It is hard to believe that 100 days ago I embarked on a project where I committed to make a piece of art every day for 100 days. That’s a lot of days and a lot of art. I wrote about the project on Day 50, so if you want more info just click on the link.
Very first piece for #the100dayproject: acrylic painting on a scrap of brown paper bag.
In a nutshell, over the past 100 days I created art using scraps of brown paper bags. The mediums I used included oil and cold wax, acrylic paint, and collage. Some of the materials I used in the pieces: black and white photographs, Stabilo Woody Crayons, pencils, vintage ephemera, book scraps, paper frames, and charcoal. Techniques and designs included splatter painting, drawing, stripes, circles, stencils, scraping, tearing, gluing, squeegees, and mark-making.
Last piece for #the100dayproject: Acrylic painting on a scrap of a brown paper bag, with strips from discarded books, and a B&W photo found at a flea market.
What I learned during the past 100 days:
True art is in the doing and there is no shortcut for that.
I like to work fast to keep the inner critic quiet.
It was freeing to work on such an unimportant substrate as a brown paper bag.
I kept pushing myself to be bolder and to make more startling moves on my daily pieces.
It was amazing to create so many pieces, and although each piece was different, they created a unified body of work.
Some days it was this project that propelled me to go into my studio. Sometimes I stayed.
Several new ideas emerged from this project and I am letting them percolate for future projects.
A very exciting byproduct was how two of the paper pieces I created inspired bigger paintings!
Here is a random assortment of pieces from the second half of the project:
Right now I am celebrating the completion of the project . . . .
. . . . but I have some ideas brewing for moving forward with these pieces.
I have this wacky idea of offering some of these completed pieces for sale and giving first notice to those who are on my mailing list. Haven’t signed up yet? Want to? Here’s a LINK.
A rare glimpse of me in my basement lair*, where I store all of my scavenged paper, vintage scrapbooks, ephemera, photographs, book scraps, old books, and book boards, and where I work on my Salvage Collages.
Lately, I have been on a Salvage Collage toot, and I work on collages in three ways:
♦ In a vintage scrapbook/journal/notebook devoted to experimenting with collage ideas.
♦ In my 2021 journal, which is a combination of collage, paint, photos, etc. Anything goes.
♦ On discarded book boards to create official Salvage Collages, which are for sale.
So join me for a whirlwind tour of the lady in the basement.
Here are a few photos of my scrapbook journal where I experiment with ideas for collages and create just for me. The journal itself was used as a scrapbook/workbook for someone in the Department of Marine Engineering and Naval Construction (1905) and the pages are filled with notes, drawings, assignments (with corrections and grading), and mimeographed training papers. I pulled out most of the glued in papers, but bits of residue are still present.
Vintage Scrapbook/Journal/Notebook by Dayna J. Collins
Next up is my 2021 journal. It is usually a paint journal, but this year I decided to create a junk journal, a journal I made using found papers to create three signatures, which I then sewed into a book where I had pulled out all of the book pages. This is a work in progress and I just started adding collage and paint at the beginning of the new year.
Finally, my ongoing Salvage Collages, always in some level of process, always spread out on the table; my washer and dryer are across from my work tables, making it convenient to throw in a load of laundry, then spin around and start puttering and auditioning scraps of papers, book pieces, or black and white photographs. During these work sessions, I usually find myself working on all three: Salvage Collages on book boards, my 2021 Journal, and my experimental vintage scrapbook/journal.
I am always trying to move my Salvage Collages in different directions, pushing what I have already done, finding new ways to use my materials. Recently, four friends gifted me lots of wonderful papers, ephemera, and photographs, and these new materials have been informing my latest work. (A special thank you to Sam, Bonnie, Jami, and Mavis for your generosity and interesting papers and photos.) Here is a selection from my most recent Salvage Collages.
“Bold Adventures,” Salvage Collage on book board by Dayna J. Collins“Constant Equilibrium,” Salvage Collage on book board by Dayna J. Collins“Silent Recognition,” Salvage Collage on book board by Dayna J. Collins“Reciting Poetry by Heart,” Salvage Collage on book board by Dayna J. Collins“Weighing Possibilities,” Salvage Collage on book board by Dayna J. Collins“Mischief Makers,” Salvage Collage on book board by Dayna J. Collins“Beverly,” Salvage Collage on book board by Dayna J. Collins“A Series of Concurrent Events,” Salvage Collage on book board by Dayna J. Collins“A Little Out of Place” Salvage Collage on book board by Dayna J. Collins“Full of Sweet Nostalgia,” Salvage Collage on book board by Dayna J. Collins“A Smoldering Promise,” Salvage Collage on book board by Dayna J. Collins“A Sense of Purpose,” Salvage Collage on book board by Dayna J. Collins“Void of Silence,” Salvage Collage on book board by Dayna J. Collins“Spirit of Cooperation,” Salvage Collage on book board by Dayna J. Collins“Seeking Forgiveness,” Salvage Collage on book board by Dayna J. Collins“Interrupted Story,” Salvage Collage on book board by Dayna J. Collins“The Echoes and Shouts of Memory,” Salvage Collage on book board by Dayna J. Collins
Several of these new pieces are available at Salem on the Edge and others are available directly through me.
*It is also where I store all of my metal, wood, found objects, crazy collections, and miscellaneous stuff that defies classification. But today’s focus is on collage materials.
. . . . or what I did during The Great Pause Pandemic of 2020.
“The Poetry of Silence,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins” With a Theatrical Flourish,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins“Time of Roses,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins“Wistful Amazement,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins“The Bits and Bones of a Life,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins“Paris in a Week,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins“Rebellious Tendencies 1,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins“Strands of Thought,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins“Poetic Effect,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins“Exquisite Fragments,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins“Are You Going Skating After School,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins“A Delightful Surprise,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins“A Matter of Celestial Balance,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins“A Reckless Act,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins“A Distant Calamity,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins“Dream of Escape,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins“Easy to Read,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins“Without a Doubt,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins“A New State of Wonder,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins“A Secret Obsession,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins“Rebellious Tendencies 2,” Salvage Collage by Dayna Collins
