Apart from getting up at 6am to get the train, I was really looking forward to attending the three day “Collage into Mixed Media”, at the Slade School of Art Summer School. Applying for and winning the only free teacher bursary place was an undoubted cherry on top. I wasn’t disappointed; it felt exhilarating to be in an art college I had dreamed about going to as a teenager and making art work in a shared studio was fabulous.

With all this mind, I was still nervous about undertaking this small adventure; I didn’t know anyone on the course. I’d never been to the Slade and the thought did flash across my mind; would my class mates be cliquey/ snobby/ arrogant/ unfriendly? I was putting myself in the same position as the millions of young people who would be starting new courses in September, it’s easy to forget how scary it is.

Of course, all of my worries were unfounded, my class mates were a fascinating mix, there were several A level students, a photographer, an art history researcher, a geologist, a retired university lecturer, and an art foundation teacher, to name a few. We started the morning with an activity, a short talk to put collage into context and then got on with making stuff which was brilliant. I really recommend collage to everyone, it’s one of the most freeing art activities I can think of! You can fully let chance take its course; just start cutting out images and see what emerges.

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I find collage fascinating (check out “Cut that Out”) and this course only deepened my interest in both the practical making and the theory behind it. Our teacher gave us a reading list as well as lots of artist examples of collage; Ian Monroe ‘s essay helped me crystallize my own unstructured thoughts about the nature of collage. He talks about collage as a technique that creates an elemental edge, an active boundary, where transformations performed at this edge gain significance and meaning….and I was just thinking about cutting and sticking! Not to be too flippant, I do think that collage is so exciting because you are freed from the pressure of producing “good” drawings, you can create these strange hybrids and chimeric objects/people/ stuff and it is a violent process; cutting up found photos, magazines, your own work even.

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My favourite element of the course was when we worked on our ideas; I loved Eugenia Ivanissevich‘s work that Rebecca showed us. She sets up still lives that include flat collage images and real objects but it’s really hard too tell which is which. The idea of mixing illusion and reality is exciting. I knew I wanted to set up a still life with loads of odd objects I found around the slade studios and collage images I selected. Using the plain paper creates beautiful shadows and neutral tones. I knew once I’d photographed my set I wanted to paint the image as a further explorations into these ” elemental edges”, to blur reality, and exaggerate the feeling of superficiality and incongruous surfaces.

On reflection, I think what I found most energising about the course were the conversations with other students, MA student Elena Teleaga as well as the teacher Rebecca Loweth. With such a supportive mix of people; of all ages, backgrounds and experiences, it was impossible not to be inspired to make art work. We discussed art, artists, life, our jobs, courses and of course, collage. I could experiment with ideas for my new Photography GCSE course and my own work.

Happy collaging everyone, I mean, CUT THAT OUT!