Problem Solving with Text
Problem Solving with Text
Tiny Little lessons at the Collage Table
Welcome to this series’ Collage Circle focus: TEXT
If you missed the video introduction to this topic, you can find the full video HERE.
Problem Solving with Text
This week I humbly share the collage that got away from me.
This funny little piece started as a lesson in making text (as opposed to the found text mentioned last week) using my left-over garage sale stickers with my set of letter stamps.
This collage quickly became a lesson in why the arts are so valuable in a broader societal context.
The Art of Problem Solving
What started as this humble beginning…
… quickly escalated into many attempts to make the letters work within the broader collage, and “failing”.
How it went.
The stamp on the circle stickers was too light (I couldn’t see the letters very well).
Stamping them a second time created smudges, but improved the letter visibility. Still, they didn’t work with the background.
Adding a black pen to outline the letters helped in some places to break up the circles, but not in others. The black made the yellow too bright and created odd shapes all around that didn’t mesh with the rest of the collage.
Softening the circles with crayons and markers helped, a little.
Breaking up the postcard image with blocks of color to integrate the letters helped a bit too.
I’ve now looked at it too long, and now nothing looks right again.
Eventually, it’s time to take a break and take a fresh look at it later.
So much of art making is working with what you have and making changes and edits to produce a more favorable result. It is an endless roundtable of ideas being pitched, assessed, and then tossed out or implemented. Again and again. It is not giving up. It is accepting where things are at that moment and either finding another route to try or taking a breath to see things with a fresh eye later. It is about working through frustrations, excitement, disappointment, and energic outbursts, and recognizing the need to take time to rest and recharge.
And hence, I sit here, recharging.
Even so, when I look at this funny little collage, it makes me smile. While I do not find it entirely satisfying from an art and design perspective, I do find the little beavers “making their mark” a ridiculous bit of fun. Which is a good place to leave it for today. Or any day, really.
Happy collaging,
Jennifer
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A place to learn and grow - introducing Principles of Art, Elements of Design, and self-expression through collage with consideration for materials and the stories they hold.
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