This was the first time in longer than I can remember that I had the opportunity to collage. And I absolutely loved it. There was something incredibly therapeutic in finding images, cutting them out, and playing with their placement on paper. It was a very unique way of creating art in that it offered you that opportunity and freedom to play with different layouts and combinations before having anything solidified. It was very unlike drawing in which, plan and sketch as you might like, you’re unable to move an object after you’ve outlined it or colored it. Collage lacks this kind of finality that I just found so liberating and serendipitous. It’s interesting because I remember dislike collage the first time I did it because I was very dissatisfied with the different textures and uneven edges that inevitably come out of collaging. I saw them as imperfections. But this time around, perhaps because we’ve studied it in class and I’ve come into a new appreciation of it, but I found the different textures and styles really adding to the overall piece.

Ever since the workshop, I’ve found myself to be very consciously aware of all the magazines I’ve come across and mentally putting images together in my mind to see how they would work together in a collage. When I was little, I mistakingly had the impression that collage lacked artistic ability and skill because you were using ready-made images but I’ve come to find now that i have immense respect for all collages and see that they require no end of artistic ability.