"Artful Collage from Found Objects" Inspires Creation of Visual Biographies, Memories and Dreams

I don’t know about you but I can go to a very special happy place when I read of famous, acknowledged style icons engaged in the same enterprise as the experts I know and love.

I was reminded of this recently when I read that interior style icon Charlotte Moss has been scrapbooking with abandon since she was a child.

Her latest book, Charlotte Moss: A Visual Life: Scrapbook, Collages, and Inspirations details her dedication to what she terms are a “fingerprint, a visual diary, a photo-autobiography.” http://www.rizzoliusa.com/book.php?isbn=9780847838639   

That House Beautiful Magazine feature triggered how I’d been remiss writing about the antecedent to Moss’ publication.

Not that long ago I was honored to have been given the opportunity to review the Artful Collage Found from Objects book written by my garden friend, Ellen Spector Platt. 

http://www.amazon.com/Artful-Collage-Found-Objects-Spector/dp/0811701190

What is the difference, you may ask, between Collage and Scrapbooking?

Not much.

A quick Google search yields:

Art journaling is focused on the creation of a visual journal or diary using your artistic skills and techniques, whereas scrapbooking is focused on the collation and presentation of memories, photos, small keepsakes and memorabilia, using creative techniques to enhance these.

A scrapbook is focused on capturing memories, photos, keepsakes, and memorabilia. The goal is to preserve these for generations.

The line between art journaling and scrapbooking can be blurred depending on an individual’s preferences and creativity. 

There are simply no fixed rules about what you can or can’t do in an art journal or when scrapbooking.

Journaling is based on a visual journal or diary, using art supplies, collage, stamps, markers, recycled paper, photos, etc. It’s a place for you to write your thoughts and dreams, ideas, personal reflections, future plans….philosophies.  It’s for the happy side of you and the sad, angry side. It’s a vehicle for spilling out your feelings… It’s a place to save ideas, quotes, and observations of when you are at home, work, or travelling.

So it is that Collage and Scrapbook -- thoughts of the personal, memory-inducing autobiography honors a not dissimilar style of art.

I put forth that Collages lean more toward the personal vs. a diary or journal's scrapbooking. 

Plus the collages as Platt helps us create, belong more to the “fine art” world.  

And no doubt, these kinds of Collages are given places of honor in our homes or offices – on the wall or perched on the desktop, mantle or other places of “eye-candy” distinction. 

And in the spirit of collage-as-art, you have to respect Platt notation that Picasso used newsprint in his collages.

She writes, “Now brown in tone, Picasso knew newspaper turns brown but used it anyway.”  Plant asks rhetorically, “Who am I to disagree?”

I think this notion of a visual autobiography is heightened with the gateway to a more public or “accessible scrapbooking” -- otherwise knows as: Pinterest.

See, it seems that we’ve all had the pent-up passion for collage and now its unleashed.

Collage and scrapbooking and Pinterest render memories and dreams in an artistic way.

And to enhance our private and public collage, scrapbooking, and Pinterest board-postings, we can all use the guidance and expertise of Platt.

The Artful Collage is Platt’s first published work on scrapbooking.

Platt has authored 11 books on garden plants and craft design.  A favorite is her best-selling Lavender book: Lavender: How to Grow and Use the Fragrant Herb (goo.gl/IWCqsP)

Her design cred is well established.

Artful Collage is a full-color, full-sized, step-by-step, detailed How-To and inspiration.   

The book embraces nearly 50 sample Projects that are Platt’s hands-on, real-world, collage art process.

Platt provides a succinct overview of what you’ll need to collage in the Basics chapter. 

Here, there are all the materials used in Collage and that you probably have, including, scissors, glue, brushes, pencils, and rulers. 

And then, there are the suggested “Found” materials.

It’s almost a liberating discovery to learn you can create collage artwork “from junk and treasured objects and keepsakes” according to Platt.

Artful Collage provides 10 Project chapters featuring Collage project suggestions.

Here are a few examples:

·      Remembrances of Things Past

·      My Landscape

·      My World

·      Vacations

·      Seasons of the Year

·      Holidays, Hobbies and Gifts

Nested within each Project chapter include three to six examples.

Key to successful, artful project completion is Platt’s How to Do It chapter

Platt advises Collage Art is a six-step process:

·      Gathering

·      Imagining

·      Manipulating

·      Designing

·      Adhering

·      Displaying

Plat says: “Steps do not always follow in that order – one can imagine or dream before the gathering…"

Platt suggests staring with a theme in your world and "ideas will come pouring in.” 

If life is an amalgamation – artwork is the same also. 

Art is all about telling stories. 

A Collage Q & A with Author Ellen Spector Platt:

Q How did you start Collage/What got you started? Do you continue to collage?  

A. I started by accident when I was between herb books and looking for an interesting course to take at Cooper Union. My editor wanted a craft book just around the time I was falling in love with the process of Collage.

Q. In your opinion, is this a "hobby" for folks of certain age or does it run across all ages and demographics?

A. Collage art is now my third career, and it can be enjoyed seriously by kids and adults alike.  In fact, I’ve worked with my grandkids – now 13 and 11 – and they make collages for gift sometimes.  I teach collage at Brooklyn Botanic Garden and other places.  I also show and sell my Collage work.

Q. How did you come up with the collages featured in the book?

A. I was trying to illustrate various styles and techniques to give readers a guide on how to get started.  In my own work, I now use lots of my own photos printed at home on regular paper, cut or torn, with other found elements.

Q. What has been the feedback on the book? How has it changed your world  -- your approach to found objects?

A. I notice everything in my surroundings in greater detail. All objects in the city are potential art materials.  One day, leaving a diner with a friend, I saw a perfect, green, roundish piece on the pavement and bent down to pick it up and save for some future collage.  Only after I got quite close up did I recognize this green piece as a slice of pickle. Not quite something I wanted to save…

Q. How has the garden influenced your collage?

I use many twigs, pressed flowers and leaves, pods and cones – even when the subject of the Collage isn’t botanical.  The shape, color, or texture of natural objects lend themselves to Collage and are readily available, even on the streets of New York City.  

Q. What book or project are you working on now?

A. I'm doing my own art – showing and selling my work.  My last group show and sale was at a Gallery in the Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage.

House Beautiful Kitchen of the Year

It was white.  
Lots of white cabinets.
Glass doors.
A wood and marble-like island.
White tiles. 

Not blinding snow white. Rather calm, tranquil cloud white.
With gleaming silver tiles and drawer pulls, black lacquer shelves and confidently placed cabinets. And elegant glass front display "storage."

It was an orchestration designed by Mick De Giulio, kitchen designer since 1984. De Giulio knows his way around the heart and soul of a home. 

In fact, the House Beautiful literature for the 5^th Anniversary of this summer rite of passage notes, De Giulio believes that kitchens can be more than workrooms. He believes they can be artful compositions that feel the soul.”

So it is that even in one of the world’s busiest, buzziest tourist sites, with an added attraction on the site of the Today Show’s morning outside features, the Kitchen of the Year is poised as a welcoming, calm respite and heart of this pulsing city. 

Chef Lisa Pensiero cooking demo

There were eager-looking yet respectful visitors watching the cooking demonstration by a soft spoken, focused cookbook author and chef Laura Pensiero of GIGI TRATTORIA.

Others were lounging in the kitchen’s sitting area fronted by a fireplace and big screen TV.

Others at the dining room table,

and still more coming and going leisurely to the outdoor garden kitchen. 

It didn’t look like a major magazine and manufacturer demonstration so much as a casual, family party. 

Oh, but one with lots of media video taping and photographing the cooking action in the kitchen! 

The Look

The 1,000-square-foot kitchen conservatory featured two fully functioning kitchens, indoor and outdoor, where delectable bites and sips were offered throughout the day.

The kitchen brought together a wide array of premiere building and home decoration companies, including Belgard Hardscapes, Caesarstone, Kohler, KraftMaid, Whirlpool, Aircraft Scentsticks, Ann Sacks, Circa Lighting, The Container Store, de Giulio kitchen design, Frontgate, Glidden, Grandin Road, Grothouse, Hickory Chair, iRobot, Kravet, Michael Aram, Napoleon Fireplaces, Shaw Floors, and VTech.

I liked the clever the spice rack and the pin-door like sliding cover. 

However, after more thoughtful inspection, I thought it was a design conceit that was better looking than practical due to the fact that the spices were lined up along the back wall, next to the stovetop burner.  And for diminutive folks like me, that could mean a Biiiigg stretch to fetch the pepper across the stove abyss!

I liked the idea of the indented or square-shaped area built into the wood island counter top – much like a built in bowl – for fruit or other display.  How intriguing… Yet here again, I’m thinking if one is a semi-serious cook, or even an absent-minded one, you could inadvertently put the oil or mixed ingredients down into an “empty” sloping bowl.  It could spell disaster.  It's a design solution in search of a need....
And I'm not entirely sold on the idea of the mix of Caesarstone and wood island counter top. It looked nice but is it enduring?  I thought it could appear as if one or the other textured material was added in rather than designed in.  Not sleek.

The only other challenge is the cook top. It’s electric. I asked chef Laura if it posed a problem as she was trying to demo her recipe. She gamely came round to the answer, saying "It does get hot fast -- It just took some getting used to." (Most chefs use gas powered stove top burners.)

All together, the Kitchen was very, very good looking and the overall, open layout was smart.  Of course every imaginable appliance was included yet due to good design, it wasn’t overwhelming.  On the contrary. It was all easy functionality. The wine cooler, ovens and refrigerator were within easy reach.

The use of glass was elegant.

The flooring was handsome and practical.

The shelves for easy access to cookbooks was enlightened.  Except they didn't showcase my Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook. ha! 

The shelves displaying vases and bowls was artful; a stunning effect. 

The Kitchen was as engaging as a couple’s rainy Sunday romp through a Home Depot Expo.  There was lot’s of “Honey, look at this.” And “Check this out.”  Nice inspiration.  

All events were open to the public.

A complete schedule of events http://www.housebeautiful.com/KOTY  Here online there are lots of design tips and tricks for small kitchens. 

Highlights included:

            * Todd English of Olives restaurant demonstrates Korean Style Grilled Skirt Steak

            * Highlighting the locavore culinary movement, star chefs from New York-area restaurants 
Peekamoose, Blue Hill at Stone Barns, and Gigi's Trattoria will prepare dishes and 
beverages with locally-sourced ingredients (

            *  Made In America: American Treasures Culinary Experience that recognized individuals 
and small producers in America  

            *  Miles Angelo of Caribou Club demonstrated Cappalletti with Duck Confit

Other culinary craftsman as part of the showcase were Food Network's Sandra Lee, The Chew Carla Hall, and Prune Restaurant's and James Beard Award Winner, Gabrielle Hamilton.

Outdoor Kitchen and Dining

The Belgard stone cooking island and bar in the outdoor dining area was a terrific design.  

Don't you just love the pop of green sink color?  Convenient, hidden trash receptacle

The aluminum island front and backsplash – not unlike my own inspired mirror backsplash design in our home kitchen – is just a brilliant detail.  

It opens up and reflects the light and space.  Not that one needed that in Rockefeller Center, but you will at home…

The Pizza Oven seems to be a must-do in today’s outdoor kitchens.  Men love them. And this Napoleon model was said to heat up very fast to a very high temperature.  

The Frontgate seating was conservative and rich-looking, indulgent  -- and made for relaxing while reading a good magazine or enjoying a pitcher of sangria with friends. 

The planters and island planters offered symmetry and contributed to a tranquil outdoor living composition.  There were nice container display gardens with a mix of grasses and vines and flowering plants.  

I liked the transition to different levels too – it gives a sense of being transported even if in a modest space.

I especially enjoyed chatting it up with House Beautiful's associate publisher Sean - the brains behind the entire culinary and design concept!  

We bonded over culinary design, foodie interests -- especially jam and local homegrown ingredients.  Instant friends.  Food can do that... 


House Beautiful is the leading authority on American home design and decoration.  Founded in 1896, House Beautiful is the oldest continuously published shelter magazine in the United States. In May 2012, House Beautiful won the American Society of Magazine Editors award for General Excellence in the Lifestyle Magazines category.