Thursday, June 22, 2006

Twenty-minute collage


The collage posted here is my submission to Claudine Hellmuth's podcast #5. For those unfamiliar with Claudine, she's a very successful collage artist, and she occasionally posts "challenges" on her blog. She presents a theme - in this case the theme was the word MACHINE. Artists who visit her blog are invited to make a 20-minute collage that fits the theme, and then briefly describe the artistic process behind it. You can see my previous podcast submissions at the right. At first, the 20-minute time limit was very difficult for me, and to be honest, I usually spend about 30 minutes, but it's now very freeing to know that in half an hour, I'll have a finished piece of art. Sometimes, when you allow yourself less time to think, the art is less contrived. Here was the basic premise behind this piece...
"machine" -
What do I know about machines? I'm a girl! But then I thought - hmmm, sewing machine, or typewriter- girly machines with lots of collage potential. I found some old typewriter key letters among my stash, and created an antiqued background to go with the old letters. The heart - also an amazing machine- was cut out of a dress pattern, and glued in place. We often think with our hearts, I believe, so that's where the word "think" came from. I added hand-stitches around the heart with a black crayon. I was very satisfied with the result since the word intimidated me so much at first.

2 comments:

Debbie said...

Love the collage and the concept! I love your collages and this one is no exception. And here you thought you couldn't do anything for that word. Ha!! You never fail to step up to the plate and knock it out of the park (or at least make the pitcher duck). Keep at it chic!

Shona Cole said...

I saw the machine theme too late to do it, but I thought about what I could have done and was blank! I am impressed you pushed it and came up with something - great entry. I love the colors and the mood of it.
What a fun project it it. I have done the last 2. I agree with you on the time limit being freeing.