What I love goes to France…
For several weeks before leaving for France to teach at my in-person workshop, my bedroom floor looked like a disorganized garage sale.
There were sweaters, shirts, jackets, shoes, and what felt like fifteen versions of the “perfect travel pants” spread everywhere. I was heading to the Loire Valley to teach collage, followed by a week wandering around Paris, and somehow everything I wanted for two weeks had to fit into one carry-on.
My biggest problem is that I LOVE options.
Give me every color, every layering piece, and every outfit I might want, and I’ll happily bring them all. I’m very good at imagining the one obscure circumstance when I’ll desperately need that extra sweater I haven’t worn in six months.
But there wasn’t room for “just in case” in this suitcase; I needed to approach packing exactly the way I approach making a collage.
Choose Only What You Love
This is something I do almost automatically when I’m creating.
I have an enormous collection of collage papers in my studio, and I certainly don’t try to use all of them in one piece. Instead, I pull out the papers, colors, marks, and images that I’m most drawn to at that particular moment. Then I edit. And edit some more.
Something can be beautiful and still not belong in this collage.
The question isn’t simply, Do I like this? It’s: Do I love what this adds to what I’m creating?
Apparently my suitcase needed the same question.
So instead of keeping something because it was practical, or because I might need it, I started with the clothes I genuinely loved wearing. Then I tried everything on in every combination I could think of. If a shirt only worked with one pair of pants, it had to make a very convincing case for itself. If a jacket worked with almost everything, it earned its place.
Eventually, eleven shirts, three pairs of pants, one dress, four jackets and sweaters, two pairs of shoes, and one purse somehow fit inside that little carry-on.
It wasn’t nearly as painful as I’d expected once I stopped trying to make room for everything.
More Isn’t Always More Interesting
When we’re making a collage, it’s tempting to keep adding.
One more piece of paper.
One more mark.
Maybe another image in that empty corner.
A little more color over here.
And sometimes another layer really is exactly what the piece needs. I certainly love layers.
But other times, we’re adding because we haven’t quite decided what’s important yet.
I think one of the hardest creative skills to develop is knowing not only what to put into a piece, but what to leave out.
I can have ten gorgeous papers sitting in front of me and want to use every single one. But if all ten are competing for attention, none of them gets to shine. The same was true of that suitcase. I had plenty of clothes I liked. The problem was that liking something wasn’t enough reason to give it precious space.
Once I raised the standard from I like this to I love this and it works with everything else, the decisions became much clearer.
A Beautiful Element Can Still Be the Wrong Choice
This is something I wish I’d understood much earlier in my art journey.
We assume that if an element is beautiful, adding it will make the artwork better, but a gorgeous piece of handmade paper can weaken a collage if it pulls attention away from where you want the eye to go. A color you adore can feel completely wrong beside the palette you’ve already created. An image can be wonderful on its own and still make the composition feel too busy.
There’s nothing wrong with the element. It simply doesn’t belong there. And that’s where editing becomes such an important part of creating.
Sometimes the most useful thing I can do is remove something I really like by covering, tearing, or moving it somewhere else (maybe back into the drawer to save for later!).
Saying no to something now doesn’t mean saying no forever, just like the jacket that didn’t make it to France will still be waiting for me when I get home.
Give Yourself Some Gentle Limitations
A limited palette, a certain size, or a handful of papers can actually make creating feel easier rather than more restrictive.
Packing a carry-on did the same thing for me. If I’d had three enormous suitcases, I probably would have packed for every possible version of myself. But because the space was limited, I had to decide what mattered.
Creative limitations ask us to make choices. And choices help us see what we really love.
This is one reason I enjoy creating a series of collages with a limited palette. Once I’ve removed the endless question of What color should I use?, I can pay attention to other things. Shape. Value. Composition. Texture. The relationship between one element and another.
Fewer choices can actually create more freedom.
What I Really Wanted to Bring to France
Of course, after all those hours deciding what would fit into my carry-on, the best thing I was taking to France didn’t need any suitcase space at all.
My 31-year-old niece, Ann, was coming with me as my studio assistant.
When she was eight years old, she started joining me occasionally on my corporate travels. She’d dress in her most professional little outfit, help me check people in for my day-long training programs, patiently watch me do my job, and then we’d explore whatever city we were in afterward.
Those trips are still some of my favorite memories.
And now, all these years later, she was coming to work with me again. Except this time, my “job” was teaching art in France.
Maybe that’s another version of choosing only what we love.
Not just in our suitcases or our collages, but in the lives we’re creating.
We can’t fit everything in.
So perhaps the question is worth asking every once in a while:
What deserves the space?
Creative Sparks
A few things from this week that might spark something new in your own creative life:
- Spirograph Collage Paper Tutorial – I pulled out a childhood favorite and discovered that a Spirograph can make beautiful, delicate collage elements. A perfect example of taking something familiar and seeing it differently.
- My good friend Caroline Millar, an artist and former psychotherapist, created Indigoflow, a mindset app especially for artists that helps you quiet those doubts, get out of your head, and trust where your creative practice is taking you.
Are you interested in learning more about how to incorporate your collage papers into your art?
Check out my Collage Workshops!
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