Collage

"Collage from the French Coller, "to glue" or to

stick together in a technique of art creation,

primarily used in the visual arts."

This is my second paper college.  I start with a photograph

I have taken (Pahrump NV 2011)  and then... 

 

I look through 100's of scrapbooking samples

of paper, printed, textured or whatever that I think

would  achieve the results I'm looking for. 

Then I put my printer to work.  In this case I only needed 3

different colors for the background.

The bar portion of the kitchen counter is the perfect

height for me, so out come all the tools and supplies I need to

create my design and it's close to the wine!!!

Since I wanted my collage pieces to have a stained glass or mosaic look, I

developed a process where I start with a piece of metallic black acid free 

poster board and cut it to the 9 x 12 size of my purchased frame.

Then I cut out each pattern piece, one at a time,  trim it and

glue it  down, leaving a small area between it and the

previously placed piece so it looks like grout lines.

During the design process, I planned exactly where the Great White Pelican 

would be placed to determine where my black lines would 

intersect in relationship to the Pelican head & wings.

This is a multi-layered collage, as you can see, starting with

the black poster board and then the foreground green area.  As I did

the blue areas, I tucked the lower edge of the pieces  behind the foreground area.  

 Then I cut out the pelican from the enlarged photo I created on my

computer.  It's a lot easier to cut little shapes to delineate the feathers, 

out of pater than doing the process with cut glass!!! 

Lastly non-glare glass is place in the purchased frame 

I've always been fascinated with Pelicans, and took

this photo over 30 years at Pyramid Lake NV which is

one of the 2 nesting grounds for the Great Whites in the U.S.

As I develop  my collages, I combine knowledge I have gained

from other techniques...  tapestry weaving, stained glass, mosaic, photography

and the use of color and design tips to come up with an 

original one-of-a-kind unique piece.

For example the Brown Pelican in Florida became 

the inspiration for this mosaic stepping stone, as well as

this handwoven tapestry tote bag that I wove many years ago.

And when I needed a companion piece for my stained

glass Bald Eagle, I once again picked a Pelican.