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Collages...

I wanted to take a break from printing and experiment with collage, I had an idea of cutting out the eyes of models from the magazines which I had left over from previous workshops. I carefully selected eyes which were clear enough to see and started to collage them together. Before I started cutting I drew around one of the wood blocks that I grabbed for printing to make sure the collage was the same shape and size as my woodcut prints. As I was collaging these together, I realised that I was only using eyes from women as it was women's magazines that I was cutting from, however I preferred this, as I felt with the current issues surrounding women in today's society and current events like the Women's March, I felt it was empowering to use only females and it made it a strong point when I added the text - 'See No Evil'. I also added the evil eye print to this as well, I chose the print which I felt didn't look as effective as the others and cut it to fit this collage. Before I added the text and eye, I photocopied the collage - twice in colour and twice in black and white. I did this as I wanted to merge the images together into one image and I had the idea of printing over this. 

 I did another similar collage, this time using mouths, carefully selecting mouths which would be visible enough and look effective collaged together. I photocopied this again before I added the text, and then added the words - 'Speak No Evil'. I decided not to add my prints to this as I felt it looked powerful without it. I felt it created this message of strength and empowerment. I also started to feel like it was creating this idea of censorship. Again, these were mainly all female mouths with a few exceptions. The different colours and tones, the different shapes and diversity just adds to the collage and makes it that much more effective. 

 Overall I really like these, and I think I'm going to make it a series by doing a third one for 'Hear No Evil', but I need to find magazines which feature enough ears for that, or perhaps even use images of headphones. I think I need to plan this one. I'm definitely going to make some prints from these as well and I think I'm going to look further into this idea of censorship and female empowerment.

 - more collages?
- more prints?
- censorship?
- the way women are portrayed in society?
- feminism?
- links with the saying?





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