I like Collage. It is a very simple way to create. It repurposes past media and shapes it into something else. Collage is simple if you think about it. But can be incredibly complicated if you want it to be.
Jack Kirby Did Collage
Jack Kirby the great comics artist dabbled in collage. Kirby used them to capture the unfamiliar, disorientation, greatness and glory. He placed his drawn heroes within collages to show that they have entered into something beyond them.
If you want a deep dive on Kirby’s collages try NerdSync’s mini-doco on those amazing collages he did in his comics for Marvel and DC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvx4ncV-rvA
You can do some fun things with collage. Place that which does not belong together. Put images in contrast with their opposite. Oh that’s the same thing. All with scissors, paper and glue. Just a bit of finesse and some imagination and you can make almost anything happen.
Hannah Höch
So you may wonder about the origin of collage. Well I really do not know. It just happened. But I do know of one of the first and greatest practitioners of collage. Hannah Höch. Hannah Höch did not call what she did collage. She called it photomontage.
These days we would call photomontage, photoshop. Well actually, I call what I do photochop. Mashing up digitally what would have been for Hannah Höch work with scissors and glue. If you look up Hannah Höch expect to be surprised. Her level of sophistication is impressive.
Just google Hannah Höch Collage and you will find her amazing work. You can find her work at the MoMA site and many others.
You can do a lot with collage and you can do little. Personally I think its a great way to show how you can reuse another media. Like a DJ sampling on a loop. Like a medley of songs. How you play with it can vary and change. Its still colour and shape. All simply with scissors and glue.