A whirl of collage

Last week's collage workshop in Baton Rouge was the greatest. It's awesome how easily people get into collage once they understand the basic materials and processes. Collage is non-intimidating to beginners and useful to more skilled artists who want to master design and color. First we talked about setting up a workspace conducive to collage techniques. Then the class made magazine theme collages to learn about adhesives and supports for collage. Day two was devoted to design and color with Color-aid or other solid colored papers as the "palette." On the third day we moved on to rice and mulberry papers, using them to laminate or overlay supports. The next day was great fun as the class created monotype papers with acrylics or watercolor paints to use in their collages. The final day was a wrap-up of techniques with discussion of copyright and exhibition issues pertinent to collage. There was no "pressure to perform." The idea was to do a lot of pieces using as many different techniques and materials as possible. Most pieces were a half-sheet (15" x 22") or smaller. Everybody in the workshop completed one or more pieces every day for five days. This week I'm teaching the same workshop in a four-day format in Dayton. Today was the first day and it looks like we're on a roll. I love teaching this workshop!