Van Go!

While I haven't always loved art, it is most definitely one of my top passions and has been for over a decade now [yay! i've been waiting so long to be able to say that!]. I think I haven't always been into art because, as a kid and teen, I didn't know it was an option [it's still not really an option, but obviously i'm not letting that stop me these days]. See, I've never been much of an artist and I used to think that you had to have some sort of gift in order to be involved in art at all. Not true. At the same time as my interest in art was exploding all over the place, I met Joseph. He is a legit talented artist...however, he doesn't have too much of an artistic spirit. It's a shame really - put together we could be an incredible artistic force - he could create the art and I could tell everyone what it was all about and place it in a historical context. Joseph has also tried to encourage me to do some art. I've tried mucking about with watercolours, but they aren't very forgiving. What I do like and have been doing for years and years is collage [oh - and one time i was part of a friend's performance art piece].

I like collage because I hate to waste things and usually the end piece is something that is colourful and can be surprisingly artistic. I started doing collage because I used to compulsively buy magazines and then @ the end of the school year I would have dozens of them. They didn't seem worthwhile to move, and yet I hate giving things up...especially things that are as visually stimulating as a glossy magazine [okay, i have no idea how i afforded all of these magazines - but i seriously bought multiple imported magazines each week and they ain't cheap]. I made a huge collage as part of my final year of world literature in university - it was called Nasty Girls and is my favourite of all my collages [I gave it to my professor who loved it and I had a total girl crush on her]. So - here's what I created yesterday...the day is always improved when creativity rears it's ugly head...

[the picture keeps tipping on its side no matter what i do - so please just tip your head for proper viewing]



This collage is a bit of a departure for me. It was created using only two source materials - a 2007 Van Gogh day planner and a 2008 Toronto Trees desk calendar - usually my collages have lots and lots of different sources. I didn't even notice - but the first thing Joseph said when he saw it was that it was all rectangles - normally my style is to cut around certain objects - using profiles, outlines and different shapes. This wasn't a conscious choice for me - I was trying to clear out some junk and making rectangles was the easiest and fastest way for me to tear through these old calendars before recycling pick-up. The final thing is that there are no words on this collage - generally words form a large component of my collages - I'm definitely more of a words over images type of thinker. Overall, I'm really happy with this collage - I think it might end up in the prized position over the sofa [despite Joseph's artistic talent he doesn't like his art to be displayed so we currently have nothing hanging in our apartment aside from a Star Wars calendar].