Re-introducing Collage O

Welcome back to the Collage Table!

Hello Collage friends!

Since I’ve been away for a few weeks and more people have joined this little weekly collage-sharing experiment, I thought I should re-introduce myself and set us up for a fresh start filled with new ideas and a lot of collage fun.

Background

Most of my art career has centered on creating warm, bright, organic paintings.

I mainly focused on composition, color, movement, and patterns reflective of the natural world. The lessons I learned from my BFA years constantly shaped my work, where painting analysis centered on the elements of art and the principles of design.

Elements of Art include Line, Shape, Value, Space, Texture, Form, and Color.

Principles of Design include Contrast, Pattern, Emphasis, Unity, Movement, Balance, and Proportion.

“Formal analysis is an important technique for organizing visual information. In other words, it is a strategy used to translate what you see into written words. This strategy can be applied to any work of art, from any period in history, whether a photograph, sculpture, painting or cultural artifact.” ~ Kennedy-Center.org

While I have been a professional artist for two decades, I only recently started collaging. My experience as a painter, though, has brought a perspective to the art form, which (I hope) can contextualize my choices as I put together mini collage art and share what I learn as bite-sized creative insights in my weekly

Collage O

posts.

The Collage Table

To start - I am proof that you don’t need much space to collage. My little wall fold-out table serves me well as a place to gather my supplies each week (sorted in tubs under the couch and bed) and see what I can put together.

The video from this early Collage O post, “Collage Focus: Line” is available HERE.

I was also recently inspired by artist Amy Decker (Instagram) to create a portable box of supplies stored by the couch to make any space collage-ready. Thanks, Amy!

Collage Inspiration

I am often asked where I get my inspiration for my collages. Sometimes, it’s easy—a photo or vintage postcard immediately sets the scene. Most of the time, however, I don’t know where to start, so I start collecting interesting supplies from my various boxes and see what I think will work together from a compositional and/or story point of view. I like gathering multiple textures, backgrounds, materials, and two or three images as potential focal points.

Suppose I’m still unsure where to start or don’t have the energy to think through my designs (because, yes, art creation can take some serious mental work). In that case, I may spend my collage time experimenting with or preparing materials for future collages—which is how I found myself today, trying out a new selection of Holbein Gouache paints that I recently purchased.

Preparing papers for future collaging is a great way to add to your collection of supplies and your chosen color palette. It’s also an opportunity for low-stakes experimentation!

Sharing my Collage Practice

I feel fortunate that I could share my collages recently at two Oregon events: Art in the Pearl and Corvallis Fall Festival (and hopefully, that’s how some of you found me here). My mini little collages—“BKind”¹ art on a card that I thought was wacky and doubted anyone would find interesting—have found their people! And I am so grateful for everyone who took the time to enjoy them, be inspired by them, and even purchase them. I never imagined my new obsession could be interesting to so many people.

These little collages have come a long way from the original art cards I made from overstocked promotional postcards, which I then mailed to my note card subscribers as their “free bonus item” of the month… (THANK YOU, subscribers - your encouragement kept me going!)

- to the creative conjurings that took them in a myriad of themes and directions, leading to these latest little pieces now part of the collection available at For Artsake Gallery in Newport, Oregon.

Going Forward

As I wrote in my last post, I’ve had a busy few months! It made me realize I had to change what I offer in this Substack - which you can read more about in “The Future of Collage O”.

Since this post I have updated the “About” section of

Collage O

and again request that anyone who may have concerns about the change in paid subscription offerings, please feel free to contact me via my website or here on Substack.

In the meantime, I will be looking for a way to incorporate that cute fox image from a vintage children’s book into my next collage session.

I hope that going forward, what I offer in these weekly Substack posts will still inspire and provide insights into creative collaging. And I hope to meet you here again next week, ready for action!

Creatively yours,

~ Jennifer

1. The BKind philosophy

Being mindful of resources
while creative in expression
and showing kindness
to the planet and each other

https://www.jenniferlommers.com/bkind