I Am This Woman

(9 of 50)

Collecting things and putting them into artful arrangement is uniquely satisfying - this is the very definition of collage. But that’s a final step. First, there must be the sourcing and collecting.

I’ll discuss sourcing later, but first collecting. Humans quite simply LOVE collections and collecting. You can find a collector’s group for almost anything. Archaeologists stake their careers on the collecting habits of ancient folks; museums are temples of collected works. Anthologies, compendiums, lists of lists, memoirs and coffee table books attest to the power of the collection.

I work in publishing, so for me, reading a magazine is not the pleasurable pastime that it might be for others. I notice the editorial and advertising, the fonts, the layout of a page, of the book, the special advertising sections…

BUT when I get magazines and “read” them with scissors in hand, I enjoy them so much more. I cut phrases from advertising, callouts, titles. I swatch textures and interesting images. I crop and re-crop models, landscapes for a new feel to the full-page photo. All these bits and pieces go into a huge pile from which I draw when I sit down (usually later) to make a collage.

I don’t think too much when I’m leafing through. I just let my brain take over and I listen to the inner creative spirit. This part of me is already digesting the pieces of the magazine, and then putting them together again to take on the intended meaning. So as I page through, with scissors in hand, I don’t work so hard to put the pieces together as the editors intended, but instead look for the hint of a suggestion that a color or line or texture or turn of phrase might someday recombine in an artful way for new significance.

The little bits go into a stack, which is then stored in a page protector and filed away for the next time I sit down to make a collage. And that is another process entirely

Sometimes, I do read an article before I cut into it. I also have a clip file of collected articles that I want to read again or share. (I collect those too!)

When you think of what it is that you enjoy collecting, see if you can determine what quality or sensation drives that impulse? Is it color? line? texture? Is it tactile or olfactory? Is it a mood or feeling? Is it a sense of wealth and abundance? Is it nostalgia?

Whatever the reason, collecting is powerful, deep brain stuff, almost a force primeval.