collage art – Dear Liza

Trying Some Three-D

September 22, 2025

Dear Liza,

Looking at all the Halloween decorations for sale in the markets, I got inspired to build an illuminated haunted house. I started with old postcards, junk mail, Mod Podge, and a UHU glue stick.

Using pieces of other projects for templates, I cut a door and windows with an Xacto blade.

When they were cut, I put mullions in the windows and joined four of the five sides together, I wanted to keep it flat to work on, so I didn’t close up the ‘house’. To make the walls stronger, I gave the interior walls a coat of white paper applied with Mod Podge.

I wanted the look of old stones for my exterior walls, so I gave some junk mail a streaky coat of acrylic, then cut them into irregular pieces. While you and I were on our ZOOM call, I used the UHU to apply the stones. They needed a brayer rolled over them to make them stick, because the postcard walls still had some flex.

There is still a lot to do. I will continue tomorrow and show you what I’ve got.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Starting From Scratch

Dear Liza,

I have stated using some of those pieces of art calendar that Jennifer sent up! After several days of looking and sorting and staring, I decided to start with these few.

Because they all had a sort of golden, brown antique-ish look, with touches of red, I used acrylic paints and an old card to make some papers to complement the art.

This was a bit too yellow, so I added some brown and scraped it down a bit.

This seemed a good start, but it needed another color. Red, maybe, but not RED.

These two mixed together to make (mostly) what I was looking for. Once I got a few done, I started laying the bits down to see how they looked.

As with any artistic process, this went on for quite a while. Lay it down, go do something else, come back, have a look, trim some pictures, move some bits.

This is as far as I have gotten as of now, but I’ll let you know as it progresses. I think it needs another layer of something, and some darker bits.

I love collage! No special skill is needed, or special training. There is only a need for bits to glue down, and an opinion about “what looks good”.

Love,

Grandma Judy

So Much Art!

Dear Liza,

My friend Jennifer is such a sweetie! A few weeks ago, she was up visiting from California and asked if I would be interested in ‘an art calendar’ to use in my collages.

“If you feel like mailing it, sure!” I smiled. I have learned never to turn down art supplies.

And just the other day, what come in the mail?? Three years of this art calendar!! A whole 1,095 pages, printed on BOTH sides. A whopping 2,190 pieces of art.

These are on good quality paper, and about 4 inches by 5 inches. That’s a lot of art!!

I am already feeling both inspired and overwhelmed. With just the two evenings I have spent flipping through and sorting, I have pulled a couple that seem destined to go together. These two, a fabric print and a piece of jewelry, look like a poster for The Lion King.

And this fellow, cut from an unrelated postcard, could use this millefeuille glass paperweight as a lovely mandala. He needs work, though…I’ll let you know.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Back to Postcards

Dear Liza,

Once the collage bug gets me, I sink in real deep. Besides doing collage with poetry, I have started making postcards again.

I make them pretty quickly, because when my brain is in the mood, the pictures come to hand and go together like lightning.

The only problem is, I can’t always think of who might enjoy the images. Some of them are pretty weird.

For you, dear Liza, I always seem to find some way to “improve” a landscape.

One of these is coming your way, and the other is going to my dear friend Richard in Salinas.

Making art just for the sake of making art, for the joy of laying down color and pattern and the satisfaction it brings, has been such a revelation for me.

Once you get past “Yes, but what’s it FOR?”, life is good.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Finishing the Dictionary

Dear Liza,

I have had a fun few months hunting up pictures and looking up words in my new Danish-English dictionary, and your illustrated Danish dictionary will soon be on its way to you.

The book is called “More than 140 words in Danish” and I made it using a sketchbook that Auntie Bridgett started but couldn’t use for her art, because the pages were too thin for watercolor. They were perfect, however, for my collage (that is, cut and paste) and colored pencil silliness.

There are sections for animals, foods, clothes, family, buildings, numbers, and lots of others. They aren’t perfectly organized, because this was an on-the-fly, make is as you go sort of project. If I had tried to keep all the pictures separate and glue them in later, it never would have gotten done.

Still, thanks to the J. Peterman catalogue, I got some cohesive pages on clothes and accessories.

And thanks to desktop printing, family photos become part of the lesson. Even the silly ones!

And, of course, some art from Cousin Kestrel.

Which looks remarkably like this PHOTO of Cousin Kestrel! Art imitates life, all the lifelong Day.

And today, I head off on the number 14 to the Post Office and send this off to you!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Just Some Fun

Dear Liza,

Today I just want to share some pictures I’ve taken lately that wouldn’t fit in the stories I was telling. So here they are.

We picked this pillow up at IKEA when we were replacing a broken bed. It looked so much like Mouse, we couldn’t resist! It sits in her chair. Don’t they look cute together?

This is some of the incredibly funky art at the McMenamin’s Barley Mill, their first restaurant, which celebrated its Fortieth Anniversary last week. The theme of the restaurant is the Grateful Dead and their leader, Jerry Garcia.

I made this piece of collage with Ruthie Inman last week. It shows how I feel, sometimes, when my head is so full of creative ideas.

Here is one of the flowers growing in my other friend Ruth’s garden; a delicate grey-lavender poppy, set against the bright green of the foliage.

And finally, these are the shadows that a few houseplants cast on my wall every evening at sunset. The low light turns everything a magical orange.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Creating Postcards Part 2

Dear Liza,

I have been making postcards again! This is sort of a new thing for me, and I am not consistent about it. I will go weeks doing all sorts of other projects, and then make three or four in an afternoon.

For the base, I use those annoying junk mail postcards that sell everything from candidates to wheel alignment.

For the images, I use Portal magazine from the Portland Art Museum, Better Homes and Gardens, Via from AAA, and old magazines, postcards and greeting cards I pick up at garage sales and give away boxes. There are also bits from Ruthie Inman and daubs of acrylic paint.

I mix them together my weird brain and trim, paint and glue. Then I decide which friend is best suited to the card. Yes, I do have some weird friends.

The images can be cute or disturbing, artsy or just silly.

I’m glad that art lets me take the weird out of my head and send it to the ones I love!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Hopeful Collage

Dear Liza,

I have been having so much fun experimenting with mixed media! Putting watercolors, other paints, and collage together to tell about a feeling, or a day, just makes so much sense to me.

This piece is from Easter weekend. When I was out walking, I thought about how all springs are new beginnings. But THIS spring, with vaccines making us safer, we are being released from Covid captivity in addition to our cold winter isolation. This spring feels especially free-ing.

I collected some bits from my collage box, including candy wrappers and the little paper sleeve that was wrapped around my ice cream cone from the new Dairy Hill Creamery, down on Hawthorne.

I knew I wanted the ‘sad’ side on the left and the ‘happy’ side on the right, so I put some watercolors down for a first layer.

To show more clearly what made the sad side so sad, I stenciled and collaged some Covid-looking circles, and even spelled ‘Covid’ out in letters. Moving on from the sad, I laid down an ice cream cone wrapper bridge over a river made from a chocolate-wrapper bit of tinfoil.

I needed a happy side to be bright, so I stenciled a sun in a variety of yellows. The city is cut from an on-sale art paper from Collage art supplies. The bird was on a birthday card. The ‘JOY’ balloons are also from the ice cream wrapper.

To finish it off, I outlined the balloons and letters, and gave some detail to the sun. And to remember that this happened on Easter, I put some pretty eggs by the bridge.

Giving it a critical look, I realize that I made the water under the bridge wrong. But overall, I am pleased with the piece. It captures how I was feeling and incorporates bits of the day. I hope you have fun doing art this week!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Going in Circles

Dear Liza,

I have told you about the art journal I have been working in.

In October, Ruth Inman urged us to make pictures following prompts like “haunted house” or “sea life”.

In November we were given loose lists of supplies like “junk mail” or “cranberry can label”.

One of my favorite pictures was one made with a printed photo of Cousin Kestrel, a fruit bag, and bits of magazines. It shows her as a flower fairy, which is just about right.

On my own, I’ve been working in the Journal. As a matter of fact, I am on my last page! For my last piece in the book, I have returned to a favorite shape. Yesterday, I borrowed Auntie Bridgett’s ek 1 1/4 inch hole cutter and started chopping circles out of papers in my recycling box.

But, art being art, when I laid down the background with acrylics and various textures, it looked like outer space! I would need other colors.

Layers of color and pattern for background

I found an old Sunset magazine and looked for cool toned colors and patterns. After lots of playing, I figured where I wanted to put the ‘planets’, and Mod Podged them into place. A few more white flicks from an old toothbrush, and I was done.

I can’t tell you how much I enjoy doing art everyday. With fewer outside adventures to keep me busy, being creative and having fun have allowed me to be active and learn something new every day.

Love,

Grandma Judy