The Nature of Wax Collage

I had prepared an animated series of images to show the process of transitions involved in making a wax collage, however I cannot get it to show the animation in the blog. I will keep working on that, but in the meantime here are a few of the images to get the idea across.

Collage is an art form consisting of attaching layers of material to a surface until the desired result is achieved. The process of layering is much like LIFE- with each new thing changing the face of the present moment. The word “transition” most describes what the process is like… always changing.

A link to a poem I wrote (years ago) on the subject:
http://www.angiecook-artist.com/mycollage.html

Wax collage is different from working in acrylic, which I am more accustomed to. With acrylics, once the layer is dry, you can do all manner of things to it without disrupting the layers below (other than covering them). With wax, every time you add heat to bond the layers, it disturbs the formerly “finished” layers. This can be exciting, fun, mesmerizing, and miserable all at the same time. The one constant is there is NO constant. It is always changing.

Just for fun, I have created an animation of the changes made in the making of a wax collage. Some layers were planned carefully and those worked out well. Others were unexpected “happenings”. Some layers were useless steps I could have skipped. However, the important thing is that I was pleased with the finished work. Knowing when you are finished (in any art form) is the hard part. In this case, I just stopped at the point I was most pleased… while knowing I could go on forever.