Mark Making Class with Jane Davies

 

Collage as marks experiment. I was trying to keep this awkward and to leave some breathing room.

The main part of the class was using different tools to make a variety of marks and then combining them. There is a class blog we posted to. Jane makes comments on each experiment, guiding us to step out of our comfort zones and encouraging us to be aware of the mark. 

Testing handmade brushes. It's a messy but fun process.

There was also a lesson on making your own brushes. I'm not sure how many I will actually use. However it did make me more aware of the qualities of brush strokes. There are many ways to hold a brush and make a mark with it. I will try to post some of my brushes and tests in a later blog post. Splattering was also fun - I normally use a toothbrush to make stars on a dark background. I hadn't used splattering as another element in a collage, as in the first image above.

Our last lesson was “Collage as Marks.” I thought this would be easy for me. It turned out to be the hardest because I have so many preconceived assumptions about collage. The instruction was to add as much variety as we could and to keep these awkward. I am continually thinking "what would make this better," and "what would be harmonious?" After tossing those thoughts I think "how can I make this awkward?" Still I think it helped me to tune in more to things like differences between shapes, sizes, tones, etc. Hopefully I will become more experimental.

One of my favorites from the collage-as-marks group. Of course it's not awkward. My comment at the bottom: "I can't stop looking at these as composition. This one seems balanced to me. I do like the tiny fling of paint in the middle - maybe too small for the space. But while it doesn't hold together I do like the final version."

Another collage-as-marks test. This one seems all over to me, but none of these are finished, and will most likely ever be finished. My comments on the collages: "This one seems a little better, although I am considering the red and white as a light and a medium combined. I can’t decide if it’s unbalanced. I guess the long piece of map should have been closer to the center. The tan squiggle should be darker than the piece of topo map. But this one seems awkward in the sense that it’s all over and not holding together. That tan squiggle was made with a piece of tire I found on the road. It’s braided and frayed on the ends."

I usually approach my collages intuitively. I never really grasped the lingo of art - especially things like balance and composition. For me, it works or it doesn't. If it doesn't work I start over. That has led to some laziness in my approach. When I was younger I tended to be experimental, now I sometimes think I'm in a rut. Looking at things in a new way will be good. And if I can look at something and think "It needs a small element" that will be a real boon.

One thing Jane mentioned was that I need to decide what "balanced" means to me. I don't know that I could put words on it. Is it a felt thing for most artists? Do you know when something is balanced? It seems lazy to say "I'll know it when I see it," but it does seem like that. Some things make me happy. Do any of you have an opinion?

After I posted the collages above and a few others, Jane suggested I make another 20. I did in fact make 18 more. Below is one of them. Taking scans along the way helps me to see what's working and what's not.

This is from my last group. That's good contrast in size isn't it? I have stacks of painted papers now that are collage-ready. Also some that have paint dribbles and splatters.

Second stage of the previous collage. The grey lines are house paint dribbles. The aqua blue is a large posca marker. 

Third stage - I thought the grey dribbles were too dense so I tried putting white paint on a brayer and rolling that on. The house paint dried so thick the white paint stayed on the top of the grey dribbles for the most part. I'm still not happy but right now I'm loving the little red circles with numbers. I may try more white on the remaining grey lines. It's an interesting effect, but ultimately might just be a trick. 

I am getting very antsy to get back to making finished collages, so I think I'll be putting these aside for awhile. I would highly recommend this class to anyone interested in extending their mark making language.

I imagine almost everyone is aware of Jane Davies - but here are some links. Her website. Jane's favorite materials (the one I look at frequently). Upcoming workshops. 

I hope you are all well and safe. We are well here, and looking forward to spring.