Until now, my collages have had nearly exclusively black and white (or black and off-whites of various sorts) elements and then I added all the color myself. In this one, I took a different approach.
I have in mind a larger piece (this one is 12" x 12") with two cat drawings and lots of flowers along the theme "innocence amidst beauty." This is in preparation for that larger one and is an experiment with technique.
This photo is actually of the second layer. All that was on the first layer was my cat drawing, a few text pieces around the edges, and three or four large tree-filled landscape and garden scenes covering most of the background.
From there I went on to add this myriad of little shards of flowers, ranging from very tiny - like the iris and sweet peas in front of her fur - to rather large - like the peonies in the center of the right side. A very few are carefully cut out, but most are torn, which I prefer unless I need a clean edge.
I read a piece by Seth Apter in "Cloth, Paper, Scissors" magazine about collage artists either being auditioners - placing and re-placing pieces until they were happy with the composition and then gluing them down - or committers - immediately gluing the first piece in place, then the next and the next, letting each commitment guide the next choice.
Well, in this piece I was definitely an auditioner. I would say that working with the black and white backgrounds I've generally been a committer in the collage part, then altering everything later with paint. But with the added element of color involved in the placement of the pieces, it seemed easier to make a mistake that I couldn't easily get out of later - so more caution seemed advisable.
Anyway, here I am at the beginning. Now it's time for a long assessment before proceeding.
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