Embroidered Collage

These cards started when I was looking for something completely different in my box of paper and stuck in the last layer was some of the work I'd abandoned when I decided to create only on canvas.  I had been working on a few sheets of paper for backgrounds - building up abstract tears of magazine paper in related colors or shapes.  The orange one caught my eye, partly because it was almost done and partly because of the time of the year.

  So I tore out a few more images and finished collaging it.  This technique is also a copyright violation, but if anyone can look at the work and identify where the images came from I'll be shocked.  The actual image that someone else created is not relevant.  They are there for texture and my next step was to paint over them with various transparent liquid acrylics to unify the color.

I ended up with nine 3x4 pieces that I stared at and contemplated for awhile.  Figuring out the next step was far more complicated than I had expected.  I did a search through collage images and did the card with numbers and the one below.  The little kitten was too sweet to pass up, but it will be an ATC since it doesn't fit with the idea thread I want to keep my ACEOs attached to.

  And then I stared at the seven remaining backgrounds for awhile longer.  I think the problem was that there wasn't enough contrast.  There was nothing to trigger an idea.  When I pulled out my papers and started adding blacks, that's when the ideas kicked in about how I could collage this here and add some pattern there.  I had a few failures in the process, which is why there are only six total cards made from the sheet and not nine.