Upcycle Progress Report // Dadaism Collage Featuring Nat Geo

For my upcycle project, I plan to make two to three collages with themes of war, climate change, and the impact of Covid-19. I am using National Geographic magazines as the media for my collages. I’ve been combing through them and cutting out anything that I think might help to demonstrate each theme. I’ve been cutting out both images and sections of text.

Once I feel I have enough images and text for one theme I begin to organize the cutouts by their subject. This makes it easier for me to plan the layout of the collage. After, I begin placing images on the backdrop just to see what fits where. My goal is to display both the backdrop and the collage elements in an equal share. This sometimes forces me to make adjustments: trimming some images tightly, or finding more images in the magazines. Once I feel I’ve got a solid starting point for the layout, I begin gluing pieces on in the order in which I’m most confident in their placement.

At the time I post this, I have finished one of my collages. It happened to be the war collage simply because it was easiest to find images of violence and historical weapons in National Geographic.

I have quite a large stockpile of cutouts for the next two collages. I anticipate looking through one or two more magazines before I begin creating the remaining two collages. Additionally, I’d like to frame these collages if there is time.