that task that I’ll never make any mosaics or collage. Sure, I’ll end up with a stack of colorful paper, but every time I go to make something I’ll convince myself that I need to make some in yet another color in order for the project to be successful, and before I know it the moment of inspiration will have passed and I’ll never get anything done.
I know myself pretty damned well, by now. I know all the ways in which I fuck myself over mentally. But if I’m ever going to break out of those patterns, self-knowledge isn’t enough–I have to actively work against those crappy thought patterns. I have to act, even when my mind is racing with all the reasons why I shouldn’t. And if, right now, that means working with non-archival, non-lightfast materials, so be it. The whole point is to do something, every day, that involves both thinking as an artist and doing the hands-on work of art-making.
And no, that doesn’t necessarily translate into a finished piece at the end of each day. The magazine-mosaic postcards I have on hand aren’t finished works. But they are definitely in-progress, and when I get tired of making paper mosaics from magazines, and set it aside to work on creating drawings, stamped designs, and other collage elements, I’ll have something to put those elements on. Sooner or later, they will become finished pieces.
One thing I do like about using magazine photos in this way is that they impose limitations and force me to work within them. If I have a page featuring a certain shade of blue that inspires me, I have to work with the fact that there’s only so much of it, and no more. So how do I best use it? What background color will make it sing? What shapes and patterns does it lend itself best to? And meeting a challenge imposed by the materials at hand like that really frees up a lot of my creativity. Yes, I could create materials from the ground up, specifically for a project, but there’s something about having to deal with things as they are, embracing their limitations while using them to the fullest advantage, that is much more stimulating.
All that said, this paper-mosaic stuff is fun, and the results can be really stunning. I have a crummy old dining table with a Melamine top that’s in dire need of rehabbing or replacement, and I might just paper-mosaic the entire top one of these days. Or I could dig out some of the old papier-mâché frames I once made and cover those. Or I could try a few “mosaic” ACEOs. It’s got me inspired–but the danger here is that so have a lot of other things in the past, yet I failed to act on that inspiration. So what’s important right now is that I actually do something with it, getting those ideas out of the safe confines of my head and into the light of day.
