Seeing possibilities... collecting collage ingredients

I'm often asked where the bits and pieces of my collages come from... I have a habit of looking at the negative spaces, the spaces BETWEEN and AROUND the featured items in a photograph. It's often there that I see the patterns, color gradations, and subtle imagery that I find most intriguing and useable.

The large photo above shows a recent photograph from the newspaper that had ingredient potential. (Caveat: It's very dangerous not to finish the paper before I get to it, if you want to be assured of reading the complete story!)

At left is a detail of the photo where I've indicated, with green outlines, the areas that I will rip out for future use.

I was recently explaining how I gather materials during a demonstration to a local art guild. Afterwards one fellow said, "You sure see things differently..." Yep, and I took that statement as a huge compliment!

Jumble (or how a collage sometimes begins...)

I'm working on some big new collages for a May exhibition. This is a photo of my work surface yesterday with a 24 x 36" wood panel ready to become something new and exciting, along with a jumble of sorta-solid color elements that I'm exploring. Total chaos, and so far the collage looks completely different from what you would expect, based on this photo! I'll post some in-progress photos soon. 

Finishing up the old, prepping for the new...

Here is another process photo of the collage I've been working on.Happily, it's now finished and in the varnishing stage, bound for the Spark Gallery Members' Show opening in January.This photo was snapped in my new workspace, just now coming together. More on that in the New Year -- here's to a spectacularly creative 2012!

Process, and considering the reverse on canvas

I've been working on a large canvas that has some acrylic roughly brushed on it to respond to with my collage additions.

The back of the canvas (above) has been interesting to me. Typically I work on wood panels so seeing how the papers are adhering to the canvas has been fun. The dotted texture is created when corrugated is applied to the front of the canvas. I'm thinking if I decide to work further on canvas, it'd be intriguing to approach the composition from both sides, applying some pieces to the back side in order to have a textural effect appear on the viewing surface.

This piece is nearly complete now and will be shown in January at Spark Gallery's Members' Show. Thought I'd post a few of the steps along the way. You'll see that I've turned the canvas to evaluate which way the composition is strongest as it evolves. I'll post the finished collage here soon.