Something More About the Time It Takes

Newsletter/ 

This week I had a small revelation.  

For years I had convinced myself that the total amount of time it took to make a collage was equal to the time it took to assemble a collage—essentially, the final gluing together. But that's definitely not the case. 

In fact, from the moment I cut up an image until one of its scraps find its way into a final work ... well, that process can take years. I don't know why it's taken me so long to realize this, but here are a few things that take no time at all to realize are awesome:

Living in a culture of images/ Collage idol John Stezaker on analog collage, the "universal amnesia of digital culture," and subtraction. (4 min video.)

Things that are part of the creative process that no one tells you/ This whole Twitter thread is worth reading, but this tweet was my fav. 

What I look like/ My three-year-old made paper-cut portraits of me and her mother. I dunno, I think she nailed it. 

Some other things/ I once subscribed to the Sunday print edition of the NY Times just for these illustrations by John Gall ... every month I make a playlist of good songs that I discover or rediscover (these are the tracks I found in May) ... and this ongoing project by designer Jenny Volvovski's to create new covers for books as she reads them is totally rad (and is something I've thought about doing myself). 

- Stephen

PS/ Why I collage. 

[Note: I send an email about cut-and-paste collage every third Friday. This is the June 8, 2018 edition.]