Collaging

blurb by Eric Truchan

I've always been a collector; collector of music, movies, random artifacts I deemed cool along the way in life.  In a way, collaging is an extension of what I generally gravitate toward. It's a combination of sights, colors, and moments smashed together to create a new image or feeling. 

Collaging brings a sense of world building, sculpting a moment out of things that have been left to the side or forgotten about on a shelf. One of the most rewarding things about collaging, in addition to being able to physically carve out your vision, is the sense of repurposing and reimagining. Often, the fun is witnessing an image or images out of context when juxtaposed with other images, inviting a new feeling of humor, absurdity, horror, beauty, or exploration.

One of the benefits of collaging as an art medium is you do not need much to get started. I always lean toward an X-acto style knife, but a pair of scissors can help you get started as well (simply tearing out images can create a suitable effect as well). A glue stick works best for me, but people also enjoy using Rubber Cement, tape, or any adhesive to put your images together.  A cutting mat (available in most hobby/craft stores for about $10-$15 depending on size), and garbage can near by can help alleviate stress (and keep your surfaces scratch free), but not necessary. Lastly, you'll need some images. I love hitting up book sales, flea markets, online sales of people purging their junk, or asking around if anyone's unloading any old issues of magazines or picture/coffee table books.  

The limits are endless with collage. I've found the more I've collaged, the more risks I was willing to take in making them, and found new methods of how to intricately cut and splice images together. The act of creating through collage has become a new freeing outlet for me over the years, and I hope you can find your own joy in the hobby as well.  If you don't get your vision on the first go round, keep going. It will all glue into place eventually! Happy collaging! 

Collaging

Collaging is a creative hobby built around assembling found images, textures, and materials into new compositions. It’s about transforming the art and world around you to create something uniquely in your vision as it emphasizes the artistic trait of composition.

Because of that, you don’t need to know what you’re making when you start. In fact, not knowing is often the point. Collaging creates space to explore ideas visually without needing a plan, technical skill, or a finished result in mind. Browsing and discovery is part of the process and you’ll find your creativity start appearing when you choose the items you’re liking.

It’s a fantastic hobby for somebody who doesn’t feel “artistic” in the traditional sense as you’re not being asked to be a traditional artist, quite the opposite in fact.

What Makes Collaging Standout

The simple detail that it’s not drawing or painting brings a lot of folks to collaging. This art form doesn’t have the technical demands that those forms have so starting and continuing collaging can be easier.

As the above, discovery and composition are the two main traits of collaging.

If you like flipping through old magazine or trying to find the coolest photo in a photo book, searching for material is a big part of the collaging hobby. And this pursuit of material leads you to entire new worlds of 70s rock band posters or old architecture blueprint. What people have put on paper is endless and in collaging, that’s all for you to use in your collage. Think of it like the infinite colors out there but even more infinite because theses have shapes and styles.

Then there’s no rules in collaging. You can put a pickle on a face, you can cut up a cereal box. Collaging as an art form is intentionally full of anarchy as you place things where they usually shouldn’t be and come images that weren’t originally together. Messy isn’t a bad thing, it’s heavily encourage.

Tools and Materials

Scissors or exacto knife (with a cutting board), glue or tape, and a canvas.

Then the mountains of old magazines and books where you’ll source your material. As Eric shares in our episode, you can find many of these at garage sales or sales at used bookstores. Sometimes there are people straight up giving away old magazines they have had sitting in their home. Strange mail you get in your mailbox or posters hanging around town. Receipts you get from restaurants. If it exists on paper, there’s nothing saying you can’t use it.

Getting Started With Collaging

After you gather your tools and materials, starting to collage can be simple. Find some interesting artwork or words and start piecing them together.

But that freedom can be paralyzing.

There’s nothing to copy or mimic like when you sketch a building or draw a face.

Here, you have to visualize how things look together. Grabbing a bunch of interesting pieces and playing around with how they come together as a composition. Remember, you’re free to cut things to make them fit better. Once you let go of that perfection and keeping items as formed, you’ll unlock how wildly cool collaging is.