VOTE project: collage to campaign

Both of my grandmothers were born in 1898 before women could vote in the United States. American women finally got the right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. The majority of women of color were not able vote until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

As a young girl, I listened to poignant stories about what a joy and a privilege it was for Dorothy and Mabel to finally participate in elections. They impressed upon me that I must never take the power of my vote for granted — our vote is our voice.

Photo from a Women’s March, early 1900s, photographer unknown.

I continued those “importance of voting” conversations with my daughter. In 2016, we watched the documentary Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. The history of women’s fight to get the vote is rarely taught in schools—and the film is amazing. I’d seen it before, but that time around I was struck anew by how much art/craft/design went into the costumes, banners and signage that were used during the protests to gain the vote.

Shortly after watching the film, I made the “Vote” collage (shown at top) in my sketchbook in homage to the tenacity of the original suffragettes.

After witnessing the recent erosion of women’s rights, among other concerns, I wanted to find my own path to contribute by doing more than just simply voting this election season. So I’m committed to highlighting the importance of voting through my artwork and conversations. (Confirm your voting status or register to vote at vote.org.)

One of three “Vote” tee-shirt options.

In this spirit, I’ve designed several "Vote" tee shirts. Wear one to… provoke a conversation, help promote voting rights, and/or collect an evergreen tee that can be worn beyond this upcoming election. I've also created buttons if you're a quieter communicator :) All feature my original “Vote” collage and are available via the shop on my website.

Note: As of October 11, 2024 the shop has closed. Thanks to everyone who participated in the project. Now it’s time to actually get out there and VOTE!

Engaging in the election process can change attitudes from “ugh, politics” to “oh, let’s begin to build the community I want to live in.” A canvasser who focuses on getting out the vote shared an apt analogy that she uses when speaking with people who plan to sit this election out: If you need to get somewhere and there isn’t a bus going to your exact destination, you don’t just give up and stay home. Instead, you hop on the bus that takes you closest to where you’d like to go. Yes!

Let’s celebrate the freedom we have to make our choices and voices heard. If this project resonates with you, please share this post and help me spread the word. (I know my grandmothers Dorothy and Mabel would approve!)

Watch for additional vote-related collages to appear on my Instagram feed. New ideas are percolating.

Official program cover for NAWSA's 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession in Washington. (Artist unknown.)

To learn more about the banners that were used during women’s protests to win the vote, check out these articles: Crafting a Voice: The History of Suffrage Banners and The Banner Years of Mary Lowdnes (an overview with amazing original design sketches from a woman who sewed, stitched and painted banners to help promote voting rights in England) Photo below is from a march in England where some of Lowdnes handiwork was probably on display (photographer unknown).

Penumbra: collage shadowplay

I’m very pleased that my collage, “Penumbra,” was selected for Cut Me Up magazine, Issue 13: Nearby, Between. Each issue of the magazine features a curatorial call for the next issue by a guest curator, asking artists to consider specific concepts and approaches to collage.

“Penumbra,” collage on watercolor paper (including elements from Cut Me Up, Issue 12), photographed to include cast shadow of spring branches, 10.25 x 8.25,” ©2024, Janice McDonald.

For issue 13, curator Katie Blake (@whatapageturner) asked artists to explore the Japanese concept of Ma 間, described as a “pause in time, an interval or emptiness in space. The idea of Ma is to make emptiness into a substance itself.” Artists had to incorporate elements from the previous issue of Cut Me Up and were encouraged to explore the intentional use of space by employing new collage techniques.

When I read the criteria, the idea of Ma resonated with me as I remembered the way my uncle helped teach me to draw as a child — by studying and capturing the spaces between things, and then drawing those shapes. That way of thinking has been foundational to my collage practice as I almost always collect elements from the background of an image, rather than working with the subject itself.

Examples of the kinds of photos that I’ve been taking, both in- and outside, that inspired my approach to completing this collage.

Ever since the advent of the iPhone, when I no longer had to worry about film and processing costs, I’ve taken lots of photos of patterns and textures. I often pause to admire the way light and shadow animate objects. I’ve thought about ways to incorporate the images into future collages but hadn’t taken the leap to work with them.

While working on this collage, leaving white space for it to “breathe,” and trying to decide where to take the composition next, I took a break and found myself studying a shadow on the wall in the hallway just outside my studio. As I made my way back to my desk, it suddenly occurred to me that I could purposefully cast a shadow onto my collage as an additional, and ephemeral, element: a real “aha” moment.

I tried working with interior shadows but couldn’t find anything quite natural enough for my sensibilities.

One of many interior experiments with shadow-casting onto my collage in progress. Not what I was looking for!

So eventually I took the partially-finished collage outside and positioned it below foliage. I searched for shadows/shapes that related to, and enhanced, my composition. Many photos later, I discovered the one that resonated most: Ma 間

So, yes, this collage in its final form exists only as a digital photographic image. That fact doesn’t make it any less of a collage, it just adds another layer, and plays with the dimension of time.

I was honored to speak about this work at KolajFest 2024 with Andrea Burgay, the creator and publisher of Cut Me Up magazine and Katie Blake, the curator (not pictured).

Pro tip… Check out Katie Blake’s "What Kind of Collage Is That?,” to explore the many varied ways to consider and categorize collage works. It is a compendium of methodologies and I’m happy to have it as a new resource. Katie describes the book well, here, in an interview with The Weird Show.

Murmurings... visual poetry

Thanks to everyone who visited my recent exhibition, “Murmurings,” at Spark Gallery in Denver — or who followed along on Instagram/elsewhere. The works included in the show are explorations in fragmentary storytelling: pieced-together bits of found poetry and text give voice to abstract collage elements, as word and image intermingle. I’ve posted quite a few of the collages from the show on Instagram and have included one below.

“Never There,” collage on watercolor paper, 10 x 7,” ©2024, Janice McDonald.

In the past my work has been made almost exclusively with found color and imagery. I always stayed away from using words in my work — I had enough words in my graphic design career. But recently the murmurings from content that included words and phrases became impossible to ignore. Participation in a collage and poetry program/group also prompted me to imagine and explore new ways of merging expressive elements. So I embarked on a new series of works, allowing myself to work intuitively (and sometimes badly!) to see where this interest would take me.

Many people have asked how I make these works and I have trouble describing the process, but will try. I don’t compose the word portion first or make the collage first… it all somehow develops simultaneously. When I begin to work, a few words and images on my desk usually jump out. I arrange and rearrange, exploring how the fragments might fit together and support each other. A lot of possibilities are dismissed and pushed aside.

When an idea finally begins to emerge, I look for supporting elements. Sometimes it’s a word or phrase, sometimes an image. I hunt for linking elements to complete the idea within my existing stash and occasionally through a new search, I rarely have something come together in one session, often returning to it, for further editing and refining. I lean them up in my studio and mull them over.

Directing the viewer’s eye so that the piece “reads” is part of the challenge. A large measure of serendipity comes into play during this process, along with years of art and design experience. I’m always grateful when my efforts begin to click and come together.

It seems that staying open to what may be developing is an important part of this work flow too… not pre-supposing what story I’m telling, but letting that evolve. I’m happy to answer questions about this work flow too — feel free to leave a comment or ask a question below..

I’ve been collecting text fragments without any desire to spend the time to figure out how to organize them in some logical way. So far my storage method is to slip them inside clear sleeves that are archival and acid free. The static generated between the folded plastic holds the snippets of text in place pretty well, plus the fragments are easily scannable and readable from both sides. (These sleeves have been hugely helpful in many aspects of my studio practice and while they may get a little dinged up over time, they never wear out.)

Only a small portion of my collected imagery is stored this way, most are in larger (also uncategorized) bins. But when I’m working on several projects, the folder method helps me keep things separate and makes for relatively easy clean up.

Transparent sleeves to organize elements for specific projects (left), are now also useful for storing bits of text.

Daily practice featured in The Times

What a fun way to start the New Year! I’m delighted to have my collage diary project included in an article in The Times (London), written by art critic Laura Freeman.

The article explores the idea of committing to some sort of creative endeavor as a resolution, instead of (or perhaps in addition to?) adding the usual new workout or productivity habit. The daily practices of three artists are featured.

Here’s a pdf version of the article.

“...what delights me as a follower is that each acrobatic abstract seems to cartwheel on to the page with complete freedom and spontaneity.”

— Laura Freeman