This week I skipped my moleskin sketchbook and went straight for one of the wooden cradle frames that have been wasting away in my art supply box for months. I started with a page torn from a book about the sketches of Leonardo da Vinci, and slowly built the composition around it with the hat wearing male figure and butterflies. Everything else was added as I looked around my apartment and found more long neglected items I’d collected with the intention of using them for “something.” I still need to do some work on the sides of the piece, and I think I will add a bit of colour to the background using watercolours.

As pictured below, I made a huge mess all over the living room floor by the time I was done.

These are collages one and two in my moleskin sketchbook, from my arty weekend on Bowen. I collaged, photographed with a pinhole camera, light painted with my digital camera, modeled, wrote long entries in my journal and ideas notebook, and did one small digital rough for the bird series (which may never see the light of day…)

Buschlen Mowatt gallery on Georgia Street has an excellent show of work by Cecilia Z. Miguez. I saw it a few weeks ago and have been meaning to blog about it. She casts figures in bronze, then remixes them with found objects to create wonderfully whimsical characters. A larger variety of images of her work can be found here. I need to see this show again before it ends.

I have had a loose goal of creating one collage every week in my moleskin sketchbook, and I have been trying to stick to it for months. I am only now managing to make it a regular thing. I think it helps if I don’t try to rush through it in one sitting. The above collage was done over the course of last week, between gathering the first round of materials, running out of glue, buying more, and then deciding it needed small finishing touches. It doesn’t normally take so long…

The idea of working of collage within a moleskin was inspired by the lovely work of my friend Degan.