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Collage

Call them what you will… photomantages, assemblages, collages these are images made from cut pieces of other images. I used mostly magazines but also use old books, dictionaries, photographs and scrap paper. I don’t know what other people use for their glue but I’m almost embarrassed to admit I use elmer’s glue and often stick glue. A word of caution, after awhile elmer’s fails and the pieces are a little too easy to pull apart.

My favorite all time collage artist is Hannah Hoch. There are several amazing books of her work: Cut with a kitchen knife; The photomontages of Hannah Hoch; Hannah Hoch: Album; etc.  Hannah sprang from the Dada movement but worked far beyond, working her entire life in this media. I was reintroduced to Hoch by a college friend, Matt Adams who is himself a rather fantastic collage artist and his father, David Adams is an amazing collage artist as well. I do not know their working methods or how others are drawn to this medium but for me it is a very freeing way to work. I have small boxes filled with legs, arms & hands, backgrounds and animals just waiting for me to figure out what to pair them with. Nothing is off limits. My biggest problem seems to be whether I can find what I’m looking for. Modern magazines are annoyingly filled with airbrushed perfectionism from the whitest teeth to totally unblemished skin on waif-like starlets and models. My favorite magazines therefore are National Geographics because… gasp! there is evidence of wrinkles, facial hair and belly rolls.

Trust me on this, there are innumerable collage artists in the world so go exploring your local library or the internet for images to inspire.

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