Mixed Media Art – Page 3 – Dayna J Collins

Salvage Collage: “Making Abstract Art From Discarded Books”

How do I put into words my experience earlier this month. Imagine spending five days with artists who all love ripping apart old books. Fold in an instructor with mad teaching skills. It didn’t hurt that the class was held in the center of Whidbey Island at the Pacific Northwest Art School. The class was titled Making Abstract Art from Discarded Books and the instructor was Sante Fe book artist, Melinda Tidwell.

In the spirit of using few words, I’ll share a series of photos with captions in my attempt to convey how I spent my week and some of the work I created.

Auditioning pieces for a possible composition.

“A Shattered Sense of Normality,” by Dayna J. Collins.

“The Dim Veil of Sleep,” by Dayna J. Collins

“Looking Backward in Time,” by Dayna J. Collins.

“Laughing with Genuine Pleasure,” by Dayna J. Collins

“Rebellious Tendencies 1 and 2,” by Dayna J. Collins

“Occasional Flashes of Kitsch,” by Dayna J. Collins.

“Deep Urgent Conversations,” by Dayna J. Collins.

“A Truth Profound and Simple,” by Dayna J. Collins.

“A series of Small Coincidences,” by Dayna J. Collins.

“The Possibility of Change,” by Dayna J. Collins.

“The Pale Thin Light,” by Dayna J. Collins.

This pieces I created in this class fit nicely with my What’s Your Story project as well as my Salvage Collage pieces. Now I’m ready to start doing a better job of ripping apart my vintage books.

What’s Your Story: Back-to-Back Workshops

Last October, I taught a one-day workshop titled What’s Your Story, Real or Imagined: Telling Stories Through Black and White Photos. It was very successful and I had several artists tell me they wanted to take it if I offered again. I decided to turn the one-day workshop into two days and to hold it at The Art Studios at Mission Mill, where I have a studio.

I limited the class size to four participants so we would have plenty of room to move around in the smallish classroom. Both workshops filled quickly as I contacted everyone who had mentioned they were interested.

The two workshops were a blur of energy and activity. Rather than try and share the individual workshops, I’m just going to post a series of photos which represent the frenzy of creativity that took place the last two weekends of January.

On our first day, everyone created a series of backgrounds using acrylic paint, a variety of pencils, inks, plaster, and stains. On day two, mixed media collages were created using vintage letters, envelopes, and ephemera, and then a black and white photograph was added – either the photo of a stranger from my stash, or a photo of a relative, brought by the student.

Show and tell. Just a sampling of the collages created over the two weekends.

What’s Your Story: Open Studios Mini Workshop

Once a quarter, The Art Studios at Mission Mill, host Art After Dark/Open Studios. Our most recent event was January 11th. I was the featured artist in the studio gallery/classroom and I decided in addition to hanging some of my recent work, I would offer a mini workshop on creating a modified What’s Your Story mixed media collage. I set up some of the walls in the gallery as teaching walls. One wall told the history of the project, another showed samples of possible backgrounds, and then one wall showed the progression from blank 140 lb. watercolor paper to finished mixed media collages. (The other two walls were my most recent work using old, defaced books, but I’ll share those pieces in a separate post.)

I created three small sample collages, done using original letters, envelopes, and an assortment of ephemera, along with photocopies of black and white photographs.

With my guidance, guests were invited to create a little mixed media collage.

All ages participated, and Alex sat and read old letters to us during the evening.

Of course, sometimes the adults found it difficult to resist reading the letters.

Some of the collages created during the evening event.

All of this was a great set up and preparation for last weekend, when I taught the first of my two-day full length What’s Your Story, Real of Imagined workshop. I’ll be doing a post about my workshops in the coming days.