The first thing I did this morning when I sat down on my studio floor to work on my collage was cut it into four pieces.
It was too big, there was too much space.
Then I spent the rest of the day working on the four pieces and three more pages in my Freedom Book, all at the same time.
But I mostly focused on one piece, working on it and reworking it.
When I sat down to write my blog post tonight (which I scrapped and replaced with this one), I had four unfinished collages drying on my floor. I’ll admit I was a little frustrated at not having even come close to finishing one.
Then, in the middle of writing, I got up (I can’t even remember why) and within minutes I pulled together some of the pieces of the collage I had removed and cut up and attached them with matt medium to the bright pink backing.
Before that I had been fussing with them for so long. Trying for some kind of perfection when all along what I needed was the immediacy that comes from not thinking, from imperfection.
When I looked at it I felt it. And I liked what I felt.
Don’t ask me to put words to it. A title might come to me at some point, but for now, I just want to let it be.
Carol Conklin came to my studio today to give me some of her fabric that Jon bought for me. I told her how I sometimes feel I don’t have the patience for collage. I don’t remember exactly what she said, but she talked about the benefits of working quickly.
Some things take time when creating, but there are moments when there is magic in immediacy.
I feel like that’s what happened with this collage, when I put the pieces of it together as if it were a puzzle that knew what it was supposed to look like.
