Tag: collage

creativity

My first collage art publication in a journal

Christa Avampato

I submitted some of my collage art to Stone Canoe, an award-winning literary and art journal in July. On Friday I found out that one of my pieces was accepted—the first time a piece of my art will be published!

It will be part of Stone Canoe’s 2023 annual journal that is released in March 2023. The mission of Stone Canoe is “to make the work of writers and artists with ties to Upstate New York available to a national audience.” (I grew up in the Hudson Valley on an apple farm.)

This wonderful surprise has inspired me to make more work and submit it more often. I’ll make sure to share the published piece when it’s out in the world. Thanks to Amy and all of you who encourage me and inspire me to keep creating. You can take a look at my collage work here.

creativity

A Year of Yes: Dreadnoughtus, my first multi-panel collage

Christa Avampato

I’ve been working on my first multi-panel collage. I wanted the subject to be fitting for a larger piece.

I give you Dreadnoughtus. Discovered by Dr. Kenneth Lacovara and his team in Argentina, it is one of the largest animals to ever roam the planet. It is part of a large group of plant-eating dinosaurs known as titanosaurs.

I recently learned that dinosaurs skeletons are never found in totality and many times are reconstructed from a small handful of bones. The skeleton of Dreadnoughtus was exceptionally complete with over 70 percent of its bones represented. In life, it was 85 feet long and weighed approximately 65 tons.

Collage explanation:

Dreadnoughtus is entirely composed of the faces of other animals closely related to dinosaurs—birds (which are in actuality dinosaurs) and modern-day reptiles. The skeleton in silver paint illustrates the bones that were part of the discovery in Argentina per this schematic:

Dreadnoughtus-iv

The salmon-colored sky represents the asteroid (comet) which likely caused the end of the 165-million year reign of the dinosaurs. There is still some mystery surrounding the exact cause though it is widely believed that the Chicxulub crater on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico suggests that an asteroid or comet approximately 10km wide hit the Earth, and created a series of events that led to their extinction.

Below Dreadnoughtus, I used bits of paper from a photo of the gnarled landscape of Wistman’s Wood. Packed with moss-draped boulders, ferns, grass, and lichen-covered dwarf oaks, and dense fog, it’s located in Dartmoor National Park in the U.K. It’s a landscape that inspires myth and mystery, the kind of wonder that dinosaurs inspire in so many of us.

The other items in the collage represent everything that was born into the world because of the exit of the dinosaurs. The truth is that if the dinosaurs hadn’t died out, if the asteroid or comet hadn’t hit the Earth exactly when and where it did, we likely wouldn’t be here, nor would many of the other species that exist today. Nature is opportunistic and chancy, one species loss is another’s gain. Everyone and everything we know and love came about on the backs of the dinosaurs. Our history is intricately intertwined with theirs. We owe them a great deal, as Ken explains in his book, Why Dinosaurs Matter.

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creativity

In the pause: How to achieve impossible dreams

Christa Avampato

When I want to do something big, I spend about 30 seconds thinking about what that goal looks and feels like. Almost immediately, I move into what I call breakdown mode. I start to break apart that big, beautiful dream into bite-sized pieces. The big dream, for me, is too daunting and it’s not actionable. I make it happen, I’ve got to unpack it, dissect it, and put it into a to-do list with deadlines. And then I pick a place and begin. For my writing, it’s one word at a time. For my collage work, it’s one tiny piece of paper. For getting a new job, it’s making sure my resume is up-to-date in all its various forms and channels. You get the idea. It’s a puzzle and the best I can do is focus on one piece at a time.

When my head hits the pillow at night or when I sit down for my 18 minutes of daily meditation, I give myself a little chance to think about that shiny goal out there in the distance. I fall asleep thinking about those dreams and I wake up thinking about them. Everything in between, all my waking hours, are devoted to action. It’s the only way I know how to make things happen.

creativity

In the pause: Painting and poetry

Christa Avampato

“Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.” ~Leonardo da Vinci

Inspired by a recent post on the Two Drops of Ink blog, this idea of the play between painting and poetry speaks loudly to me. I paint with paper through collage work. Whenever I’m stuck in my writing world, or just looking for a new medium to use a different part of my brain for a while, I turn to collage work. I’ve never been much of a visual artist, or at least I wasn’t until I started to do collage work. There is something so satisfying about cutting up tiny bits of paper and reconfiguring them as a way of painting a canvas. Art does have a story, and stories do have an art to them. I’m fortunate in my case that I love art as much as I love books, and I’m immensely happy that my book about Emerson Page honors this connection between all art mediums. Ultimately art in any form expresses what we feel and know in our hearts and souls. And by expressing and sharing those feelings, a part of us lives on far beyond our years.

creativity

Wonder: Turning a story into a piece of art

Christa Avampato

I’ve been working on a paper collage – my largest piece yet – that depicts the story of my book, Where the Light Enters. I spent yesterday immersed in tiny bits of colorful paper while binge watching This Is Us. Sometimes the best thing we can do for our writing is to make it visual for ourselves and for the world to see. Now when I’m busily writing, editing, and revising Emerson’s story, this collage will be there pushing me forward.

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creativity

Wonder: My Paper Collage Portrait Collection

Christa Avampato

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My paper collage portraits

I just finished my 7 paper collage portraits. Each of them has a little “wink” in them about the subject of identity. I’ve had a lot of fun exploring bold colors, textures, and ideas in this group. What makes us who we are? How do we see ourselves? How do others see us? And how do we reconcile the differences within us?

From the upper left corner, the collage titles are:

Inspire the Future
Always Pay Your Rent
The Best Things
A Certain Recognition
Don’t Crack Under Pressure
Writer in Transit
Mrs. President

I really like this art form and I’m thinking of ideas for a much larger piece with a greater variety of materials.

creativity

This just in: The art I made for my dog, Phineas, for Christmas

Christa Avampato

What do you get for the dog who has everything he needs? The same thing you get for people who have everything—art. I made this paper collage for Phineas to capture his philosophy on life. Merry Christmas, Phin!

Here’s the Phineas Way:

  • Join a parade whenever possible
  • Don’t be afraid to lead the way
  • A first snow is a very happy thing
  • Sometimes the best thing to do is sit and be quiet like a yogi
  • “How good can you feel?” is a question you should ask every day, and answer
  • Share something wonderful with everyone, always
  • Fall in love with as many things, and people, and animals, as possible
  • There’s cool stuff out on the edge
  • Be excited
  • Embrace the wild
  • You’re perfect just the way you are
  • Stay unique
  • Learn how to be a good copilot
  • You can never have too much joy
  • New York is my soul city, and always will be
  • Embrace tomorrow, no matter what happened today
  • Live color fully, in many different directions
  • Sing loud and proud like a bird
  • Be unstoppable
  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the greatest places in the world to hang around
  • I love snuggling; snuggling’s my favorite
  • I have one goal: to be the best dog ever. (And, for me, he absolutely is!)

creativity

This just in: D.C. Cool – my newest paper collage

Christa Avampato

D.C. Cool
D.C. Cool

This is a snapshot of my newest paper collage. It’s a re-creation of the D.C. Cool logo composed of small bits of paper that were part of advertisements for other cities.

Washington, D.C. has a bit of everywhere packed into a big city that feels like a small town. I moved here about 9 months ago and it’s really beginning to feel like home to me. I’ve still got a lot of exploring to do, and this collage is a reflection of my journey in this shining city so far.

creativity

This just in: Spend your time where it counts the most

Christa Avampato

Friends
Friends

Kaufman and Hart were right about so many things, especially this – you can’t take it with you. Everything that you can hold in your hands will eventually break or be tossed aside. I don’t collect things. I don’t even like the idea of having too many things beyond the basic necessities. I am constantly amazed by how few material things I need to love a good life. What I collect and cherish are the things that will last a lifetime: the amazing relationships I have with people and the memories of experiences we have together. So let’s put our attention and energy where it really counts: focused on the people who make our lives so worth living.