Collage Night

Went to a collage evening at the Kro Bar on Oxford Road last Wednesday, it was in a warm little room upstairs away from the usual pub people (which is a good thing).  The evening was rather intimate and sweet, with a table crammed with about six to eight people and also stacks of old vintage textbooks and magazines which were almost a shame to destroy. The books were full of lovely pictures of a massive variety from scientific diagrams, boats, history and so on.  We all sort of zoned out on our cutting and pasting and sat in a chilled near silence occasionally showing each other our work and/or having a bit of chat now and then.

All in all it was quite a nice evening of fun and creativity, and I probably shouldn't say this as I'm trying to make my way in the world as a collagist (or collager) but collage is probably one of the most accessible and least scary art forms, in the way that anyone can do it without much practice.  I wonder if this is because it resembles life in a lot of ways, disparate elements being stuck together never quite fitting but always striking up some ridiculous, unreal contrast which brings about a feeling of hilarious though sometimes not so hilarious sickness and inertia...  Mind you, I probably have quite a unique way of experiencing life, and collage.  Here are the collages produced that evening:

Collage night tends to run the night monthly and in different locations each time about Manchester and London.  For more information (this is the promotional part) more information and pictures can be found on their Facebook is:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/collage-night/177929039388

Now if you know me then you may be able to tell that the last image is mine on the bottom right, simply because the technique is the same as what I apply to all my collages at home.  If you compare the above with the below then you'll see what I mean:

 My subconscious method no matter what my intended composition is to cover up everything as much as possible with confusing texture.  Which is no bad thing and to be honest I'll probably keep at it but it's good to have a bit of a communal collage or general art session because you end up seeing that your way isn't the only way of doing things.  The other collagers have a completely different way of going about themselves.  Which was quite interesting for me as I might be locked into one method of doing things - well, actually I'm not at all locked into one method as I have all sorts of methods but maybe it's more locked into one way of thinking about how to approach things.  Time will tell.  Anyway someone I know has just come over to talk to me so I'll cut this one short.  Possibly for the best.