Collage

Here is one of the small collage pieces I did for the class I am taking at the library. It's about 4½" x 6". It looks pretty plain, but I painted the substrate with acrylics, aged the music paper with tea and coffee and then cut out the birds from a copy I made of a page in a Smithsonian calendar. I looked up the Latin name of the bird -- Piranga ludoviciana -- apparently a Western tanager. I wrote that along the left side and then wrote Robert Schumann's name in the bottom right corner, since he composed the music. After everything has a chance to dry, I will seal it. 

Kris, who teaches the class, will probably think it is a bit too scrapbook-y. But she will be happy that I painted the substrate and put in that hint of a plant and wrote something on it.  I put that little blob of red in the upper right corner with the side of my thumb, so it has a little bit of fingerprint.

My more ambitious project is something I am building on the cover of an early proof of my John of the Cross mystery. It is mostly done but still looks too incomplete. So I am letting it sit while I get some practice doing these little bits.

I want to do something abstract, too. But my mind is rather literal and linear. Which is one reason I am taking the class, to shake up the little grey cells.