I've been making collages forever. In the beginning I was inspired by Joseph Cornell. My study of his work led to a job cataloging his source materials before they were shipped to The Archives of American Art. Much of this collection has been digitized and is now available online through the Smithsonian.
What's new in this piece is the use of acrylic paint (white) and Golden Clear Tar Gel. I got the wonderful book Surface Treatment Workshop and was really interested in the ways acrylic mediums can add texture and depth to collage. Being someone who never follows instructions I made up a few of my own recipes. Here I layered scraps of fabric and paper with colored inks and gel medium on a scrap of plywood and finished off with a thick layer of tar gel and a matte varnish. I used tape around the edges to build up the layers of Tar Gel -- still working on a way to get it really flat and to get rid of the little bubbles.
