PROCESS: Collage for the Soul...

 ...Have been teaching collage workshop classes for two weeks now, at Bloomfield College and the Montclair Art Museum... Deeper I head into the subject, the deeper my own personal exploration with papermaking and the possibility of combining the two mediums becomes.

I have added a special page of resources to this blog called "Collage Workshop" for students from both course. But of course I wish to share the info with all who are interested. The page contains most of my ever growing list of resources and favorite artists on the subject. For example: just now I am waiting for two books on the subject: Creative Wildfire: An Introduction to Art Journaling - Basics and Beyond, by L.K. Ludwing, and Collage : A New Approach, by Jonathan Talbot, which covers a variety of mounting techniques.

In addition to the books listed above and the ones listed on the "Collage Workshop" page, I have been inspired by Art Heals, How Creativity Cures the Soul, by Shaun McNiff, and Masters: Collage: Major Works by Leading Artists, by Lark Books and edited by Juror Randel Plowman. The latter of which introduced me to the works of Cecil Talbot and  James Michael Starr. Both of whom I find a real kinship with, as much as with the work of Nancy Egol Nikkal, and blogger friends Leslie Avon Miller  and Donna Watson. 

Like papermaking, collage is a very approachable intuitive amd personal process... Teaching it has increased my own desire to unearth some of those valuable bits of papers I have been hording around the studio and putting the to work! Trying some of the new process techniques I have been reading about.   

The above art: 

Morning Song, for Sue: 2009, 
Handmade Paper/Collage/Acrylic on Canvas  36”H X 48” W

I created especially for my sister Sue, who has inspired me the past few years

with determination to not let debilitating pain and ongoing health issues dampen her spirit. She is a morning song all unto herself!