When I was younger, I used to love collecting buttons, sparkly jewels, pretty pieces of paper, newspaper clippings, and receipts to collage together using Elmer’s glue and colored poster board. It was a pastime I had picked up from my older sister, and it provided me an opportunity to dump glitter all over my kitchen counter. What’s interesting looking back on this hobby of mine is that I never incorporated rhyme or reason into the illustrations… I solely crafted together things I liked into an abstract image (with no real underlying message).

What was so different about my experience in the collage workshop today was that for the first time I began to understand that collage can create realistic images… It doesn’t all have to be abstract and structured. Thinking back to Max Ernst’s graphic novel, I realized that one can create his/her own image by means of multiple other images mixed together. Thus, with this new understanding in mind, I used today as a practice run for our final project. I attempted to use various clippings I had selected to create a “realistic” or harmonious image. While the result was not the finest, I think this practice round definitely benefitted my collage skills in the long run. The final project should be very fun…