COLLAGE THERAPY
Collage therapy is what I call this process. Looking through my stash of left over snippets of paper and applying them to a page in my art journal with liquid matte medium.
Here is my collection of snippets…vintage sheet music, national geographic papers which have been altered with Citrasolv, scrapbook papers, and my favorite..bleeding tissue that has been used to create colorful pages and dried. You can see in the first photo how the tissue will still leave some color on the page when it is adhered with matte medium. I use bleeding tissue a lot in my classes and always save the remnants for times like this.
When applying, I let my muse do the work and resist the urge to layout the page. I grab pieces and lay them on the page, building layers without a plan. This is why it is therapuetic, creative intuition is at play and I enjoy attaching the pieces randomly.
Using up stash, and it really does take a lot of snippets to fill a 12″x10″ page. Take a look at the hand stamped clothing tag in the upper right. I collect the hard cardboard tags when I buy something new, cover it with gesso and then stamp with one of my own stamps. For this I put it in the collage, other times I add a piece of ribbon and use it for an element in my art journal, it’s a mini upcycle.
Tissue is always a great element to use because of how it sinks into the page. So much texture because of the different types of papers!
Done! It was a great way to spend some quick creative time and get my mind on a positive activity without too much trouble. Give it a try and let me know how you enjoy collage therapy, it is surely cheaper than other types of therapy…ha! And I love using all the fragments I have saved..for such a time as this. Stay tuned for another tutorial where I will demonstrate how I used this page as an underlayer for painting. Next up…painting a grid over collage… tutorial coming soon!
