My Uncle’s Collage: A Life in a Heartbeat

Detail of my uncle's photo collage. Top left and four images to the right are of Doug; the one on the bottom right is his mom.

Sometimes the impetus for a collage comes from my need to elaborate on a character who’s currently affecting my life. Since February I’ve been dealing with a […]

My Summer 2013 Interview Spotlight!

A magnificent piece: "Triple Goddess" by my good friend Irene Rafael.

Hello! Today I’d like to spotlight the blog of my good friend Irene Rafael. For those of you who aren’t familiar with her, she’s a special virtual friend of mine from The United States. We “met” while partaking in Kelly Kilmer’s on-line […]

Reflections: Choosing Characters for My Visual Journal Pages

Michelle Casey, "Fukushima, Hiroshima, Nagasaki", Collage/Mixed Media Journal Page, 8.5 x 6 inches, April 2011. Photo of woman by Teneshia Carr in Noise #26, UK, 2010

During my first “Pieces of Me” exhibition, a visitor enquired where I was in my journal pages. “I kept looking for you!” she said. I told her […]

Exploring My Family Curse

The top portion of “The Curse” (Michelle Casey, Collage, July 2013)… veering away from the rectangular format this piece’s outer elements defines its shape.

These past couple of weeks, I’ve been working on a collage about my family curse. If you’ve been following my blog lately, you’ll know about this and the three […]

Summer Reading List: Art-Inspired Novels for Everyone!

A page from my collage zine "l'invisible" was inspired by Carol Shield’s novel "Swann: A Mystery" about Mary Swann an unknown poet.

Recently I ran across Alyson Stanfield’s Art Biz Coach Blog which listed some great summer reading featuring fiction novels with artists as their main characters. It was such a great idea […]

Collage Tip #15: How to Make a Collaged Envelope

My sea-themed collaged envelope (front)

This spring Collage Your World member Jeanne-Sylvie Bellet (France) sent me a beautiful mixed media piece in exchange for a copy of my collage zine. When she mailed it to me, I noticed that it was enclosed in an unusually colourful envelope. Upon further inspection and enquiry, I […]

Collage Tip #14: Incorporating Quotes into Your Collages

Michelle Casey, Untitled Collage, 4 x 4 inches (approx.), April 2013, Inspired by a quote from Fréya: “Inside us all patiently waiting sits a tiny little adventurous bird."

There’s No Right or Wrong Way to Collage a Quote…

I thought I’d end my writing series (for now) with another fun tip for integrating […]

Everything Old is New Again: Re-inventing Stories to Collage

Michelle Casey, "The Little Mermaid", Collage/Mixed Media Journal Page, 8.5 x 6 inches, 2010. See lower down for written text.

Since time immemorial, story tellers have been taking old stories and making them new again. Walt Disney after all was not the first man to relay the tale of Cinderella – its […]

My Father’s Hands: Writing, Collaging, Commemorating

Michelle Casey, "All that Remains", Collage/Mixed Media Journal Page, 8.5 x 6 inches. See lower section of blog page for written text.

Practicing what I preach, I thought it might be cool to share a minimally edited excerpt of one of my creative writing journal exercises of 2005 with you and reveal how […]

How Writing Can Inspire Your Collaging

Michelle Casey, "Resurrection", Collage/Mixed Media Journal Page, 8.5 x 6 inches, January 2010. Text in handwriting: "I can't let go… you consume my soul."

So, some of you more timid souls might have gotten out your pens and markers and went about writing on your collages as I encouraged last week. If so, […]