Working on another letter-and-number collage, I made a few decisions. Just letters and numbers is tedious. More color is needed to keep the work visually interesting. So I added maps pieces for mountains. But something wasn’t right. The piece looked odd.
Thanks so the experienced eye of a collage-art teacher, I learned something important about perspective. “To get the book to sit up, you have to place it into the mountains, not just up against them.” That made sense. Collage is a forgiving medium, so I could add mountains around the book, correcting the problem.
Collage in progress.
To make the perspective of depth happen from the front of the field to the back, I wanted to add wider strips of paper in the front. That wasn’t quite enough, so type came back to the rescue. There is a small line of type on the right, toward the back. Larger handwriting type is in the front. That helps set the perspective.
The completed collage
Why is the type line on the right upside down? It’s a complete line of type and makes sense if you read it. I don’t want the reader to feel the focus is in that line of type. So I placed it upside down, covered in tissue, giving a sense of scale, not not making it the important thing to look at, that’s still the book.
I like this development from the pear to this piece, and I’m ready for the next step, which is using numbers and letters for definition and shading, but collage elements in the background. Another choice is to paint the background and make the focal point collage. Experimentation is called for.
—-Quinn McDonald has gluey fingers and a better perspective.
QuinnCreative 