365 Collages | Week 45
Phlox paniculata
It’s been 45 weeks (!) of constant collage creating – and yes, I still love this challenge! For these collages I found a vintage book page of illustrated flowers that I used. Also, some weaver thread chart leftovers from last week’s theme, and indeed, a few dabs of white paint. In collage anything is allowed, and I honor that!
The title of my first collage, Phlox paniculata, is the Latin name for the flower in the picture (in Swedish it’s Höstflox obviously). I didn’t know it, but I looked it up online. I like the Latin names of plants and creatures, they sound so elegant, don’t you think?
Matchmaking Idea of Mine
In Matchmaking Idea of Mine I got the idea that the two flowers are getting married, and that made me feel a bit like a matchmaker. Plus you have the blue ribbon, the bed cover, the romantic vibe… Naming a collage, for me, is about association. What does these colors, textures and images say to me when they come together? Do they build a new story? Often I think they do. Maybe a story I interpret in my way, and another story that is yours.
I hope you feel like giving me feedback today? I’d love to know if you like any of these better than the others, or maybe you think they are all kind of wonky? Please let me know! I can take it. Leave a comment and make my day.
Here are the rest of the collages:
Astrid
Spotted Dream
To the Kitchen
For Kerstin
Lost Love Letter
This is a post in my series 365 Collages in 2013 | Previously: Week 44 (weaver’s edition) | Next Up: Week 46 (tissue paper edition)
I like the botanical flower prints. And these collages caught my eye, especially the phlox and the Lost Love Letter. Thanks for sharing your creativity!
I love “For Kerstin” and “To the kitchen”. So beautiful and well-composed!
About latin… I’m a latin teacher (it’s one of my jobs) and I know this language very well… I really appreciated your note about latin’s elegance (people usually say me that latin is boring).
This is one of my fave series of yours – I like how you’re still playing with obscuring parts of the under collage. I like how each collage works with the colors of the flowers without being a slave to matching – very nicely done!!
OMG Hanna, you make it hard to just like one or even two. I LOVE THEM ALL!! It’s so cool to see what you will play with each week and the themes. The last one is my favorite then it’s a tie between the kitchen and the matchmaking one. What a gift you have for collages. So happy you share them with us.
I just mailed out my postcards this morning, YAY!! So excited and happy I joined in.
Oooh! I agree with Dawn! So hard to choose a favorite! I am particularly drawn to Phlox for the magenta colors. My favorite color is green so I really love “Astrid”. “Lost Love Letter” is just so romantic, so I have to choose that one too! Keep up the wonderful work! Beautiful, as always, Hanna!
The floral images are great! I really like ‘Matchmaking Idea of Mine’ and ‘Astrid’ for their color and composition. And ‘Spotted dream’ reminds me of snow :)
these make for such a beautiful collective series! They’re all wonderful and I love flowers-but my fave is the “For Kerstin” one because I’ve been enamored with painting trees lately-inspired by the gorgeous rich colors of autumn.
Oh! Spotted Dream and For Kerstin are just LOVELY! Of course they all are, but those were the 2 that made me smile and recognize a favorite.
Loving “Matchmaking Idea” and “To the Kitchen”. “Matchmaking” because I love the blues and the story behind it! “To the Kitchen” because I like the way the middle is blurred (is that vellum?) Anyway love that effect and I think I might have to try that idea out in my own work this week. Great job as usual!
Thanks! And yes that is vellum with a coffee stain, not glued down but taped to the sides, I think that’s why it looks blurred in the image. I always glue everything very carefully down, in a neat way, because I don’t like loose ends in my collage work. But here, I just felt that it needed air, so for me it’s an unusual piece of art. Glad you like it!
I love “To The Kitchen”!
the mystery of “lost love letter” is appealing, but “spotted dream” is my favourite this week.
i like the layers……the use of different torn papers, text & paint & although there are a lot of vertical lines it is very soothing.
For Kersten and lost love letter. I love the ways the colors all work so perfectly together, compliment each other in such a good way they flow, pulls it all together.
So much fun seeing what you come up with each week and then the titles make them all the more interesting. Do you name them at the end or at the beginning?
Thanks so much for your collage inspiration!
Hi Pam, thanks for leaving such a nice comment. To answer your question I always name my collages when they’re finished, or have been finished for a few days. Then I take a quick look at them, and often a name comes to me, in one way or other. I couldn’t name them beforehand because I never know what they will mean when I start. :-) Great question!
Phlox paniculata, Lost Love Letter and Spotted Dream are my favorites, but it was really hard to choose. I love botanical prints, the transparency of the white paint and old letters, so hence my choice. They are all wonderful and give me so many things to think about to try. Thank you for sharing and inspiring.
I love these collages! Are you going to be organizing the challenge again next year?…it was you who spearheaded it this year, right? I love a good challenge, and I might be up for this in 2014.
Connie Rose, thanks! It was my idea to do a year long challenge, and then to invite others to join in. I’m not sure what I want to focus on next year yet, but I am absolutely going to make a lot more collages next year too. We will see. I hope you can get inspiration in my series about doing a 365 project here on my blog. I’ve written about my creative process so far, more posts to come.
oh the first one is my favorite, it flow so gracefully, and the color, I love the flower
Hello, this week my best is “spotted dream”, because it makes me dream.
I like the way of your inspiration, that change every week, I have no the goods English words.
I love your collages Hanna – it´s a wonderful idea with the flower scraps. Love the challenge about the 365 days too – I might try it next year – if I have the courage
Hanna, just as when we sit down and create collages, and sometimes can’t verbalize why we make the choices we make, I often don’t know why I like a certain collage. All of these have something for me. But I think my favorites are To the Kitchen, with the mysterious vellum, and Matchmaking Idea of Mine, with the texture of the blue fabric. But they all are lovely!
I think that is intuition you’re taking about, something I use all the time. Words can come later. :-)
really like the lost love letter. There’s something about finding writing in script. It’s interesting that you have gotten into naming all your collages. {:-Deb