what I'm working on, May 2014 [blog hop!]

Okay! It's blog hop time! I was contacted by Julie of Notes on Paper, a prolific blogger and pretty funny lady, to join in a "what I'm focusing on right now" blog hop. It's always good for me to have a clear blogging goal, since you know keeping up with the ol' blog isn't always my strong suit. So here we go! A little about my work right now. 

 

1. What am I working on? 

This month, I'm dabbling. I've been making these little triangle shapes, decorating mail art, and finishing up a secret collaborative project (I'll be able to share in a few weeks!). But all of that means I have a lot of little paper scraps left over, and you know how I hate to waste them... so I designated this tiny little notebook for scrap collages. 

 

(Of course, this is only in my spare moments of non-mom time, when I'm not reading stories, running around the park, watching My Little Pony, and making peanut butter toast.) 

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre? 

The real question here is, what IS my genre? I don't consider myself an art journaller anymore, and I've never really succeeded at scrapbooking in the traditional sense. I make collages... but that's not my main focus. Sometimes I feel too close to my own work to be able to look at it from an objective place. Anyone else care to answer this question for me? 

3. Why do I create what I do? 

Nothing calms me like cutting up and gluing paper. Nothing gets me into "the zone" where everything else melts away and time becomes fluid.

I make collages to create a sense of order on paper. My ultimate goal for my work is to be unique, spontaneous, and imperfect, but still balanced. I love the feeling I get when a piece is almost done and it just looks "right" to me.  Once my son was watching me work, and asked, "Mommy, are you putting a puzzle together?" And I answered, "well... yeah, kind of. That's a good observation, buddy." Smart little boy, huh?

4. How does your creating process work?

Usually it goes something like this: Dig through paper piles, cut, cut, cut, arrange, rearrange, glue, dig some more, cut, glue, rip off, cut, glue, cover up, rearrange, etc. etc until it looks done to me. With breaks for coffee or playing a new podcast. 

So that's the blog hop! My 2 "tag-ees" are:

Natty Mutrux, non-traditional Project Lifer, weaver, barista, and the *ultimate* paint splatterer.

Robyn Wells, artist extrordinaire, lover of stripes and grass and gnomes, and my oldest and best arty internet friend-turned real life friend. 

I'll update this posts with their replies, or you can check my twitter feed!

Comments

[Julie Kirk]

Hi Katie - and thank you for agreeing to let yourself be tagged by me! It's great to have had you on board.

I know what you mean about struggling to come up with a genre for yourself - I definitely see your work as collage - maybe personal collage? And I also wonder about calling what I do in my journals 'art journaling' - purely because it doesn't look like the majority of painty/inky pages that get labelled that. Then I see people calling it 'sketch book' work. No wonder we are happy just to call it cutting up 'stuff'!

I can relate entirely to what you say about creating a 'sense of order' with paper. And isn't it funny when, suddenly, the piece of the puzzle just clicks into place ... and order is restored?!

Thanks again Katie for sharing your work and process. I'm off to share it across social media now!

Julie x

[Kirsty Neale]

Oh gosh, your work is lovely. Am so glad to have discovered it via Julie and the blog hop. Bookmarked and heading off to explore the rest of your blog.

[sandie]

Hopping over from Julie's and to say how much I like your colleges. I went before Julie in the hop and also had trouble saying what my genre is... it's great when it is so part of you that you can just say 'me'. Thanks for taking part and keeping this going, and hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

[Julia Prohaska]

Really enjoy your collage pieces & would like to sit down & experiment with more collage. What a fun way to use one of my many notepads/sketchbooks/journals than to possibly dedicate to this type of art. I will be playing around with some collage in an online class I am currently talking called paperlove, http://paperphilia.co.uk/paperlove/about-the-course/. Also signing up for this upcoming class https://sketchbookery.com with Mary Ann Moss. She is an incredible teacher & quite witty. I've never been disappointed & on numerous occasions not created anything, but been so inspired just watching her process. Happy creating. Congrats on meeting your goal for blog posts for May, right?!!

[iHanna]

Found my way here from Robyn, but I'm following you on flickr since a long time and love your collages. I think your genre is simply: awesomeness!