He then broke down - get it? - the process of "deconstructing" a collage. The first step was creating a photo collage onto a cardboard sheet. The next step was to use glue drawings over the collage on a flat surface that would prevent the glue from dripping down and leaving trails on the piece. The third step was to let the glue fully dry. The fourth step was to apply a chemical liquid, which I can't remember the name of, on a rag towel and rub it around the glue drawings to erase the surrounding pictures and create the "deconstructed" effect. The dried glue drawings on the other hand, would help protect the underlying pictures from being erased by the chemical fluid. My teacher advised the class to avoid rubbing the glue drawings with the chemical since it might cause them to peel off and erase the underlying images.
When it was time to start building our collages, I was hesitant. I wasn't sure if my work would turn out good due to the fact that I had never made a color photo collage before, let alone a "deconstructed" one. However, I realized that the main important thing was to have fun with the project. I went ahead and got started searching for pictures in the large pile of old popular magazine titles my art teacher kept reserved for classroom projects, which consisted mostly of Ebony, National Geographic, and People catalogs. I was fortunate to find enough decent pictures for my collage, which was a task in itself because the magazines already had a lot of good pictures cut out of them by my classmates along with students from my art teacher's other classes - plus his former students over the years.
I then went and pulled one of the larger cardboard sheets from the stack of cardboard in the classroom and began assembling my collage on it, strategically placing my picture cutouts to create a dynamic composition. After putting my collage together, I played around with glue drawings that I thought would make each picture stand out individually as well as compliment the piece as a whole. When my glue drawings had all finally dried, I poured a small amount of the chemical fluid into the worn rag cloth I got from the classroom supply and began carefully wiping around the dried glue drawings. I watched as the surrounding images gradually disappeared with each wipe and my glue drawings slowly come alive with the remaining pictures still preserved underneath them.
The end result was something I was very pleased with and the piece ended up becoming my favorite collage. Here it is below.
Deconstructed Collage No. 1, 20 x 30, mixed media, 2008.
Some of the parts I like most about it are:
The deconstructed cluster of red plates and hot dog.
The woman on the bottom left deconstructed into squares.
And last but not least, the lion about to bite off the guy's head.
I would make two other deconstructed collages that semester. At the time, I was a Christian and so I incorporated Christian scriptures into these pieces.
Deconstructed Collage No. 2, 22 x 32, mixed media, 2008.
Deconstructed Collage No. 3, 34 x 21, mixed media, 2008.
