Taking on two month-long challenges in crayon and collage might have been a bit much, but I must say I’m having a lot of fun!
Yesterday I tore a plain square of book cover and pasted down my three hand-cut circles, completing Collage Challenge #1 in a less-is-more sorta way …
Next I tackled Challenge #2, taking two snapshots from many years ago, one left whole and the other cut into 1×1 inch squares. I proceeded to pencil a grid onto the back of a book cover, which gave me a much deeper appreciation of Agnes Martin’s 6×6 foot gridded canvases …
Then I took a page out of Ellsworth Kelly’s book (metaphorically speaking), and randomly pasted down the photo squares to complete the challenge …
Taking a break I picked up a library book to read …
which fell open to this page …
Well, that definitely left me primed for this morning’s crayon session …
Soon my crayons were scooting around Iowa like Democratic candidates and I began to notice the names of the counties were whispering stories in my ear …
people, places and things … associations triggered and then written. Note to self: crayons are not great for writing words, but process, not product was the goal …
Warmed up, I tackled Acey’s collage challenge #3: taking one large image and adding three smaller elements. What better than Gruene Hall and Lone Star beer caps?
But hmmm … copyright infringement loomed large as I read the notice across the top of the George Boutwell calendar page. So I ended up taking the rejected book cover from the other day and adding three Lone Star “pentacles” …
Here’s the cloth-coated back, trimmed with my handy corner clipper (a long-ago indulgence that I just happened to have in my craft pantry). But notice those loose threads around the edges … gonna have to work on that …
Last (I promise), I put it all into my first-ever art journal (a totally unexpected thing that just seemed to make sense with two daily challenges in the works) …
Now I can’t wait for tomorrow!
I'm Going to Texas (version 2.0) 
What fun you’re having. The too-muchness of it seems part of the energy. I love the grid and its reveal. I don’t worry one jot about copyright when I do this stuff. Perhaps I should?
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*of it*. And *its* *jot*. Geez reread much?!
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Ha! Consider it edited … now I’ll go back and re-read the post to see what autocorrect did to my words
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The copyright thing is ingrained in me from 30+ years of librarianship. I think collaging is most likely fair use, though, as long as you aren’t adversely affecting the original artist’s market for their work or otherwise profiting from it yourself.
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Wow!!! How great is this?! I was inspired by all of the recent posts by others, then overwhelmed and now inspired again. Geez. Phew. I must consider more. maybe post. Thanks Liz. xo
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“Maybe post” … please do!
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Also (this is Acey. WordPress not letting me in another way today) it’s my understanding that in order to be fair use you’re supposed to alter at least forty per cent of the artwork. This assumes you plan to show your work.
I don’t worry about it but am aware it’s an important subject. When I work in art journals I definitely do a fair amount of altering but that’s more by definition of the process and project rather than circumspection.
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Ugh … the blogs seem to rotate who’s in and who’s out of comment permissions on a regular basis … so frustrating
Anyway, thanks for the clarification … I’m more familiar with the print side of copyright fair use (and it’s been a while)
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Wanted to post separately to say how thrilling it is to see you’ve made yourself a lovely art journal to house these two challenges. Keeping everything together in this manner kind of contains the energy of following through on two things at once. Also I really love that big mostly black circle. Was glad to see you kept it involved.
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Thank you for all you’re doing to spark the creative fire … two posts a day is above and beyond!
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LA – without challenging ourselves we might just find ourselves getting stale and in a rut.Enjoy the two month journey. B
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I definitely see “challenge” as positive more often than negative
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All of this looks like fun! I checked Making Art from Maps out from the library awhile back. Lots that was inspiring if I remember correctly.
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I do enjoy checking out books to get ideas … better than Pinterest imho
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I love that cut up photo and your wanderings with grids – so delicious! I find grids very calming – even when everything is upside down and turned around the grid is settling. That book on art making with maps looks amazing – shall try to discover a version over here! Go well.
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I’m also realizing that the grids are connecting with thoughts of future patchplay … trying not to be too distracted by that, just going
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