Cut, Paste & Cringe

There is always a lot of cutting, tearing, pasting going on around my studio, but I have always wanted to take a collage class.....

I just love to pick stuff up and make collages....
The day after Lunar New Year I was walking with a friend in Chinatown (hello Adrienne) and stopping every few feet to pick up the firecracker wrappers all over the sidewalks.
How could I possibly resist?
I went back a few days later to find more to play with but they were all gone.

I've been having fun making collaged postcards and note cards with the wrappers...something I try to do every new year.

I went to Scrap that same day and found 15 or 16 of these "starts" -- collaged postcards with dictionary pages and sheet music and gesso....

They just called out to me and I had to bring them home and work on them to make collages. A collaboration with an unknown artist. How mysterious and fun.
I can't wait to see what I do with them.

Then, on Wednesday night, I packed up my scraps and apron and headed on over to my first collage class at Fort Mason here in SF. A beautiful location right on the SF Bay and SF City College has an art campus over there....

I make collages every day but they are all pretty small. Most of them are like the pile above, 4x6 inch postcards to mail out. I have made some 8x10 collages as well. My goal is partly to learn to work in a larger format. 

The class was challenging, for sure.  The instructor has each class member stand on a table  while we had one minute to cut out their forms with a scissors....like the Matisse cut-outs. I can tell you mine certainly looked nothing like Matisse's cut-outs.
After that we were supposed to make collages with them......
challenging, for sure, since this is nothing like the way I usually work.
But, really, that is the point of taking a class - to learn something new.

My finished collage......I have no idea why all that pink is on there since I don't even like pink...in fact, I don't like the collage either. I think I will cut it up into postcards. Maybe it will work that way...

The third part of the class was a critique session -- each person (16 or 17 of us) hung our collages on the wall one at a time and had to say something about what we were thinking about what we were making it. (Me? I was thinking how anxious I was). Then one person from class would critique the work and then the instructor would give a critique. All in three minutes. Just like art school.

I think getting out of your comfort level is a good thing. Even if it isn't fun at the time. If you are always doing things you are good at then you really aren't challenging  yourself.
I read somewhere many adults never want to put themselves in a challenging or uncomfortable position in public.
I don't really think that is a good thing.
I'm going back for four more weeks and I'm going to do it again.

(My French classes were pretty nerve-wracking too).

Even if I did have to go home an have some tea and cookies to calm my nerves. Ok, I may have had a little glass of wine too.
Wish me luck and we'll see how it goes. I hope I get better at making collages and learn some new things. And I hope I get better at being brave when facing an uncomfortable challenge.
This is a learning experience an I am not trying to make a masterpiece in class.
Just trying to learn more about collage.

Any of you challenging yourselves with something too?
Do tell.

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(and do something creative every day)