I started collaging while on vacation at the ocean … with no wifi :O There was a collection of National Geographic magazines that visitors were encouraged to take with them. I spent hours and hours “harvesting” the magazines for content, patterns and color tones. The house we were staying was on a bluff with an AMAZING view of the ocean so for this first project, I tried to represent the view from our two story high front window.

This is one of my first art therapy pieces – I titled it Shattered Rose Colored Glasses

Grow Joy

This piece was inspired by a beautiful picture of green tomatoes on the vine. I built the top tomato around this fantastic image of pure joy on the face of the red-headed avenged designer (name forgotten) as she seems to burst through the layered ocean scene I built. The lower tomorrow was built around the great image of the fingers pinching a surreal blob of water as if squeezing the earth. I created a gray pavement and mettle textures to represent how the growth of joy can thrive in any even the most inhospitable environment.

Mom’s Daisy Cake Escape

Bejeweled Easter

And Then She Flew

I created this for my friend’s birthday. She’d asked some time ago for a rainbow related piece, so when I found this amazing cake, I knew that this would be the anchor of the piece. I had the bird basic form (very limited) and decided to build plombage from various colors and textures and positioned it as if it had burst out of the cake. To represent her early years in sobriety, I built images to represent the ability to see new aspects of like once obscured. I think the eyeball is a bit creepy, but the rainbow in it just seemed too perfect not to used, so I tried cutting it apart to help emphasize it. In the bottom right I added a little Tiffany’s box for my birthday wish.

Me Collage