5 Things I Like About this Collage Kelly Made
When we were each kids, Kelly and I both made a habit of cutting out Sports Illustrated covers and putting them on our walls. (Anyone else out there do this?)
Today, Kelly makes pretty amazing digital collages as inspiration boards when she is building a visual brand, and I think that style has some roots in “Stella,” who she made in 2009:
Recently, I began cutting cool pictures and colors out of magazines and putting them in a pile for Kelly to use as collage fodder. I love magazine layout and artistry, an appreciation I gained in my time working on Massage & Bodywork magazine thanks to patient, expert mentorship from my friends there (shoutout Amy and Darren especially), and I’ve come to learn I really, really love cutting paper with an X-ACTO knife. It has become one of my favorite ways to relax.
The other day, Kelly pulled from my pile of cutouts and finished a collage on our bathroom door:
It makes me really happy to look at. Here are 5 things I like about the collage:
1. The first picture
Things started with this lady, a magazine cover that Kelly had previously sketched on. For a while it was just her, and then things gradually built around her, and then things finished quickly, but she’s remained as a central figure throughout (though Kelly upgraded her with a crown made from some things I cut out from a jewelry advertisement):
2. This cat
Kelly painted this cat early in her Kind & Funny artistic journey, and it found its way up on the door:
I like it even more with our LED lightbulb on because the eyes glow:
3. The chaos
Seeing things transformed by unusual context is the name of the game here. We got an advertising mailer for a bank featuring Lamorne Morris aka Winston Bishop aka Winnie the Bish:
We knew he’d be going on the door, but it was fun to see Kelly pair him up with a parrot and a green monster and an inspirational quote that is being used to sell the very cool and very expensive Vestaboard:
4. The little Easter eggs
Kelly always hides fun little details, like these “signatures”:
It’s like our very own Where’s Waldo? book, but also weird like Meow Wolf.
5. All it takes is time spent creatively
Beyond the Mod Podge (5 bucks) and the fancy Olfa art knife I splurged on (5 bucks), we found the rest of the material and just added time, fun, and a willingness to not have a clean white door.
I’m going to keep cutting stuff out—if you have a space that needs some chaos art, give us a shout and we’ll do an installation in your place.
Do you do any DIY arts / crafts? What magazines do you think would be great for this? Let me know!