I admit it; and I accept it. My studio is a mess. It's an arena of chaos -- filled with lots of books, magazines, and other ephemera, old and new. I know there are other collagists who have a much more organized work space; but I actually prefer the chaos. It's a bit like the nature of my monkeybrain. And as I have written in the past (and in my most recent article for Kolaj magazine), I enjoy how my compositions emerge from the chaos -- I rarely have a preconceived notion for my collage compositions. I suspect there are other collage artists who feel similarly. And in the collage world collectively, I can only imagine the number of images and elements we collage artists consider for our compositions. It's inevitable, I suppose; but it still intrigues me when I see a collage posted on social media, that includes an element that I have seen or used before in one of my collages. This happened the other day when I saw a piece posted by fellow collagist Meikel Church. If you are not familiar with Meikel's work, you should check it out. Great stuff! The gears element that he used, is identical to what I had used in a piece I did several years ago (although I separated some of the gears). It's not surprising that we both saw the potential in this fun, mechanical element.
