High Horizontal

5x7 inches, torn and cut altered papers

This week I am relearning what I knew for years.  One of the best ways to understand something is to explain it for someone else.

I am part of a small group of artists who meet at a local senior center (that sounds bad, but isn't), who meet once a week for a couple hours to make art and talk together.  Most paint or draw, though one other woman has been experimenting with collage work.  Officially it is called Open Art Studio, but I have come to think of it as Art Play Date.

Anyway, I agreed to demonstrate how I have been using altered papers in collage work.  I plan to demonstrate how to create the papers with CitraSolv and National Geographic magazine photographs.  It occurred to me that making the papers doesn't really give people much of a start unless I also demonstrate some examples of how I have used the papers.   Which led me to the idea that I should make a small series of abstracts with just the altered papers, perhaps also demonstrate some sample compositions.  That's why I made this one.  I used cut and torn papers horizontally toward the top of the image, perhaps suggesting some sort of landscape - or not.  My dear husband says the squares destroy the suggestion of landscape, though I disagree. I plan to make another with horizontal elements toward the bottom of the paper as well, and one with vertical elements, radial composition, and so on.

I like this little abstract as it is, but I find myself constantly wondering, "What if?"  What if I use a spray adhesive instead of a glue stick or gel medium?  What if I varnished the piece with an acrylic top coat?  What if I stenciled something over the image, or added some texture, like corrugated cardboard? How about sprayed on webbing or a bit of gold leaf?  What if I tried duplicating the colors, textures in paint in a much larger format?

Probably the only way to learn the answers is to make a series of similar pieces and try out the ideas, which multiply like wire hangers in a dark closet once I get going.  But for now, I think I had better just make the demonstration pieces and let my fellow art playmates come up with some ideas of their own.