collage challenge

I enjoyed this summer's mixed media/collage class so much [see my postcards] that I've signed up for two classes this fall. Not two different classes, but the same exact class on two different days. One just wasn't going to be enough. (I do have limits, though - I'm not taking the third offering of this same class.)

Our instructor, Karen, got us started this week with a challenging in-class assignment. First, she gave each student the same following items: an approximately 8 1/2" x 11" mat board, a piece of yellow paper, a piece of green and yellow marbled paper, a piece of the inside of an envelope, one piece of gold-speckled netting, and a piece of outer-space-themed wallpaper. We were then instructed to make a collage with those materials using simply scissors and adhesive gel, the only rule being that we could not use any objects other than those five items to create our piece.

On Monday I created a collage using the papers pretty much as I received them. During the critique my instructor stated that it was "successful."



On Wednesday I repeated the exercise and came up with an entirely different iteration, which Karen pronounced to be "simple yet effective."



I think I like this second collage better. I especially like the three-dimensionality of the curved black-and-silver strip of paper encircling the yellow and green strips. I love how it echos the rings of the planet above.

I think I'm really going to enjoy this class.