Last night I committed murder. I killed the motivation murdering monster. I wrote about how to do this last week, and now I’m finally getting around to doing it. Feels pretty good.

I started by emptying out all of the drawers full of scraps of images that I’ve collected over the years, and throwing away images that were too obviously “marketing”, getting rid of things that no longer work for what I’m trying to say, and putting the images into logical piles.

The entire process took three hours, and I didn’t even lay out a sketch of a collage yet. The good news is that the creative juices are flowing, and I have an idea for three new collages.

Thankfully, I also found some as-yet-never-before-seen-in-public pieces that will work for this show.

While a show should have some sort of cohesion or theme, I’m not sure
yet what that will be. That is part of the fun and excitement of
collage, though, for me. I basically have a week to pull all of this
together, so it will be a wild ride. Hopefully, I’ll have a total of
ten pieces in the show.

This week, I’ll share with you the process as I work towards building this show, slated to open March 2 at the new location of Burley’s Mercantile in Missoula. Expect to hear me share ideas on how to price artwork, how to inexpensively prepare for a gallery exhibition, checklists for opening night, writing an effective artist statement, and how to mat and frame your own work.

If you have specific questions for me as to my process, or if you’d like to hear me talk about something specific, please let me know in the comments.