Recycling one artwork into different media

Using a collage as a starting point, and reconjuring the image as a drawing, painting and sculpture.

I found myself in the middle of an analogue collage revival – suddenly inspired by the piles of old magazines I had lying around I was creating lots of new collages. But traditional collage has its limitations. Once it’s stuck down the images become immovable and your work is done.

But instead of these collages being the final product, I wanted to use them as a springboard developing my artistic practice. What happens when you use a collage as the starting point, and remix it in different materials?

The starting point

A quick sketch

Acrylic paints

Clay

The results

Using a collage as a starting point for exploring new materials is a great idea. I especially enjoy taking the 2D image composite from magazine cuttings and shaping it into a 3D clay figurine.

Collage is great because it lets you create something new, often something you never could have imagined without being inspired by the source material. By reframing collage as the start of a new project, rather than the goal of the project itself, I found great inspiration to try new materials and develop the vision created at the start.