This post and photo were inspired by my writer friend Catherine, who mentioned that she has lots of starts of stories but has trouble finishing anything. I replied “yeah, I know that problem. I have about 40 unfinished small paintings sitting around.” So I went home and counted, and it’s actually 52, not 40. I think I have a problem. Well, I do finish them, eventually, sooner or later!

I wonder if other collage artists tend to work this way. I find it very frustrating to work on just one piece at a time. The process of sorting through my big box of paper scraps seems to lend itself best to working on multiple pieces simultaneously. I’ll come across a scrap that isn’t right for one piece, but which just seems to belong to a different piece, or which sets off an idea for an entirely new piece. I think that’s also why I like working in books so much- you can flip back and forth between pages.  Maybe I just have artistic ADD. I can’t imagine spending months or years working on the same piece!