Making An Effort

6x6 inches, paper collage

page from vintage children's book, envelope liner, altered magazine page, text, painted map

I'm making collages again, sorting through plastic bags filled with papers sorted by color, arranging and rearranging.  I try to mix up the elements in these small pieces, guided mostly by what appeals to me at the moment and pure chance.  I include both some pieces that are pretty much as found, as in the illustration of the 1950's girl on her way to school, the blue lining of a safety envelope, the "E" from the cover of an old Life magazine, and some papers that I have altered.  The text above the blue is a fragment of a child's illustrated dictionary, glazed with gesso.  The yellow paper upper right was a page from National Geographic, altered with Citra-Solv cleaner, and the map lower right was glazed with yellow paint.  There also is a bit of an old dress pattern tissue, and some random circles and splatters of gesso to tie it together.  

I try to find materials that go together because of their colors, shapes or size, but very little effort goes into coordinating them thematically.  I do not, for example search for text that has something to do with school, although the fragment is from a dictionary.  The striped blue paper was chosen simply for a splash of color that punches up the reds.  The pattern tissue was chosen for its color and the way it pulls disparate papers together - plus I have lots of it.

One of these days I need to start painting again, but for now I am happy cutting and pasting.