Finding joy by cutting out images from old Somerset Studio magazines

One of my favorite artistic activities is cutting up magazines. In this blog post I want to talk about what it is about this activity that I love so much and if possible, explain why I keep doing it year after year. I want to do this in a continued effort to explore what gives me joy and grants me further inspiration. Also, I’ll talk about what magazines I have been cutting up lately, like my big pile of Somerset Studio magazines.

I do think of this activity as two-folded productivity, but in truth, is is neither (please don’t tell anyone!). The productivity is mostly in my mind, but I don’t mind if I fool myself into doing something small, when I feel that I need this kind of comfort. At least cutting out images from magazines makes me feel like I am 1) clearing out space by discarding a pile of old magazines, and 2) creating new collage fodder for myself as a collage artist. If you’d bring up your spying looking glass you’d see how I make a mess, creating piles of cut out images and fill another paper bag of trash that I then need to bring out to the recycling bin.

But I’ll do that later, for now, let’s explore the potential of old artsy magazines.

I am going through the last bits of a big pile of old Somerset Studio magazines right now. I got these from another artist quite a few years ago. She’d been a subscriber to this mixed media art magazine for years and kept them in pristine condition, but was now ready to let them go. Instead of throwing them away she asked me if I’d like them and of course I said yes. Yes please! I got a few bags full of magazines.

I have read a bit here and there, and used a lot of the magazine pages as journal pages in Traveler’s notebook sized junk journals that I make and sell. I’m not sure how I got into that, but the pages in these magazines are colorful, filled with mixed media artwork and detailed close-up photos of the art. That feels inspiring and inviting to me. Instead of tearing out those pages to keep as is, I folded them in half and used them as pages inside my yummy junk journals. Working on top of those pages feels lika a collaboration with the original artist, and it fuels my own creativity. I made way too many of this kind of Junk Journal to be honest (this started during the pandemic which might explain a lot), so there are still some left in the shop and more to come. I could not stop folding and saving the pages that way, and I guess that is one way of saving magazine pages and using them as inspiration.

Another way is to cut out images, colors, bits, to use in my own collage work.

I have not been in a hurry to “finish” the piles, or at least not until now. Now all of a sudden I really need more space, plus my word of the year is “simplify” – so I am slowly trying to go through what’s left of this magazine pile. It’s slow going because finishing or “going through” means looking through all the pages, reading some headlines and then cutting or tearing out everything that I want to read later, use or save. Anything that catches my eye really.

“Saving” here means making piles of images or articles that will be sorted into different categories and used in various ongoing or (imaginary) future projects. I have inspiration notebooks and folders, boxes where I keep art journal collage fodder and artwork collage fodder. I cut out headlines and have those separated into one folder of words and sentences, and so on.

I am trying to stay organized but it’s not always straightforward around here. That’s why I also have a misc pile of undecided (a “I will think about it later” pile).

Going through these Somerset Studio magazines (as well as a few Somerset Memories, Legacy and the in my opinion very boring Stamper’s Sampler magazine) has been a bit of a mind bend as well. Like a time travel trip down memory lane. Many of the articles are written by or about people I “know” (or knew because these days most of them have disappeared). The magazines are from my early days of blogging, and a lot of the featured artists were also bloggers, like me. At the time many of them felt like friends or at least acquaintances. I miss those days when I think about it now. I am getting old and sentimental I guess.

The comforting feeling of cutting out images from magazines

This time, looking through these magazines, had me thinking about what it is that I love about “magazine harvesting” (newish term for something I’ve been doing for years). How I long for this kind of activity when I am feeling low on energy, inspiration or even creativity. It’s a favorite form of slowing down while still feeling slightly productive. It is something I enjoy, especially when I want to “do something creative” but can’t find enough inner strength or energy to actually be creative.

Cutting out images feels like my comfort food, like staying in my pajamas while sipping an iced latte and nibbling on a freshly baked croissant at a cafe (I’m trying to describe a luxurious mood, I guess). I mean that like a yummy beverage that I didn’t have to make myself but that was presented to me in bed, if you know what I mean? Going through a good magazine filled with colorful and happy images is a pleasure, is what I’m saying. Like going to a museum but you’re allowed to take any of the colorful things in the souvenir shop to keep. Like being in your favorite artist shop and allowed to fill a cart with art supplies without paying.

When I am collecting images I cut out anything that speaks to me. It could be other’s photographs of nature, space or the world, art, people, fashion, homes, animals, colors and textures, street art, book piles, patterns, still life or craft materials. I like to save anything that is colorful, beautiful or that makes me want to look again. I don’t leave a lot in there, but I mostly let my intuition guide me towards what I found beautiful. If you don’t love the image, just leave it – that is my advice.

The end result is often a bit messy, as I get into the tearing and cutting. I often forget to keep track of my thoughts about what I want to do with the images that I pull. That can all be sorted out later, so I allow myself to really get into the process. I simply enjoy being delighted and surprised by the magazine, the photography and the illustrations, or even the articles at times. I mean some magazines I do read most of, if they’re about books and authors, psychology, research or language for example. I often have read through them before I start butchering the pages up. But most magazines I acquire second-hand because I am drawn to the imagery of them, and those I often “browse” rather than read. Nothing is new though. Most of the magazines I cut up are over 10 years old, or older. For magazine photos I love the interior design magazines, the fashion or gossip magazines, the kid’s magazines.

How I do this activity is perhaps better demonstrated in video format, so if you want to learn more feel free to check out my blog post What is magazine harvesting (where there’s also a video showing how I work). Today all I wanted was to share this feeling of comfort that cutting up magazines gives me while I am collecting images.

As you can see from some of these photos, I often do not sit at a desk when I am harvesting magazines though. I like to sit cross-legged in my sofa corner, with a quilt around my shoulders. I sip a bit of cold coffee and look through a few magazines at a time with the scissor next to me. I pull out pages, cut out snippets, make a mess around myself. I love it though, all of it. I’ll talk more about how I organize my piles of images in a later post. For now, l hope this has encouraged you to look at your magazines a second time…

Cut and paste is for everyone

I think that this activity is something that most people can really enjoy and understand. Images speak a strong language and most of us have a gut reactions to beauty. It’s not just me, you know… I have done this activity with small children, teenagers and grown ups in different ages and almost everyone gets into it rather quickly. They get absorbed by the hunt and find pleasure in the collecting and cutting out favorites. Sometimes its good to have a “purpose” before you get started, especially if you’re a total beginner. Are you going to create DIY Postcards, make a collage journal, create a annual vision board or simply find images that is about things you like, for example. But going wild is also good.

We all love looking for images that speak to us. This is an all-family activity really, because you don’t have to be an artist to enjoy collecting pretty images, right? I think most people enjoy that. Afterwards you can do whatever you want with your images.

If you’re not an artist that enjoys creating compositions, combining different images together into a notebook (ie. a glue book or art journal), you could keep them in a box or a folder. Or fill a ring binder with plastic sleeves where you can keep your magazine images so that you can look at them. There are lots of options, and there is no way of doing collecting images wrong. Over the years I think I have explored most of them, and shared about them on the blog.

Thanks for reading and leaving me a comment below. I’d love to know if cutting out images is something you do too, and to what purposes? Does it give you the same feeling of joy and comfort as it does me?

To finish, here are a few more bits that inspires me :