When this whole lockdown, stay-at-home, isolation started some twelve weeks ago, a new on-line presence burst forth. You can’t have missed it. Streaming programming. There is so much, one can lose themselves in front of a screen from morning til night. I’ve watched theater (The Show Must Go On), Korean Films (NYC Korean Cultural Center), wine tastings, countless lectures, and others. And there is even more to come.

Early on, two artist friends and internet savants – Jean and Iggy Font – started a series of offerings from their studio, Font Squared/Warehouse 4726 (https://www.warehouse4726.com/), a working artist studio space. We can no longer go to them, so they organized a number of different types of programs to come to us.

You might have read that in my sojourns in the realm of creativity, I’ve made glass-on-glass mosaics in the past (see June 2 post). I love this medium. But it’s not one you can easily take up at home, especially with three curious cats underfoot.

A while ago I thought I’d try collage with paper. I actually started, but the first effort ended up in the recycling bin. One of Jean and Iggy’s early offerings was an evening with collage. I watched and then it incubated. A few weeks ago, I decided to pick it up, thanks to their distant encouragement. I’m not sure how “creative” I am; I’m using images drawn from other sources, not out of my head. I set up my corner in full view of the tv for some visual and audio accompaniment.

Rather than working directly on the table, I use a huge wooden board that I’ve carried around for ages. During WWII, my mother (a seamstress) worked as a draftswoman. This was her drafting board from that time.

I’ve also been saving the large format, glossy print luxury magazines that come to the house occasionally. They are my source of papers. Finally, good old childhood, Elmer’s white glue and I was ready to work.

My first inspiration was a page from my yoga teacher’s calendar showing a delightful turtle. I started off choosing the right colors, then cut, cut, cut and more cutting.  O this one, I used lots of squarish shapes on the next two, I decided to try to make my paper shapes as close to triangles as possible, then fill in. Here’s the result.

Next inspiration, a tiny postage stamp from New Zealand. On closer look, this was a Christmas stamp, apparently drawn by a child. So that’s why it’s red and green! Nevertheless, it was fun trying to get gradations of color in the ground and the sky.

The last collage this go round was an image of sails at sea – two bright yellow, the rest white. Again, getting the colors of the sea and sky was fun to do. I’m not sure if the white sails don’t look more like icebergs.

What’s ahead this week? Today, another cooking demo with chef, restaurant owner Michael Solomonov in the morning and a lecture this evening. Tomorrow is a zoom wine class. Two more lectures on Wednesday. That leaves Thursday and Friday for some creative activities!