Day 23

Collage is an art medium that you are all familiar with and I would guess most of you have tried in one way or another.  Who hasn't taken pages from an old magazine or catalog and cut out their favorite bits and pieces and pasting them down together to create a whole new composition? Many photo apps rely heavily on the concept of collage, where you can drag pictures from your photo app into a frame to create one picture. 

The first collages were made over 100 years ago, by artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braques.  Since then, collage has maintained its position as one of the most popular ways for an artist to express themselves.  Some artists use photographs, some combine photographs with patterned paper, or bits from the recycle bin.  Some artists create mixed media collages where they might add paint or fabric or a multitude of materials to complete their work.

Romare Bearden, an American artist, writer and songwriter was born in Charlotte and even has a park named after him on Church Street, right across from the stadium where the Charlotte Knights play baseball.  Who misses baseball?  Sigh.  I know I do.  It's my favorite.  Although Romare explored many different types of art, he is probably best known for his collages.  You can learn more about Romare and look at some of his work here, here and here.

A few of my other favorite collage artists:
David Hockney
Jasper Johns
Henri Matisse 
Trevor Norris
Jean-Michel Basquiat

Today's challenge is to be a collage artist.  You'll need old magazines, catalogs, scrap paper of any kind.  Ask an adult if there are any old books or phonebooks laying around that might be headed to the dumpster - those are great for collage.  Also, some kind of glue, scissors and your imagination.  Search for images that stand out or mean something to you.  Arrange them in a way that you think is pleasing to the eye or speaks to you in some way.  Do your arranging before you do your gluing.  You can also be a mixed media artist and add bits of fabric, beads or countless other things that might go with your composition.  Have fun!

In the meantime, I'm just going to be over here hoping that I get to go to a baseball game before summer is over.  Sigh.