Collage Inspiration

Two collages I completed on Sunday.

As you know, I'm newly OBSESSED with collaging. It's really the perfect art activity for cold winter days and nights. Cutting out tiny little details while marathoning "House of Cards" is basically a perfect February Sunday. I've never particularly explored collage, but I have ALWAYS been a paper hoarder. I usually snip out any images that I find arresting before I throw away magazines, and I love tiny pretty things. This is a great outlet for that hoarding tendency!

Here are some mixed media artists whose work has inspired me. I've found myself rediscovering their work, most especially Joseph Cornell, one of my all-time favorites!

Max Ernst pioneered the idea of surrealist collages, mixing and matching pieces and parts to create sometimes humorous, sometimes frightening, sometimes sexual assemblages. It was an exhibit of his work that first inspired Joseph Cornell to combine the paper ephemera he'd been collecting.

Fellow DaDaist and Surrealist Kurt Schwitters, an artist whose love of typography was prominent in his collages.

Joseph Cornell was basically the Emily Dickenson of collages and assemblages, a recluse whose surrealist assemblages were romantic and childlike, full of nostalgia. He started out with simple collages, but soon branched into dioramas...something I'd really like to explore down the line!

Modern collages have been popping up a lot in both their paper and digital forms. I totally want to make a copy-cat version of this one by Martin O'Neill. Love it!