Part 1: Collage Work

1. What was the goal of the assignment? Or what was the question posed by this assignment?
   • This assignment asked me to find any kind of objects scattered throughout South Congress Street, collect them, then scan and cut up various pieces to create 2 collages. When creating the works, I was additionally tasked with thinking outside the box to create a surrealist, but visually appealing, work using the elements I had.
2. How did you go about reaching this goal or answering this question?
   • I completed this assignment by picking up items I thought were interesting and provided a great deal of content to work with for a collage. For instance, I came upon 2 lottery tickets; which I felt were incredibly flashy and loaded with items to put onto a collage. Then, once I scanned and printed all the items, I cut and arranged them by instinct, keeping the layouts that I believed had pleasant structures and exciting placements.

Part 2: My After-Thoughts on the Project

For organizational sake, I will be self-critiquing the collage on the left. However, this self-critique could apply to my second one as well as this will be critiquing my collage creating skills.

1. What is the strongest aspect of this work?
   • I think the strongest aspect of my work is the organization of elements- it seems chaotic, but it has a decent composition to it that leads the eye wandering on the piece.
2. What is the weakest aspect?
   • Definitely what I consider the weakest aspect is the lack of overlap; it would’ve created more structure and made more interesting dynamics between the cuts.
3. How can the project be strengthened conceptually?
   • Conceptually, I could’ve strengthened the piece with a backdrop picture or more cuts to make it more visually interesting. As it is, it feels more empty since I didn’t grab as many objects as I’d hoped.
4. How can the project be strengthened technically?
   • Technically, I should’ve improved my pasting technique, since it looked very messy close up. Additionally, I think the aforementioned problem with emptiness is emphasized by my lack of experience in composition when in relation to collages. I did my best with the organizational composition, but didn’t consider how it could be different by overlap.
5. Additional notes.
   • Collage work is very different from more traditional mediums like painting or penciling. I’ll have to rework my entire outlook on composing pieces to make a more effective collage.