Starting a new Blog - What a Pain!

Once you get started, it's easy. Trying to get the danged thing set up is a pain in the patoot!

A Collage for the Internatonal Collage Exchange based in
New Zealand but trading around the world

Here are a few of my artworks to get us going.

Dale Copeland runs an International Collage Exchange. Artists from all over the world send their works to Dale by a specific date. One may be offered for sale. One goes into an archive somewhere in the world. The rest are exchanged between the other participants. You don't know what you'll get, but it's great fun sharing and making artful friends.

This piece is 8x10 and incorporates decorative papers, fabric swatches, fashion clippings from a 1920s catalog, a clothing label and some small embellishments.

Another exchange collage using pattern tissue, torn hand-made
paper, acrylic paints, the edge of a rubber stamp. 

I was particularly fond of this semi-abstract rendition of a swampy field with the torn paper hinting at brush and wintery trees, and possibly a broken-down fence. I was aiming for a feeling of a landscape that is calm, a bit weary, a little sad. Breathing. Snoozing. Waiting.

"Cargo"

This image, "Cargo," was selected for the archive. It is composed of burlap with brass stencils employed for the numbers and letters. The bit at the bottom is a snippet from a failed copy of a photograph that slid all over the page but that yielded some very interesting bits. Wish I could duplicate it! Pure accident, though. That strip is overlaid with red paper with bars cut out. I think that was a left-over from some other project but can't remember what.

Each of the above images was a personal challenge to try a new (to me) technique.

Participating in this exchange released me from my ATC boundaries and pushed me into larger formats. I suspect that there will be many more explorations in various sizes and formats.