Alright folks, grab some coffee, today’s share is a bit messy – literally. It all started because I stumbled over “christie grobbelaar” online somewhere, probably in one of those late-night scrolls. Had no idea what it was, sounded fancy, maybe some new technique? Turned out it was an artist doing wild paper collages. Massive stuff! Felt like a challenge, ya know? Said to myself, “I gotta try messing with paper like that.”
My Grand (Dumb?) Idea Strikes
So, Saturday morning. My kid is banging wooden blocks, wife’s reading. Figured it’s perfect chaos to add to. Raided our recycling bin – old magazines the wife wanted gone, cardboard boxes from last week’s delivery, even some junk mail. Went to the garage, dug out my rusty craft knife, a half-dry glue stick, and a roll of packing tape. Found a chunk of leftover plywood behind the lawnmower. My “canvas.” Ready? Hardly.
Operation Glue Fingers
First step: rip pages. Sounds easy? Magazines fight back! Torn edges were jagged messes, not the cool tears I imagined. Pictures crinkled weird. Started cutting instead – slow! My knife kept tearing the thin paper. Piled bits on the plywood: faces, text snippets, random ads for tires, yogurt. Looked like a toddler’s art explosion. Gluing was worse. Glue stick smeared, didn’t stick well. Spots bubbled, pages curled up like they were shy. Nearly threw the whole board across the garage. Seriously contemplated just giving up and watching football.
- Snipping: Fingers got cramped real fast, lost count of how many weird little pieces I cut.
- Glue Mess: Ended up mixing some white glue with water (remember that from kindergarten?) in a jar lid. Used a busted paintbrush. Still goopy, but slightly better? Maybe?
- Collage Brain Freeze: Tried arranging pieces meaningfully. Failed. Ended up just overlapping randomly, covering one ugly glue spot with another. Added weird texture – balled up some foil, pressed corrugated cardboard bits. Why? Who knows!
Almost Trashed It
Stood back. It was… chaotic. Ugly-chaotic. Definitely nothing like Christie Grobbelaar’s stuff. Felt kinda defeated. Glue was streaky, bits of paper flapping loose. Thought about just binning it. Saved it by accident – had to go grab my kid from tipping his milk. Left the monstrosity drying near the garage door.
Sunlight Saves the Day?
Came back later when the sun was hitting it. Weird. The messiness looked… kinda deliberate? From a distance, the clash of colours and textures had something. Those curled bits created shadows. The foil reflected light. Maybe luck? Maybe my eyes adjusted to the chaos? Took an old black marker, doodled some thick lines over parts, connected things. Hid the worst glue disasters. Sprayed on some cheap clear coat I found to lock it down. It dried, flattened out a bit.
Slapped it on the wall in the laundry room. It ain’t gallery material, that’s for sure. But my kid pointed at a yellow piece and yelled “banana!” (It was a tire ad). Wife rolled her eyes but admitted it looked “interesting.” More importantly, the process? Got me out of my head, didn’t cost anything but time and some glue, turned frustration into something kinda physical and weird. Would I do it again? Maybe, but with better glue and more patience. Maybe Christie knew the mess was part of the point. Learned that the hard way.
