Collage art

I sometimes become a bit compulsive when doing art, and one of my little quirks is how much I love my little scraps of ripped paper. I used them in almost all of my paintings, whether they are mixed media acrylic paintings on large canvases or wood panels or little pieces of rag paper like this one. For instance, I finally used some of this piece of corrugated paper that was in a vintage set of pastels. I’ve been holding onto this scrap for a long time and finally decided to use it.

I tried to make this almost purely collage, with very little paint, other than some of the scraps being pieces of my own ripped up artwork.

When I start a collage like this, I don’t have any sort of plan. It’s a creative expression that I enjoy. After just going with it and sticking things where I feel they should go, I will usually stop and pick it up another time, and see what direction to take it. With this one, I decided for one thing that it was upside down.

I decided to try to make this collage have more recognizable elements in it, so I used some things cut out of magazines, like the doors and steps as well as a chandelier. I finished it, as I have been doing with other rag paper collages, by sewing with black thread to create a highlight point.

I’m not quite done with the left side – it was so busy and the pieces weren’t quite working, so I might put a bit more work into it.