You’re reading Tinier Desk. This is my home to share art in progress — today, a series of collages that could be in your mailbox and hung on your wall. For more posts like this, hit that subscribe button.
Over the last couple of years, I’ve collaged as a way to document time. Each month, I gathered ticket stubs, receipts, and other knick-knacks I accumulated. I’d scroll through my camera roll and print out my favorite moments. Then, I’d throw them on a page as a memorial of highlights.
But lately, using my own life as source material hasn’t been as exciting as turning to others. I went to a few collage events in New York and flipped through the mounds of magazines they collected. I always found myself coming back to the LIFE magazines. When you’re flipping through the 40s, 50s, and 60s of LIFE, you feel the spirit of those decades jump off the page and surround you as if you were reading in the moment.
I went on a treasure hunt to create my own collection of LIFE magazines. It took me on a rainy Monday to meet a Craigslist seller named Bob who went through a magazine collection phase, now selling it off so he has the means to start a new collection of light fixture art. It took me to New Jersey on a day off in January to meet Cathy from Facebook Marketplace whom I corresponded with for a month and a half while I coordinated borrowing a friend’s car to pick up her nature series of LIFE encyclopedias.
It’s with those images from LIFE, and the glossy fashion magazine castaways on the street of Brooklyn, that I made these two collage duos: Light, dark, light again and Luckiest gal I know.
I want to try an experiment. How many collages can be born out of this little collection? If you enjoy these collages and want to hang them on your wall or give them to a friend or maybe even cut them up and make something brand new out of them, send me an email or a DM. I’ll ask you for your address and send them to you in the mail.
In return, I’ll ask that you send me old magazines, newspapers, ticket stubs, old photos collecting dust in a box in the back of your closet, coupons, or whatever you have lying around. The weirder, the better. I’ll make something of them and report back here.
Yours,
Katie
These are gorgeous. I love how you keep revealing other areas of creativity you are good at.
These are incredible! Love the crowned ladies collage