Mini Collage

I had a chance to play today and make some mini collages today with my Portfolio students. This exercise was a quick way to dive in and make something small so they feel more comfortable with the methods and materials of collage art.

These Artist Trading Cards (ATC’s) are small, only 2.5″ x 3.5″ and require very little material.

Artist trading card by M. Vänçi Stirnemann

Artist trading cards (ATCs) is a conceptual art project initiated by the Swiss artist M. Vänçi Stirnemann in 1997. He called it a Collaborative Cultural Performance. Artist trading cards are 2.5 by 3.5 inches in size, the same format as modern trading cards (hockey cards or baseball cards). They are self-made unique works or small series, signed and dated on the reverse by the artist/producer, exchanged and collected by the people who participate in the collaboration.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artist_trading_cards

When I was looking through an old National Geographic magazine, I found the Northen lights-esque photo that you see in the top left card. I continued my search for materials and found what looked like a bunch of hurried math equations and ripped a few pieces of that. Lastly, for the background, I cut a piece of ocean shot from underwater. I only anticipated making one ATC for a demo. However, as I finished the first I saw some possibilities of using the scraps for a second/corresponding card.

For the first card, Bridge, I found the bridge piece and then proceeded to cut out around the support pieces. These triangles became the mountains in, Mountain. I don’t often like odd numbers, but this placement creates a sun-like appearance.

Overall, I was thrilled to take some time to play and enjoy the quick and satisfying process of collage. I will be sharing a much larger piece soon that will be featured alongside Lilah’s – Notions of Home (if you haven’t seen this stunning piece, please click through) at Nazareth next month in their Shared Spaces Show.