I’ve never done much collage, except during college design courses when we cut out magazine pictures and arranged them over a Swiss grid to make practice layouts. I liked the grid, but I found the snipping and gluing of other people’s images really frustrating. (I know, isn’t that what design is all about? But I’m a painter at heart; I like to make my own images.)

So when I signed up for the Strathmore Visual Journal Online Workshop Series, I knew I would have to be cutting and pasting. I was a little hesitant about all the cutting, and I started eye-balling magazines through the filter of a pair of scissors.

But the first workshop leader, Pam Carriker, suggested using photocopies of our own work. Simple concept, right? Use your own stuff. Mind bending. Why in the heck don’t I think of these kinds of things on my own?

When I read “use photocopies of your own work,” the brain cells where I keep my creativity leaped up and started jitterbugging across the inside of my skull. I’ve had a collage-induced dance party going on inside my head for the last two weeks.

I’m having a blast altering my own artwork. For instance, this simple watercolor portrait

became this clipped up version (with a Christmas card added)

and then it became this version.

I’m still working on it. Don’t know how it’s going to turn out. But it’s all done with photocopies, so there’s no fear! I can always copy more.

It’s not Great Art, but it’s sure Great Fun.