Summers in Norway

Creative amnesia, MapCrunch traveling, and a new collage

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Creative amnesia

Summers in the Norwegian countryside? I wish! I did take a short break from writing my newsletter though, to celebrate my 33rd year around the sun but also to recenter.

For a few weeks there, I kind of “forgot” how to collage. My cuts were stiff and everything I made felt stilted. You would have thought I had never used scissors before in my life.

I get so frustrated when that happens. It’s like, is Mercury in retrograde? Or is this a sign from the universe to hang up my scissors and walk into the nearest swamp, never to be seen again?

But every time I get close to becoming a swamp thing, I take a break and come back to it — or abandon it for a few weeks and start reading The Pairing instead — and suddenly I can make art again. It’s a mystery!

Acorns, Empty Flower Pots, and Broken Crocs

Well, it’s not that mysterious. The truth is, I’m rusty again. In the newsletter above, I mentioned wanting to make warm ups, to keep my hands moving so I don’t “forget” how gluing paper works so often. So let’s give warm ups another try!

To keep it simple, my only goal is to make a small collage every day. While every warm up doesn’t have to be collage, I think paper limits my shapes and how much detail I can get in the best way. There’s only so much you can fit into a collage this size.

A new collage!

I won’t be booking any European vacations anytime soon, I’m scared of planes now more than ever, but traveling with MapCrunch really scratches the itch for something new.

This Norwegian landscape was my first warm up and I had a lot of fun making it. I’m also trying to work on my values and color harmony so I had those two things in mind when I chose my colors.

Paid pals get to see me test different colors and collage this landscape in my next newsletter! If you want to see me working on it from start to finish too, and get my best collage tips, join us for only $5 (or $1.25 per week)!

Still on the fence? Here’s a preview:

This newsletter is long enough so let’s talk about what’s inspiring me later this month. See you next week, paid pals!

Until next time,

Jade

Music by Louie Zong