Saturday 11 May 2013

Mind collage

The frustration of struggling to visualise complex organisations of ideas and things has caused me many struggles through the years but it is only very recently I have realised the connections between these various challenges and how I choose to overcome them.

As a child writing never came naturally and at secondary school the struggle was so frustrating I sometimes resorted to cutting up my essays and joining them back together with sticky tape to help me organise my ideas. I was reminded of this during the week as I wrestled with the writing up of the Prince's Shirt Project. The result was a kitchen wall covered in print outs, post its and washi tape, the only way I could move the ideas around where I wanted them.


As a keen gardener I only took on my first garden two and half years ago but have found it surprisingly difficult to design with plants. I struggle to visualise the effect I will get without putting them in and then moving the poor things about at a later date.

So perhaps it is unsurprising that in the studio I find it hard to plan out and execute a piece from scratch. Instead inevitably something is started, cut up, moved around, placed and replaced until the componants seem to fit.

I wonder do I have to always struggle, can collage be a way of life?

3 comments:

  1. Interesting post - and it rings very true.
    I too write this way - on the wall. I need to be able to see my ideas. I start with rough research and pare away - move things .

    I think this way of working is very normal. When you make the comparison to your way of gardening or of creating art - I think more people do it this way - doing, undoing - re-doing - than you would think.

    It's as if we have to create something - and then actually destroy it before we can re-create something that is true to what we need say.

    Psychologists have written about this. Artists too.
    Join the club - and welcome.
    x

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  2. Good to know I am not the only one stumbling through life in this way... thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I do the same, did. I can't claim to write much these days. I paint in a similar way, it can become a bit like reclamation after I often destroy bits I like. I suppose the creative process is a struggle to grapple with complex things. I try to rely on my instincts and mess up things as I go along. I don't like too much 'finish'. What am I trying to say, lost it. Love those cynotypes. Plenty of lovely effects.

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