Continuing to Teach, and Learn
I'm continuing to teach my Art of Mixed Media Collage class. I held the second class in April and have another scheduled for July 22 at Green Door Art Gallery in St. Louis.
As a demo for the April class I started the small collage pictured at the left. The finished piece is titled, Spring Time.
I am also continuing the lessons from the Collage Maker’s Summit class. Following the lesson was from collage artist, Hannah Klaus Hunter, I began by creating a series of gel prints using various stencil patterns and limited color schemes. Those papers were selected and arranged in simple grid formations, using only 4 different papers. I then added a few simple elements of my own that I felt enhanced each piece. The results are the 2 collages pictured below.
The piece on the left is titled, Autumnal, and the one on the right is titled, The Source. The embellishments I added to that piece were the Japanese kanji symbols for woman, strength, and life.
The piece on the left, The Sum of Its Parts, is another of my interpretations from the Collage Maker’s Summit class. The artist for this lesson was Sarah Short. She focused on using letter press type on old book pages. I mimicked the type, but used stencils instead. I also incorporated some text from a few older books of my own as well as printed patterns created using my gel plate. I liked using the larger printed type and cutting it up to focus on the shapes.
The most recent lesson that I completed from the summit course was taught by Kellee Wynne Conrad. She began with a demo of her Grid Journal course. I’ve done small “sketch” or journal exercises before, and initially I thought I’d skip this part. I’m really glad I didn’t. I had a lot of fun with these small collages!
I followed Kellee Wynne’s prompts and began with mark making and then using semi transparent papers so that the marks showed through in places.
The second part of the lesson involved sizing up from the small journal collages. I sized up to 11”x14”. The end result is the bottom image, At Dusk. I again started with some loose mark making and some transparent papers. One is cut from an old sewing pattern. The focal point is the monoprint of the rust colored leaf. I added hand painted papers, wallpaper scraps, mulberry paper, and some text from an old book. The finished piece was mounted on a cradle board.
Completing the large collage became a bit of a challenge as, about a week ago, I fell and broke a bone in my left hand and am now in a cast. Thankfully, I’m right handed!
I'm also continuing to teach at a local senior living center. My next class there is later this month. It's always a lot of fun!