Embroidered Collage

I haven't been using many collage images lately because they frustrate me.  Part of me feels like my art should all be raw - using only my own images, and part of me recognizes that my best pieces don't use collage images.  But they're so much FUN.  I love the door and other bits and pieces that I've collected.

So when I saw an all-media 9x12 spiral bound journal in Barnes and Noble I thought I had it made. I could use it for a journal of collages and paintings and just practice, have fun, develop ideas, and, yes, use those collage images.  So I built up a page and had lots of fun.

And then I realized how awkward it was to add stitching to it.  Aaargh.  So now I have to decide if I should be doing my "journaling" on loose sheets, which I have a distressing tendency to trash if they don't turn out as I envisioned, or just not incorporate stitching, which reduces how much learning I can do on each piece. 

I did enjoy the freedom of knowing it didn't matter how the collage turned out, even though not having an end use is also irritating to my engineering side.  Every time I've journaled in the past I had plans for what I'd do with the pages, either because they were to be swapped or because I had secret thoughts of selling reproductions.

And the best part was that by building up around the collage images - I started with the door and the stone head over it - I came up with a bunch of other ideas that I could develop in a sketchbook and turn into a piece of artwork that used only my own imagery, if I was so inclined.

I just have to keep struggling with my own expectations for myself and my art...