Creative Collage- What Is The Definition?

What does the term collage really mean in context with artwork? A collage is an artistic composition of materials and objects glued  on to a surface, often with unifying lines and color as defined by the an online dictionary, www.thefreedictionary.com/collage. Collage has become a very interesting medium for me in the past two years because it allows me to use a variety of different papers, including wrapping paper, painted paper, fabric, laminating film, photographs, recycled items, printed images and graphics to name a few. Sometimes the shapes I use are realistic, more often they are geometric or organic. I became interested in collage after seeing the work of Romare Bearden, and various other artists. Romare Bearden chose several different methods of incorporating collage into his paintings, including newspaper, fabric, and forming faces by cutting features of noses, mouths, eyes, and ears to form human faces.

My experience in learning to create collage has been both good and bad.  The first collage I created was large and on stretched canvas.  I quickly learned that is more difficult to create a collage on stretched canvas and that gallery board is a better surface because it is easier to smooth out the individual pieces during the gluing process if the surface is rigid.  It is my experience so far that the gallery boards have to be ordered from large art supply businesses.  The local craft/art supply stores usually do not carry them as part of their regular stock. I use acrylic gel medium to adhere the individual pieces and they need to be smoothed out carefully after each addition with a thin coat of the adhesive to the surface of the gallery board and then again to the top individual piece.  There are many variables in materials that can be used including recycled items and there is that many more different outcomes from the process so it is and good to experiment and see which works best for you.

Creating collage is so much fun and it is best to just let yourself go with the process and enjoy the ride.