Use Collage to Keep an Art Journal

Postcards from
the Edge,
Valli McDougle


col-lage (ke-lazh’) n. An artistic composition of objects and materials pasted on a surface [Gk. holla glue]

Recently I went to a party at my
friend, Valli McDougle’s place. Valli, our host, came to the first

Art Camp for Women in 2007 and is an extraordinary water media artist. Her home is new and luxury of luxuries, she has TWO art studios, one upstairs and one downstairs. And she has acres of wall space to hang her art.

Right now she is taking a series of courses on collage technique and at the end of the evening she and I were huddled in the studio looking at her latest pieces. Collage to die for. Here are pictures of two of her collages.Collage fits right in with my effort to keep an art journal and also is an accurate depiction of how my life is structured. In this day and age we are not a people of long continuums and big families. That era has passed. In my life I have patches and pieces of many different categories or domains of life. My income is from several different sources and endeavors. My social life has different age groups and different interest groups. Even my health regime has several different expressions, run club with the kids, gym with my grown daughter, nutrition and cleansing with a peer, household veggie garden and kitchen organization with my husband.Likewise, my creativity shows up in blurts of expression, rather than a long string of watercolors or photographs or years of dance.

Bridge to Nowhere, Valli McDougle