Art of Collage Exercise 6.6: Monochrome: Green

I’m somewhat guilty of putting this together just so I could use up all the cutouts and illustration boards I cut up — 6 of them in all. Not loving it, not hating it. Just so-so. I do like the marbly moon (I think it used to be a part of a dress) peeking behind the rock arch and the marbly half moon.

Monochrome Collage on a 5×5 inch illustration board

I realized, after posting all six monochromes, that it’s more than humblebragging, as I’ve said when I’ve blogged about my first monochrome. I’m that type of person who appreciates art on a very basic, if you must, superficial level. What appeals to the five senses, I appreciate. Anything beyond that, like going for a deeper dive for the truth and meaning makes it all seem so academic and even tedious. I’d get lost and lose interest.

Here comes the LESSON: Taking pictures, posting the collages I have made these past few weeks, and writing about them have taught me to look closer and even beyond the seemingly random choices of colors, textures, images I made… the “oh, how nice, I must include this picture in my collage for no reason at all” choices. Like Teacher Toots said the first time, they aren’t all that random. I never did like looking at the things I made once I was done. They made me think of other ways I could have done them. “I should have done this or that, should have used this color or that, should have put that image on the left instead of the right side…” But now, writing about them and looking at my collages several times, I think of the WHY and the WHY NOT instead of the should have/could have/ would have beens.. why I chose the particular image, why I placed it in a particular area, why I like it, why I don’t like it, etc. I am reminded of memories, I am challenged to think even deeper… I’ve never really been an introspective person but I’d like to think that I’m learning through these exercises. I am also learning a little bit more about myself.

And that’s a start.

Art of Collage Exercise 6.5: Monochrome: Pink

I thought working with the purple/fuchsia color  family would be easy because I like them (especially the distressed side of the family). But it wasn’t. This is also my least favorite among the pieces in the Monochrome series. I was supposed to add a purplish pop-artsy bull but I forgot. The bull must be underneath piles of cutouts which I don’t feel like digging through right now. There’s the head of the model which I was originally planning to use in the Gold piece.

Monochrome Collage on a 5 x 5 inch illustration board

Art of Collage Exercise 6.4: Monochrome: Blue

This was the hardest one in the series for me. But this is also my favorite. Because it was hard and because it suddenly meant something.

I seldom use blue in my work. And when I do, I use the old, distressed, gloomy and dark blues. It took me several tries with the layout.  Here are some:

Try…

…and try…

…until your eyes and heart are happy. It really does help to take pictures of several layouts before gluing them, as advised by my teacher. LESSON: take pictures of different layouts before finalizing the collage.

I’ve finally decided on this one below.

Monochrome Collage on a 5 x 5 inch illustration board

As I write this, I am reminded of music and the most beautiful semi-dream I have ever had many years ago. In my dream, I heard the most beautiful music and it made me feel so touched and happy.  I woke up in tears. My aunt, who was my roomie then, and who had already left for another country, has set her alarm to play her Puccini CD and she forgot to disable it. That was when I fell really in love with arias and classical music.

So which layout is the best?

Art of Collage Exercise 6.2: Monochrome: Red

There’s some oriental-boudoir-theater thing going on here. It works for the dream-like, whimsical theme the monochrome pieces were heading towards which, as is usually the case for dense me, I only figured out when I was already making the fourth, very difficult piece.

Here’s a little dark whimsy on a 5 x 5 inch illustration board:

Art of Collage Exercise 6.1: Monochrome: Gold

This is my favorite exercise after the Ephemera Exercise. It took me days and some sleepless nights to put the images together. Not that I’m complaining. When I was finally done, I was happy with how most of them turned out.

I think the reason why I like this exercise was because it helped me to be more focused. Usually, when I look for images, I don’t really have anything in mind. I just cut whatever looks nice. With the monochromes, I had to look for certain images in certain colors with certain textures.

This was also the exercise which help me look at things a little differently. I’ve browsed through the same old 10-12 magazines over and over and over (it was one of my challenges to myself, to not use other magazines) and each time, for each exercise, the same pages I’ve seen more than a dozen times, look a little different. Of course, I use images from paper stashes and other ephemera but I always go back to those magazines.

I made 6 Monochromes on 5×5 inch illustration boards that I cut.

I will humblebrag about this exercise by posting one entry for each monochrome.

Here’s the first one I made.

My first layout, if it were a bigger board (maybe 8×8) was this:

I was so feeling that floating fish on the curtain and the model’s makeup and my teacher isn’t really all that strict about canvas sizes and all that, but I wanted to follow her instructions as much as I could as a training for myself. So I snipped off parts of the images and removed the model and used her on another monochrome (which I unfortunately didn’t like so much).

So here you go. I thought I was done but then I saw a gold hat so I added it right before showing the piece to my teacher.

Because every horse needs a fancy hat.

Monochrome Collage on a 5×5 inch illustration board using magazine cutouts

Art of Collage Exercise 5: Functional Art

I couldn’t bear to throw away these scraps of beautiful papers. They’ve all been just lying around my already overly piled table for weeks. I’ve even used some of them on my resin coasters but I still have a lot left. When I was just about to let go, I found out about the next collage exercise.

So I used them on an old Glamourbox. I haven’t subscribed to it for maybe 3 years now but the quality of the box is really nice so I didn’t throw it away.

This is supposed to be a gift box to a friend but it was difficult to get it to open once put together. My collage teacher suggested that I put images as focal point, those with curvy lines and then frame the boxes as a work of art instead. I’d love to do that sometime once I find the right images. Unfortunately, I don’t know where to display them once framed. Someday…

Art of Collage Exercise 4: Words

Ah, I am distracted by his/her star nipples which I didn’t notice until I showed this to Teacher Toots. I don’t know what made me think that he/she was wearing a blouse before. This suddenly reminds me of my nightmare of being naked in public with no one caring except me.

There is an eye somewhere on his/her diaphragm which I thought was just a flower at first. That one I can handle, but that eyeball insectoid on his/her neck? A little creepy but I don’t want to change or cover it with something else anymore. Let this be a lesson to me to be more careful and be mindful of the little details the next time.  I even assumed earlier that he/she was a she. But looking at the upper torso now, I don’t know. But it really doesn’t matter. What bothers me more is that I am noticing these little details only now.

I thought the weirdest parts were already the skull and head of animals he/she was carrying which I also didn’t see the first time I saw the image. I covered them with non-scary, safe-looking yummy fruits.

Detail:

“So Not Apologizing For My Star Nipples” “Endless Possibilities” Collage on a 1/8 size illustration board using magazine cutouts

Lesson: Take note of the details. Don’t just cut, cut, cut and paste, paste, paste. One of my classmates commented positively on my placement of colors which I didn’t consciously do and the contrasting colors which I didn’t intentionally choose. I just wanted a skirt and lots of florals. Now that I am looking at the digital version, I don’t even like the way I cut some of the words. And just when I thought I was getting better at cutting nicely.

The Art of Collage Exercise 3: Ephemera and Memorabilia

This is my second try.

For my first try, I used some of my dad’s damaged vintage postage stamps and my excess wedding invitation and missal. It took me a long time to finish but the way it looked, it was as if I just slapped everything on carelessly. Take note, this was a couple of weeks ago. I brought it with me to class and was supposed to show it to my teacher a couple of Saturdays ago. I kept praying that she wouldn’t ask about it. And she didn’t!

So then I had another week to dig through my clutter to make another.

When I saw the Playbill, I thought it was perfect! But how can I even think of ripping apart such a precious souvenir? I fell in love with “The Phantom of the Opera” when my aunt gave me a recording of it more than a decade ago. When we saw the show in New York, I had goosebumps and I wept.

We saw it in July 9, 2011. Being July then and being July now is merely a coincidence. The dates just occurred to me a few minutes ago and I had to sift through our pictures to confirm the dates.

Anyway, I was about to put the Playbill back when I saw another copy! I have two! One of them was Husband’s.

So here it is, my second try and my tribute to the Angel of Music and Broadway.

“‘Darkness wakes and stirs imagination...’ – Music of the Night” Collage on 1/8 size illustration board using Playbill pages, scrapbook papers, Tim Holtz salvage stickers, images from a Benefit cosmetics pamphlet. July 7, 2015

Detail: (“Box 5”! I wanted to add a chandelier but I couldn’t find one that was grandiose enough)

I used Distress Ink in Walnut Stain to emphasize the outlines and age the papers. I sanded the Playbill front cover to remove the gloss and tone down the bright yellow.

I am now in love with sand paper. I’ve read about it before as a great tool for distressing but I’ve only tried it now.

LESSON 1: Always get two or even more free beautiful memorabilia. One to keep and the rest for collaging!

LESSON 2: Sand paper!

Etsy Craft Party 2015

Craft Manila held an Etsy Craft Party and I know this was last month but I still want to post because I learned something new and met several creative and passionate young people. I learned paper cutting, a craft which I thought wouldn’t be as hard but, boy, was I wrong. I spent a couple of hours sweating over what was supposed to be a simple papercut. Whew!

LESSON: Never underestimate the process of crafting anything!

I have to admit, it was addicting. I might try some papercutting in some future projects.

The one below is a kaleidoscope collage on a square cardboard and is in line with this year’s Etsy’s Kaleidoscope theme. I got most images from Benefit Cosmetics brochures which I always get from their counters whether or not I buy anything.

It doesn’t look like a kaleidoscope but still, it’s my version and it was fun to make.

Another LESSON: Stop the careless, untidy cutting — I actually started to apply this on my Art of Collage exercises already.

Maybe I should also get a pair of really nice, ergonomic scissors that don’t make my fingers swell whenever I “overcut”.

Art of Collage Exercise 2: Intentional Vision

What is my vision of my future? I never did like those vision-ish job interview questions like “how do see yourself in 5 years?” And my career development plans? Fibs. All hasty, spur of the moment fibs. Sorry, former bosses. But I’m sure they knew.

“I find it’s better to focus on what’s [right] in front of you and to keep putting one foot in front of the other.” — Mary-Kate Olsen as told to The Wall Street Journal

So, instead, here’s a reminder to myself as I keep putting one foot in front of the other:

Hey, you!

Me?

Yes, you!

Before you reach the top, you have to go places, enjoy the experience, don’t be scared of learning new things, learn new things, don’t be scared of mistakes, learn from mistakes, don’t be scared of people, meet people, learn from people, don’t be scared to dream, continue to dream. Have fun with the journey, not just the destination.  Anyway, what’s on top? More tops to reach, of course. It will never end, so might as well have fun and savor the experiences. Don’t you forget that!

Also, it’s travel time!!! It was 2011 when I had one of the best vacations in the US and it’s about time I have another one!

“Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” (Dr. Seuss) Collage on 1/8 Illustration board using magazine cutouts and scrapbook paper scraps