Lately I’ve been trying to explore subjects that I haven’t spent much time on in the past. Generally I avoid still life or landscape compositions, so this year, I’m trying to work on tackling more still life collages. “Sushi Time” is a piece that I completed the other night, inspired by one of my favorite foods. I had a lot of fun working on the detailing of this piece – including cutting out the tiny pieces of paper to mimic the texture of rice in sushi rolls.
To think it’s not even March, yet somehow I’ve made more artwork in the first couple of months this year than I usually make in several months each year. Needless to say, it’s been a very creative year. This piece, “That’s Bananas,” is part of a food collage series I’m working on. Most of the pieces in the series will remain a bit of a secret until I finish the project. However, whenever I create a piece that won’t be included in the project, I’ll definitely share both the progress and the finished collage here. I currently have several projects in the works.
One of my goals this year was to be more creative than in previous years, and if I maintain the momentum I’ve had so far, I’ll be able to accomplish just that. I’m looking forward to sharing more of my projects that are currently in the works.
I can’t believe it’s already 2025. Last year I didn’t get to focus as much energy as I wanted to on creative projects, but this year will be different. I’m planning to focus more energy on making new work, marketing my work, creating more video content (both short and long content), as well as finally starting to experiment with different mediums and styles. Back in college as an Art Major, experimenting with different mediums was built into my weekly schedule. But since then, I’ve been bad about experimenting with my craft if I’m not taking a dedicated art class. So this year I have plans to roll up my sleeves and get messy with making mistakes, learning new creative skills, and seeing where experimentation takes me.
Already with the New Year, I’ve completed three new collages. This apple piece is one of my recent works, and it was an extra collage made in a series I just started that focuses on food as the subject matter. I’m working on a project that I’ll share more details on when it’s finished, but in the meantime, you most likely won’t see other food collages like this one unless they’re extra collages that were made in the series that won’t be used.
Here’s to a New Year, and I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season!
The other day I heard from Mrs. Crooks who shared her student art from Class 1 at the Ysgol Gellifor School in Wales, UK. Her students range from ages 3 – 7. They studied my collages as part of their food topic in school where they made their own “painting with paper” collages.
The students used a variety of solid and textured magazine cutouts to make their collages.
Once the students completed their pieces, they covered their pictures with PVA glue.
I really enjoyed taking a look at the variety of colors and subjects the students collaged. They did an excellent job of making these works of art inspired by food, and it’s very impressive that they are such young artists. Collage can be a very challenging medium for beginners since it requires the patience to page through magazines to find the right colors and textures, as well as cutting and layering all the bits of paper.
