Collage for the Soul: Expressing Hopes and Dreams Through Art

by Holly Harrison, Paula Grasdal

For many people, art is at once a form of self-expression and discovery. Perhaps that's why collage—which is based on the idea of spontaneously layering images and symbols—is a favorite medium for crafters of all kinds.

This book approaches the topic by 5 chapters present 20 projects that deal with expressing personal creativity, exploring and recording relationships, dreaming and wishing, finding inspiration in nature, and creating visual memoirs. The instructions tell how to create a personalized project, sharing necessary techniques while suggesting ideas for substituting personal themes and materials. The directions are a starting point to encourage the reader's own artistic journey, guiding the reader to contemplate, explore, and express thoughts and feelings through the medium of collage. An inspirational gallery concludes the book, with another 26 projects by leading artists in the field.

Whether a person's passion is stamping, decoupage, painting or paper art, this book shows how various collage techniques can combine to help any crafter or artist improve their craft and enrich their soul.

Genres: Art, Quilting, Nonfiction, Reference

136 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2003

Reviews

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Challenge: Curious Reader/Non-fiction 2020 - Celebrate something I love and learn more about it (3). Collage is one of my favorite mediums. This book demonstrates how collage artists create visual memoirs that evoke the ambiance of an experience, its half-told story, rather than preserving a whole memory as do scrapbook artists. This distinction allows for lapses in memory while calling up the feelings left behind as edited by our present expression in the collage. A great project would be to create a scrapbook memory page using ephemera from the experience or destination and then create its complementary memoir as expressive collage on the page opposite in an art journal. Or dedicate a hand-made journal in order to explore the memory over and over again through time making the cover of the journal the scrapbook page.

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I was looking for at this time but a good book.

[Gayle Pritchard · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book for those seeking a creative and unique approach to their artistic expression. Far removed from the usual cookie cutter wanna-be artist books, Harrison and Grasdal present a broad range of artist responses to assemblage and collage. Kudos!

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is full of incredibly wonderful collages and the soul behind and inside them

[Ceanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some very cool pictures of collages. Some a little "out-there" for me, but I liked the book over all. Gets the creative juices going...

[Louise Chambers · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite altered art and book arts books.