Thoughts on collage for curious and playful minds.
Matisse, cut and paste, new perspectives.
It was a chilly night; I was wearing so many layers under an already super thick cardigan in a heavy cotton – we eventually parted ways because it made me feel puffy and gave me sore shoulders! I still can’t believe I got to see this grand scale paper cut outs by Matisse called ‘The Snail’, it was snowing in Bankside that night and we ate dinner at the Tate Modern Restaurant. This photo was taken on a little digital camera, no smartphones, without the distraction of posting reels of our romantic and artful adventures and spoiling the exhibition for others, or the sheer surprise of seeing not one, but two foxes dashing about in the snow after dinner with all the lights of Christmas still a blaze and shortly after a New Year’s spent on the Tower of London Bridge!
There were three famous artists I encountered before I turned 9 years old: Henri Matisse, Vincent Van Gogh, and Pablo Picasso. Their impact has been significant although I didn’t realise it naturally at the time. I was just a regular little girl loving art classes, flowers, drawing, and cut and paste. More recently, I have been interested in how early your aesthetic eye can develop and in what ways it matures as we age, when does it change exactly and how often, at what point did I decide I no longer liked luncheon meat and tomato sauce sandwiches and that my desire to wear sequins would ebb and flow throughout the years that followed? Honestly, I’m not sure, but social influences, economics, study, and career pathways played a role.
After lockdowns, it has taken me a while to establish a better rapport with my artistic practice and not feel like I need to turn every aspect of what I seem to be ‘good at’ into something that can be profitable or more formal study even if it’s small. I had some friends over for an artsy afternoon of a cornucopia of food, drinks, free drawing exercises to warm up and then some collage and inks. I made sure that I also participated fully and didn’t slip into my comfortable role of being the doting host making sure everyone else was having a fun time and forgoing a sit down and a meal myself! This time we all had a relax in our own way depending on what activity we chose, this is one of my favourite settings, art, food, and friends. I have noticed that collage gets people talking, children tell stories about the little world they are crafting with the obscure and colourful layers they put together as they go, collage can be highly creative and stimulating and at times funny!
Over the coming weeks, I’m going to continue to move creatively with collage, silly lines of text, and quick sketches. I will share them on our private chat for my paid subscribers. Let me know in the comments or by email if you are interested in online creative arts-based workshops, live seminars, collage play and artful chats.