How to Make a Voodoo Collage

Collage is the medium of mystics - Charles Simic

At least once a year I sit down and rip images and text from old magazines and quickly assemble and affix them on to a poster board. By working quickly, I don't try to make art or get my ego involved. Voodoo collage is an intuitive and invigorating process. What always surprises me is the distinct narrative that emerges, regardless of the magazines I use. Also, that the collage reflects my current emotional state, aspirations, desires, and blind spots.

I call this collage-making process voodoo collage, because, after the collage is finished, shellacked and clipped to the easel for viewing, it almost always acts as a dialogue and provides answers. I use my voodoo collages as inspiration for paintings.

All art reflects the artist's inner world and how his or her filter refracts this understanding. I agree with Simic's quote regardless of the actual medium, whether it is paper, metal, music,fabric, language. It is the cobbling together of ideas, materials and forms that create the unity. Collage is the art form of this new century.

Check out The International Museum of Collage, Assemblage, and Construction, and these artists and writers, although not necessarily collage purists, that employ collage sensibilities and techniques in their work: Marcel Duchamp, Chris Roberts-Antieau, Phillip Glass, Quentin Tarintino, Sapphire, Tupac, Cohen Brothers, Thomas Pynchon, Maggie Taylor. Then get to work on your own voodoo collage. Post it here if you'd like.

Here's a poem to serve as inspiration.

Read Your Fate
Charles Simic

A world's disappearing.
Little street,
You were too narrow,
Too much in the shade already.

You had only one dog,
One lone child.
You hid your biggest mirror,
Your undressed lovers.

Someone carted them off
In an open truck.
They were still naked, travelling
On their sofa

Over a darkening plain,
Some unknown Kansas or Nebraska
With a storm brewing.
The woman opening a red umbrella

In the truck. The boy
And the dog running after them,
As if after a rooster
With its head chopped off.


Supplies:
1. a variety of magazines
2. poster board
3. glue sticks
4. scissors
5. Modge Podge or gel medium
6. medium size brush

Instructions:
1. tear or cut images and text from magazines that appeal to you until you are satisfied you have enough (suggestions: give yourself a time limit and don't try to force a theme)
2. set aside the magazines and clear the space
3. have images, text and glue sticks at the ready
4. quickly shuffle through your images and text to remember what you have
5. begin placing images and text (note: remember to work quickly)
6. affix with glue stick
7. paint a thin layer of Modge Podge or gel medium over the entire surface
8. allow to dry
9. pin to the wall
10. reflect and enjoy