Happy 2015 & Catching Up with CYW Events

Top left to right: Sharon's famous butter tart squares; Wendy's sister Nancy; Sharon Michaelson; Michelle Casey; Visitors to the Studio and Wendy Southin, November 2014

Hello! Happy New Year!!! I hope you all survived the holidays and are all doing well. My New Year’s resolution is to simply catch up with you all […]

June 2014 Bits & Bytes

The Shenkman Art Centre’s Significant Contributions Installation (detail views), June 2014, Ottawa, Canada

Significant Contributions Project

This Friday I had a chance to visit Significant Contributions, an installation and public art project I’ve been blogging about, organized by artist Karen Goetzinger. This breath-taking series of towering structures is located in the main lobby […]

Tapestries of Time: Refrigerator Door Art

While reviewing photos of our old house this month, my heart warmed at the sight of our old kitchen refrigerator door covered with paper paraphernalia. Perhaps you have a similar ritual of posting things to your refrigerator door. In meditating its collage-like surface which offered brief glimpses of my life, I felt it resembled a […]

Listful Thinking: Using List Making to Motivate Your Spirit

Michelle Casey, “The Secret of Life”, Collage/Mixed Media, 7 inches x 5 inches, 2011, Upper text: “The secret of life is to dare”; Lower left text: “Imagine”

Last week while savouring a cup of coffee during a rare peaceful moment in my life, I began thinking about lists again. Posting my Gratitude List […]

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 […]

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 […]

Conquering Your Fears of Adding Text to Collage

Recently I was asked to give some further advice on adding text to collage. The person inquiring feared that adding words to their beautiful pieces might potentially ruin them if they did the wrong thing. Having been there myself, I could really relate to their apprehension. As a result, I’ve decided, for the next few […]

Collage Tip# 13: How to Choose a Magazine for Collaging

It’s a good idea to list the things you’ve found on a sticky in the front of the magazine to jog your memory of what’s hidden inside.

This week I was going to share some tips about picking characters for your collage stories when I realized I haven’t even discussed selecting a good […]

December 2012 Bits & Bytes

Winter 2013 Artist Trading Card Workshop!

This January I’ll be holding an Artist Trading Card (ATC) workshop in conjunction with my friend artist/painter Susan Ashbrook. I’ve been participating in ATC trades on and off for five years now with artist friends or local ATC groups including the now sadly defunct ATC quarterly which was run […]