May's Artful Readers Club (ARC) entry

Darcy at Art and Sole is about ready to share her May Artful Reader's Club entry, and I'm now ready to ONCE AGAIN show mine.  Some of you may remember I showed this post a week early and now I'm sharing it again.

I wanted to first say a few words about the book I reviewed in April.  Several of you suggested I alter the book, because it was so old and useless.  Truth be told, I had borrowed the book, and had already returned it to the owner by the time I created the totem.  But I thank each of you for thinking along those lines.  As I told a few of you, I hope the owner doesn't use the book to make anything in it for me!

This month, I'm reviewing something a bit more promising:

Collage Playground: A Fresh Approach to Creating Mixed-Media Art

by Kimberly Santiago

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: North Light Books (July 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 160061793X
• ISBN-13: 978-1600617935
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 0.6 x 10 inches 

This is what the book looks like on my work table.

The Table of Contents in this soft-cover book showed it contains 25 projects and 10 techniques.

The introduction provided insight into the author, Santiago, who is a graphic designer.  Her collages looked very controlled, something I appreciate.  I've said in the past, I'm not a big fan of willy-nilly collage, and these examples looked quite ordered and orderly.

Chapter One begins with the basics.

Like I've come to expect from many authors of this genre, I've decided it seems the design or layout of the pages is more important than the actual relevance to the written word or material in question.  In fact, I'd never heard of some of the materials, including self-adhesive mounting board, vellum bristol board, or double tack mounting film.

An internet search showed this product from GRAFIX (the double tack mounting film), although self adhesive, was quite expensive.  It cost over $9.00 a sheet (that's US dollars).  And vellum bristol board was over $7.00 for one sheet of 9" X 12" and nearly $17.00 for 14" X 17".  I apologize to all my British readers, but the sizes were not available in metric dimensions, so I didn't convert.

Thankfully, I had heard of, and own most of, everything located on page 12.  One thing I enjoyed under "Hide and Seek: Collage Resources are Everywhere You Look!" was the statement:

If you don't already have a box full of collage resources, cast your eye on some of the everyday items you don't normally give a a second look--you'll be amazed at how much is hiding in plain sight.

I am fortunate in that my friends know my attraction to collage resources, and they are always donating to my cause.  Put the word out; I bet you will be pleased with what your friends give you.
                                                     Quoted from page 13

Truer words were never spoken.  If I didn't have my friends to feed my collage habit, I would not have all the collage fodder I've managed to hoard over the years.

Then, on page 15, Santiago further states we should keep the playground clean, something I advocate in my own "playground."  After all, littering is littering, and messy is messy.

Chapter Two focuses on creating your own original collage elements while incorporating items like old book pages, transparencies, scanned images, vintage textiles, pressed flowers, and other elements into the artwork.

One of the projects Santiago demonstrates is the woven pages, like the one you see in the lower left above.  Of course, Santiago adheres an entire sheet of double tack mounting tape to the entire back of the woven page, something I would never do.  And believe me, I have woven many, many altered book pages in the past, including ones where either the weft or the warp (and occasionally both) gently curved over the length or width of the page.
 

For the most part, I enjoyed the pieces she created using book pages.  That was fun, because it was right up my alley.  However, I must be a bit dense, because it took me several pages before I realized the step-out instructions were all demonstrated inside a frame.  At first, I didn't get the connection (You can stop laughing anytime, now).
 

In Chapter Three, Santiago shows how to build on the elements that were created in Chapter Two.  She shows her methodology and the five steps she uses to construct a collage.  Again, the graphic element is quite visible in her work.

 In Chapter Four, we are told to put on our play clothes.  However, Santiago doesn't mean "play clothes" like I wear.  You know, the ones that have paint, glue, and gesso hardened on the sleeves or at the elbows.  What she is referring to are vintage textiles.  Of course, I love textiles, so this truly piqued my interest.  In fact, several years ago I cut the center out of a vintage handkerchief.  It looked very similar to one Santiago demonstrates.  Unfortunately, I can no longer find it, after the ravages of a flood when many items were pitched, and boxes were then taken to storage.

Chapter Five takes you to the math room, where you are taught to add and subtract.  Of course, what Santiago meant was she would show how to add images, take some away, and make some from other images.  She also introduced the reader to "found poetry," something several of the altered artists I'm familiar with (and visit) practice a lot.  They often find words written on the book page and make art around those words, or they use the entire page and tie the words together by coloring out most of the words.

On this page she shows how to create a door, and place an image behind it.  Of course, she used a craft knife, something I have a real problem with.

At least I was now finally used to the step-out pictures being shown photographed in frames.

In Chapter Six, Santiago suggested ways for you (and me) to stand out on the playground.  Here's what she wrote on page 106:

"You learn how to define an image by piecing it as an individual collage, and then applying it to a background.  By creating the separate collage shape you have the opportunity to look at a variety of backgrounds before permanently committing to them.

But don't get hemmed into art within a frame--"

I personally thought that last line was hilarious, since she uses frames exclusively to demonstrate her step-outs.

It took me reading all the way to the Resources page (pg 140) until I found my inspiration piece on page 141.

I remembered from Chapter Six that Santiago told the reader to create a few backgrounds, so

that was what I did.  I decided on the blue/green page that began with watercolor paper as the substrate for my background.

Next I created all the elements using (from back left) a Martha Stewart punch, patterned paper cut in strips and assembled using double sided tape, and a bird I created and cut to size from a stencil using three Pan Pastels.

I forgot to take photos of the patterned papers before I made the pieced assembly Santiago advocated, so all I have is a photo of the package prior to cutting all those papers into strips.

I decided to call this collage "The bird on the box."  I hope you can see where I got my inspiration.

So what did I think of this book?  It was an interesting approach to mixed media, but I didn't learn many new techniques.  It was confusing at first with those frames, but once I got used to them, the book became an easy read.

Once again, I didn't much care for the "basics" and the way the materials, tools, and supplies were introduced.  I'm still trying to figure out why artists infer you know what each material looks like, so they don't bother showing these materials, especially ones some of us have not heard of before.

I enjoyed the clean lines and simple artwork Santiago used in her collages.  I attribute that to her graphic designer background.  Overall, I think this is a book geared to a mixed media or collage newbie, and just enjoyed seeing how she put various ephemera together in her unique way.  Of course, I see that same uniqueness and diversity when I visit my mixed media friends' blogs.

Having said all that, I feel I owe it to Santiago to give this book 3 1/2 stars.  Buy it at your own risk, unless you are new to altered art, mixed media, and collage, at which time you might find it enlightening.

This is the book I'll be reviewing for the June ARC.  I seem to be on a mixed media kick lately.

And please don't forget to visit the other ARC members whose links are found on Darcy's blog.  They will appreciate it as much as I do.