Monday, May 25, 2015

Collage Therapy

There has not been much time for making art over the past ten days or so. The end of the school year has kept me very busy with the school our church has adopted. An exciting thing that happened last week was that our public school system held a meeting pulling their faith based partners together. We adopted a public school ten years ago and have long had a dream of seeing a church connected with each of the 40 elementary schools. Our new superintendent has been very open to this and we are now halfway to our goal. It was a great half-day event hearing the stories of the many different ways the partner churches are serving the schools. As much as I love networking and being at events such as this, as an introvert, I find that once the adrenaline wears off my energy just drains from my mind and my body and leaks out through my toes. The hard part about this past week was that after having events during the day each day, I then had events in the evenings. Not much time or energy left for creativity! 

I have had an idea floating around in my head for quite some time that I finally started putting to paper before this 10 day stretch of activity. So each day I tried to sit down for 10 or 15 or 30 minutes and do a little work on my page. I love collage and taking pieces of paper and making a design with them. I have taken magazine paper or painted papers and made sunburst designs to serve as backgrounds.




I even collaged circles inside a sunburst.


I have collaged strips of paper to fill a page or to simply make borders.



I have used pieces of paper to make objects, such as the nest on this page.

And of course I have collaged circles.



The idea that has been in my head for quite a while is to use paper to collage a mosaic or stained glass effect. So in the little bits of time this past week I cut small pieces of painted papers and glued them into a design...






And that became my page for this week's Take Me Deeper devotion.


Now, I realize that this may seem tedious and a lot of work for an art journal page background, but it is amazing to me how therapeutic cutting and gluing little pieces of paper can be. So throughout this busy stretch those bits of time were like being on an oasis during a long desert journey. Those bits of time each day would refresh me. Those bits of time in the evening combined with time in prayer and the Bible each morning restored the energy I need to keep the busy pace of a long stretch of high activity. And now that I finally got that idea out of my head, I'm quite pleased with it and looking forward to doing more. 

Last weekend the His Kingdom Come Foundation Team launched a collaborative class that we did together while on our retreat last month in Florida. The class is called The Zigzag Postcard Book and we each taught the others how to do a technique which then became five postcards and the basis for the book. I taught the other ladies how to do a paper collage sunburst - big surprise, huh?! Here are some glimpses of the book I put together. I used Psalm 51 as a theme for my book. What was really fun was how different all five books ended up.







If you would like to participate in the class you can pop over to the His Kingdom Come website. You will need to join the site, which is free, in order to sign up for the class. And while you're there consider joining our weekly devotion and faithart challenge, Take Me Deeper. We offer a weekly devotion with Bible study ideas and challenge our group to express what they read and studied through their favorite creative medium. Shameless plugs, I know!

Enjoy your holiday today!

18 comments:

  1. Love seeing all your collage pates with the variety they display. I'm taking the Zig-Zag class online, and will probably start my cards with your sunburst collage project. The mosaic one you did is lovely- and I like working with small bits, too.

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    1. Thanks Nancy! I'm looking forward to seeing your postcards and your book. Enjoy the class!

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  2. I loved this post, loved how you have found your style and your medium! I collage but your expressions with collage are stunning and so creative. Thanks for sharing!

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  3. Mary, I LOVE LOVE LOVE what you are doing here. I have had this picture in my mind of the circle radiating out of the center of "I AM" and meaningful words. You have done it! The message of it, and now after reading your process and the meaning, have encouraged me so much! Thank you!

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    1. Thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words, Valerie. :)

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  4. Great post!! I just love your collage style. Love you!!

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  5. Hi, This is wonderful! Great idea! Love the post!
    (p.s. i live in FL too....)

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  6. Hi, This is wonderful! Great idea! Love the post!
    (p.s. i live in FL too....)

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    1. Thank you Nancy! I don't actually live in Florida, I was just there on a retreat. I live in Ohio. :)

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  7. Wow! Love it! Yes, a lot of work, but such great results. I like the colors and especially like the bird one and the next one.

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  8. Mary,
    Thank you so much for sharing your art and your heart with us, I so appreciate your transparency. And your art and expressions of faith never cease to amaze me! These pages are altogether lovely. My dream is to take an in-person class from you. Until then, I'll dream and buy your tutorials. :-) God's Peace...

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    1. Pamm, you are always encourage me so. Thank you, dear friend!

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  9. I forgot to say that I so LOVE the bird nest collage! And the circles and sunbursts always inspire me!

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  10. J'aime beaucoup votre travail de collage et son rendu. j'aime la transparence et la douceur qui s'en dégagent. Je ne comprends pas toutes les finesses de vos écrits, n'étant pas assez forte en langue anglaise pour cela, mais malgré tout, je vous remercie pour le partage de votre beau travail!

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  11. Thank you for sharing your amazing work. I am very inspired and can't wait to see more.

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