I have an art journal dedicated to collage work. Above are three of the pages in that art journal. I am using it to do this collage informative blog today.
I have found some
ephemera, for this page, and have painted the background my darkest color in that ephemera.
HINT: Ephemera is a word of Greek origins meaning “only lasting one day” It now means paper products that are collectible, preserved, and used for its artistic purposes. Ephemera can be such things as cards, tickets, napkins, photos, anything paper that can be repurposed and collaged into art pieces or pages. Ephemera is used to pull together a design for a page by being cut up or torn to be made into everything from a background, flower, an envelop or part of a painting. It might be images that are scanned and then used as a whole part or a part of the whole.
With this page, I am choosing some background scrapbooking paper, in part. I have cut out a main focal image and will place bits and pieces around it. I have chosen images, in all my previous pages and this page, bits and pieces that will express what my Muse desires to express…without a plan in mind other than, “I shall use these bits”. The final page is not in my imagery yet.
Doing collage helps that blank Page Syndrome. Although ephemera can be someone else’s art and is free if bought as background materials, it is a great place to show your personality and artistic expression of self. It is, actually, a good idea to leave some blank areas when adding ephemera because it allows for more of your own artistic expression as well.
Make friends with your art journal. Shut off your inner critical voice and search through magazines, old cards, wallpaper, Don’t let that voice have you drift away from what will become your place of meditation, prayer, deep consideration, and soul expression.
Grab things coordinated in color, in theme, and begin pasting it down with a glue stick or any paper glue. Practice placing bits and pieces until you get them set in a place that feels good to you. Remember this is for you not for anyone else; you only share what you wish to share. If you wish to share, to get feedback, to have others make suggestions (and take them as only that), it is good to share because brainstorming together is better than trying to do it all alone at times.
This is a simple collage, yet it is me working through the dying process of my most beloved sister-in-law. This is getting so tough… we are praying she goes… no food or water or anything but morphine for 9 days now. Yet, her heart thrums on. It has been a lesson in being grateful for the going. This page speaks to that as I process another loss of a beloved one.
I finished the page with making some pen marks and adding a bit of blue wash to tie the page together more seamlessly.
The deep personal reason for this page is in honor of my most beloved sister-in-law who spent every day for many winters together in Yuma. It was a time of me getting to bond with my brother (my maternal family found me in 2007 and I have one full brother and he, Ev, and my husband bonded so beautifully hiking the mountains and spending most waking hours together. One of my favorite memories and one I hang on to and have been thinking of is that my husband is up in heaven calling out to her, ”Ev, you-up yet?” I am grieving hard for my brother who is so lost and so hurt. I am grateful Ev’s struggle with vascular dementia is over. I have to cling to my belief that they, Esqueese (Richard’s little dog that we had to put down a week or so ago, and whose favorites were Richard and my brother) are up there climbing mountains, seeking rocks, with Ev carrying pocketsful and bucketsful and Richard saying she can’t take all of heaven with her and their bright joyful laughter at being together again. I have to believe that. I do!
©Carol Desjarlais 4.11. 21
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