February Art Playdate: Back to Magazines
Magazines were where it all started for me. A hundred days of collages, spread across my living room floor, my son watching TV nearby, trying to get a piece finished before he wandered off. That project led to my Inspired class, and then I moved on to other materials. So returning to magazines for February felt like visiting somewhere familiar.
The timing worked out perfectly. My studio gets cold in winter, and I'd just found a small ledger book at an estate sale with a metal five-ring binding. I cut Bristol down to fit inside it and had a portable little art journal I could carry with me to warmer parts of the house.
I started with a 1959 Life magazine, because if you're going to work with vintage magazines, Life and Post from the 1950s and 60s have the best color. I took a single page with strong color on both sides and built a collage using both sides, obscuring what it originally advertised. Working this way—piecing together both sides of one page, using every last scrap—forces a kind of creative problem-solving I really enjoy. The small bits you're left with at the end turn out to be surprisingly useful.
One thing I quickly rediscovered: the ink on old magazines smears, especially in dark colors. Keep your fingers clean, and be careful once they get sticky, or you'll end up with color in places you didn't intend.
I did try to scale up to a larger piece, and it did not go well. I chose a magazine printed on uncoated paper—more like book paper, very thin—because the typography in the ads was beautiful. My mistake was using a full background sheet with a glue stick, which couldn't possibly adhere evenly across the whole surface. Bubbles appeared long after I'd finished the rest of the composition. I tried to rescue it. I cut it in half. More bubbles. Eventually, I threw the whole thing away. Lesson learned.
The real discovery of the month came when I pulled out a few of those original hundred collages to compare them to what I'm making now. The difference is striking. My current compositions are more complex, more layered, built from smaller pieces. I'm working more deliberately. It makes sense—I've learned a lot about composition since then. At the same time, I admire the graphic simplicity of those early collages.
I decided not to try using magazines to create finished, sellable work. The ink smearing issues and the challenges of sealing them for longevity put me off. But as a playdate material? They're perfect. Low-stakes and plentiful.
If you want to play along this month, try this: take a single magazine page with color and text you love on both sides. Cut it up, use as many pieces as you can from the front and back, and build a series of small collages.
Next month I'm moving onto a new material—I'll share what it is when I get there. To follow along, make sure you're signed up for my newsletter. And if you're running your own Art Playdate, I'd love to see it—tag me on Instagram.