To make a collage on a postcard every day is another of my plans for this life removed. It occurs to me as I write, that a written postcard a day might also be a great project. Perhaps we should be sending postcards to each other …
I’ve always worked in paper collage and my sister-in-law who is a textile artist introduced me to the idea of completing a postcard sized design a day. Being small, confined, immediate, they are like five finger exercises, and in especially in her case yielded beautiful and spontaneous results.
I now have a 97 blank postcards, bought online (made 3 already!) a tube of Pritt stick and a carrier full of paper scraps from magazines, leaflets, anything that I happen to pick up, at the ready. I set the timer for ten minutes, reach into the carrier pull out some paper without looking and GO – once I start I do let myself delve back into the carrier for matching colour scraps if I need them. When it’s finished, even though its abstract I give it a title. As they say, here’s one I made earlier – “Meeting”
Why, make a postcard collage you may ask? Because I love paper. Because it’s playful. Because nothing could be easier or more absorbing for those 10 mins of making and it’s good to focus on something other than the news! Because is not words, much as I love words. And on that subject here is my renga verse for the day, written in honour of my daughter’s lovely dog Mabel, who’s going home today.
Out with Mabel in the morning sun
'she's a cutie,' says a passer-by
miss you, little, happy dog
Stay well all…
