Puzzles!

I love puzzles. It’s incredibly satisfying to watch an image grow as little pieces slot in together, accumulating meaning that they didn’t possess on their own. The collage process is similar. Each little scrap of paper culled for color or pattern has no context on its own. The scraps are one step away from the recycling bin; if they flutter away in the wind, they just become litter and are easily replaced. But when they’re glued down with other pieces and a new image surfaces, suddenly they’re necessary and irreplaceable.

Because each collage is made from hundreds of little pieces and are like puzzles in themselves, I’ve played around with turning them into actual jigsaw puzzles. They’re great! They’re challenging, but there’s enough variation that they’re totally doable. The big problem, though, was always price. Print on demand pricing is designed for the end retail customer, not for an artist to resell, so my margin was basically nothing.

But I found a small batch wholesale manufacturer online and their quality is fantastic! The pieces come in a ziploc bag, the box is sturdy, the pieces are strong, and there’s a clear, helpful reference image on the cover.

To have them made, I need to order 64 and I can include up to 4 different images within the order. Here are the images that would work in order of my favorite options.

Help me decide which ones to make!! Are you a puzzler or know someone who is? Tell me: which you would buy? Retail would be $30.

How AWESOME is this image?!

Someone recently emailed me this crazy Getty image of a streaker being arrested on a soccer field. Look at the expressions on the bobbies’ faces! I had a good laugh. So when they asked if I’d be interested in creating a collage with similar subject matter, what could I say but YES!! These are definitely clients I want to continue the conversation with!! This level of detail won’t work for the medium, but the theme? Definitely makes me smile. And we all want work that makes us smile.

Pet Portrait Commission

I was recently commissioned to make a collage of a black lab. Not only is it challenging to attain a likeness with torn pieces of magazine paper, but I had no idea working on such dark subject matter would be so complicated!! I started with my usual range of darkest and lightest areas, planning to fill in the gradients between. But then I realized that the dog is BLACK. There won't be any true white areas. Even highlights won't be white white. I had to redo large areas to darken them, using black and white patterns as highlights rather than mostly white pieces. Redoing those areas meant I had to redo the surrounding areas to get the gradient right. Keep in mind that I'm using salvaged magazines, so I have whatever is in my box. It's not like I can just mix up some new paint. I have to take what I've got and figure out how to make it work. I'm still figuring it out. To attain the likeness, my sketch was done against a grid of 1 in squares which was also overlaid on the photo I was given to work from. As I glue down pieces, my grid is obscured. So when I redo areas, I'm kinda eyeballing it. Anyway, I think last night was a turning point. Check out the in process photos. I'll post again when it's done.