Monthly Archives: September 2013
188 – a bit mad sometimes, on a Wednesday
187 – migration
186 – dreamt in tremors
185 – mutus liber
184 – chemical change
Half way through
Number 183 was the mid way point in my #Collage365 project. I am delighted with the outcomes so far: the discipline, expanding techniques, some good collages and lots of positive feedback from people round the world.
The aim was to create a small, abstract collage each day for a whole year. Originally I had intended them to be quick to do, but almost immediately I took each one to be a “serious” piece of work in its own right.
I have succeeded in completing the first half of the project and mostly it has been a joy and never really a chore. I have not “cheated” in any way and have created a new collage each day from scratch wherever I am. On some occasions I have actually created more than one collage – perhaps because I was not happy with the result and started over, or because I wanted to explore a subject in the medium – but I have never included these extras as part of the project or banked them for future use. On a very few occasions I have started a collage but been unable to resolve it and left it unfinished or kept its elements together: sometimes these have been used as the basis for another day’s piece. I may even have used a “failed” piece as materials for another collage.
Whilst I have not always been able to post the daily collage to this blog each day, I have posted them on Twitter (@DavidSmithArt) on the day, every day with one minor exception when due to technical problems I was late by less than one minute, the post getting time tagged at 00:00 on the following day. That was slightly galling but really the deal is me to me that I have the discipline of creating a collage each day,
I have settled on 6″ x 9″ (152mm x 229mm) as a standard size and aim to keep that for the rest of the project. The substrate has usually been watercolour paper and occasionally mounting board, but this may change as I may wish to explore different mediums. Increasingly I have been using materials I have created digitally or photographically to supplement found papers and objects. I feel this trend may continue and evolve with more specially created materials employed.
The inspiration to start on this came from following Patti Agapi on Twitter (@MadwithRapture). She started the challenge of #Collage365 for herself and I followed a few days later. Over time we have been joined by others (see my list on Twitter) who have liked the idea and it has been a great support and encouragement to have their feedback and support. Sadly people have not necessarily been able to stick with the project in quite the same way as I have: some having breaks for various reasons or banking in advance or catching up in bulk. Yet each has and is producing interesting work and being part of a creative, positive and friendly group around the world. I wish them all well and look forward to seeing their collages and other work in the future.