52 Weeks of Collage, Week 52

 

WATER.

We are a product of our environment, and this overflowing journal is a product of my year.  It is interesting that the year is ending with the word WATER.  It wasn't intentional.  I sat down and made a list of 70 some random words as they popped into my head.  I put the words in a plastic container and randomly picked the words and left them in the order they came out as.  As we round out 2021 I am feeling more emotionally connected to my creativity than ever before.  I sincerely hope that traveling with me and collage this year has you feeling more emotionally connected to your creativity!  

Some weeks the collage would just come together lickity split.  Other weeks it was more "who's ridiculously dumb idea was this anyway?".  Or days where the collage was easy and the blog post just would not for love or money write itself!  It's as if my Muse is rolling her eyes at me and saying "I did the collage, I'm not writing the post too, come on now".

     This Arteza Watercolor Journal has held up spectacularly to the challenges of the year.  I've dropped it down the stairs a number of times.  It has been walked on, laid on, or sat on by the Joey Dog.   I highly recommend it.

Its December, and water means ice or snow in these parts.

I painted some deli paper squares and patterned tissue paper with metallic sprays.  Then cut the paper into snowflakes.  Cutting them into snowflakes seemed harder than I remember it, LOL.  Next I glued them to the fancy black/blue/sparkly background.  

Final Collage.  #water  #52weeksofcollage

This final collage of 2021, welllll maybe not the final, final.  I will decorate the gray cover as well.  This was fun, I enjoyed making sparkly paper and cutting it into snowflakes.  

Final reflections on this year of collage.  

• I DID IT!!!  I MADE  A COLLAGE EVERY WEEK AND POSTED IT ON THE INTERNET FOR 52 WEEKS!  I'm always creating but not sharing and not a single focused thing.  
• I love making mixed media backgrounds.  A lot.  I would fill a journal with mixed media backgrounds just for fun.  Process over product.
• I enjoy making colorful textured paper more than cutting things out of magazines.  
• I originally intended to do the collages in batches and ahead of time.  That idea worked for about 2 months.   In hindsight I'm glad I didn't because I would have missed the spontaneous moments like adding fall foliage because its everywhere right now.  
• As I'm typing this I'm thinking of sharing a journal experience next year with less structure.  Less structure will be more fun.
• There's a fine line between structure helping to keep me focused and structure stifling my spontaneous creativity.

Coming up later this week or even next week is a video flip through of the entire journal.  Stay Tuned.  Thank you so much for traveling with me and encouraging me this year.  I appreciate you!

Wishing you a creative, colorful and safe New Year, 

Traci