Collage Workshop Provides Breath Of Fresh Air

Inside the upstairs gallery at The Institute Library at 847 Chapel St. sat a table littered with paper, magazines, paintbrushes, glitter, scissors, stickers, and a giant jug of glue. Outside it was rainy and humid, but the room — set aside for a collage workshop entitled ​“A Time To Breathe: an Oasis Workshop” — formed a little oasis itself. Not just a refuge from the weather, but a safe space for creativity to roam free.

“When given the right environment to play, people will roam free,” said Maxim Schmidt, a curator for the Oasis exhibit and the leader of the connected workshop. Schmidt chose the medium of collage as a way to ​“de-mystify art,” showing how it can be something that anyone could do with only a few minutes and an old magazine. ​“Whenever I run one of the collage workshops my biggest goal is to have people leave and know they can do this on their own,” said Schmidt.

Schmidt sees collages as a form of ​“playful art.” Instead of spending hours in a solitary studio, aspiring artists — or those with a bit of free time and a lot of creativity — can attend a workshop and make something in a community setting. ​“The purpose of ​‘Oasis as an exhibition was to give people a breath of fresh air,” said Schmidt. In turn, the workshop provides ​“a space for people to catch their breath and realize why we do art to begin with.”

Accompanied by his assistant and girlfriend Bailey Murphy (who had a collage piece in the Oasis exhibit), Schmidt transformed the room into a studio, pulling sheets of collagable materials out of bags that, like Mary Poppins’ handbag, always seemed to contain more than met the eye. Twelve people had signed up for the workshop, but an unfortunate combination of Covid and the rainy weather cut the number of attendees down to five. This just meant more materials to go around.

Schmidt opened the workshop with a presentation explaining different methods of collaging and copyright and fair-use rules. He showed his own collage work as well as that of others for inspiration.

“Are you good?” asked Shelley Stoehr-McCarthy, one of the workshop attendees, looking a little intimidated.

“We’re all good,” Schmidt assured her. ​“I picked something we can all be good at.”

When the presentation ended, the attendees fell upon the materials like a pack of vultures. ​“If you’re looking for something specific, just holler it out and we’ll all keep an eye out,” said Schmidt.

The room fell mostly silent as everyone, Schmidt and Murphy included, submerged themselves in their work. Before long, the sound of squelching glue and ripping paper cut through the air. ​“It’s kind of exciting that we can tear apart books in a library,” Schmidt said. The attendees agreed, and tore away with enthusiasm. Bits of paper fluttered to the ground like rice at a wedding, and like at a wedding, a new union formed between the chosen scraps, each part becoming a segment of a whole image.

Stoehr-McCarthy, fairly new to the art of collage, started out by focusing on language. She ripped words and letters out of the collection of magazines, then arranged them with images to create her art piece. ​“I’m choosing some words that I like, that I think have potential,” she said. Their potential flowered into a pink-tinted spread that would have looked at home on any wall.

Sammi Bechard, who makes zines, decided to combine the art form into a collage zine. ​“I was not inspired by anything and then I saw a text that said ​‘I like hot dogs,’” they said. ​“So I started making ransom notes that said ​‘I like hot dogs.’” The zine felt like the perfect example of what Schmidt called ​“playful art,” light-hearted and creative. As Bechard said, ​“It’s just for fun.”

Some attendees, like Carol Snyder, a volunteer at The Institute Library, didn’t finish their collages in the allotted two hours. She spent most of the time cutting out images that appealed to her, and then had to decide how best to arrange them into her collage. Fortunately, Schmidt brought envelopes and encouraged everyone to bring home as many supplies as they wanted, so that they could finish on their own time.

Will Jeffries, who has collaged for three years, was one of the more experienced collagers at the workshop. His style has ​“ping-ponged between abstract and more literal” during that time, he said. During the workshop, he worked on something more abstract, creating images that tried not to use any recognizable objects. 

“I like the time limits of events like this,” said Jeffries. ​“If I don’t get a piece done in 15 minutes it’s never going to get done… collaging with other people around keeps me accountable.”

“It’s parallel play,” said Murphy.

When the two hours drew to a close, the workshop attendees pitched in to help with cleanup — and to pick any materials they wanted to keep for themselves. At the beginning of the workshop, Schmidt had said that ​“whatever it ends up being, I’ll be satisfied.” As the attendees collected their finished or unfinished art work, as well as an abundance of scrap material, and made their way back out into the rainy evening, it felt safe to say they felt satisfied as well.