A Summer of Collage
col · lage
[ˈkɒlɑːʒ, kəˈlɑːʒ]noun
A piece of art made by sticking various different materials such as photographs and pieces of paper or fabric on to a backing.
The art of making collages.
A collection or combination of various things
Most of you will have had some experience of creating a collage in the past, I am sure. From a simple layering of images cut from a magazine and arranged together, to using tiny torn pieces to build up areas of colour and form, it can be an incredibly mindful activity.
This is why the Thortify team adopted collage as a basis for many of the self care workshops they run. It provides the perfect springboard for those who feel they don’t have any artistic talent, and can really fire the imagination!
Before Christmas, Lauren trialled a series of Collage Club sessions, inviting people to
Explore our collection of paper treasure and collage away to your heart’s content in a relaxed and supportive environment.
As predicted, the sessions proved popular and the feedback encouraged us to plan for more in the future.
And so here we are…
It’s summer, I have a little extra time when schools break up, (I don’t tutor during the school holidays as those kids need to enjoy their downtime) so I got planning!
The workshop kit has already been expertly set up by Lauren, so all I needed to do was top up the paper resources and I was good to go! I am sitting typing next to a pile of magazines ready to recycle right now actually.
I tend to find the preparation of collage materials also quite a subconsciously soothing activity. Carefully cutting out words, phrases and images takes a fair bit of concentration, and before I know it an hour has passed and I have lots to add to the collage stash.
…using tiny torn pieces to build up areas of colour and form, it can be an incredibly mindful activity.
Collage was fairly new to me when I began working with Lauren on Thortify workshops. I remember at primary school, we used to rip up coloured paper from magazines to build up sky pictures with bright yellow suns and grey and white clouds made from the text parts.
Back then I was fascinated by the snippets of sentences stuck together randomly to make up the body of my clouds.
Lauren has helped me to understand the further artistic merits of collage. Taking words and phrases out of context is fun. It can add a thoughtful message or a surrealist feel to a collage built from images.
In a Bee Creative session recently, we focued on the theme of surrealism and enjoyed pushing the boundaries and produced a collection of quirky postcards. Working closely with Lauren has taught me about the versatility of creating collage.
It provides the perfect springboard for those who feel they don’t have any artistic talent…
Unlike other artforms it’s pretty portable, a few sheets of paper or card, cut-outs, scissors and glue is all you need really to get started.
Thortify’s collage kits have carefully selected packs of words, images and backgrounds for workshop participants to rummage through and choose what inspires them. They use them to create postcards, moodboards and self care art journals — wherever their ideas lead them.
Watching participants on that Monday, reminded me of the total absorption that occurs whilst working out what goes where and what else is needed so the artwork feels complete. Like many weeks, we over-ran as we were so oblivious to the time passing.
“Collage is a journey, escapism, and a joy. There may be lots of different changes of direction as you start working on your project and it’s easy to get totally absorbed in the process, giving your mind a escape from the worries you might be harbouring.” (AJ — Bee Creative)
I am really looking forward to delivering more sessions over the summer! Join us if you can.
Peace and paper play!
Deb Thortify
