Knowing when to stop -- a collage that went too far...

Recently, I challenged myself to create a large-scale collage on a 24x36 in. wood cradle board (like a canvas, but stiff and made of plywood). I was inspired by the intricate works of Lance Letscher, a collage master.

I started with circles. Lots and lots of circles. I cut them out of security envelopes and magazine pages. After arranging them and gluing them to the board, I brushed a thin glaze of paint over the surface. A good start, I thought.

But when I tried placing black and white images on top of the background, they got lost. I started over, covering the circles with vibrant red, blue and green. And yellow and white splatters. (In the future, I'll take the urge to splatter paint as a warning that I'm about to go too far...)

My background was starting to look like a finished abstract painting. I wish I had stopped there, but I was determined to create a collage. What if I pushed back the bright colors with old book pages? I tried "de-collaging" -- first pasting down strips from an old book, then ripping them off to leave a faint trace of paper pulp.

I liked the result. But the background was still too busy for my collage. So I did an about turn, and dug out some old gesture drawings I'd made years ago in a figure drawing class. These large images would pop against the bright background, I thought.

To make them pop even more, I went over the pencil outlines with black paint. And, of course, splatters.

The blank face and truncated arms bothered me. So I added body parts from vintage women's magazines.

I experimented with text. First I tried "Zaftig," one of my favorite words for a full-figured woman. But I worried that few people would know what it meant. So I substituted a synonym... I wished I had stopped at this point. 

I let it sit for a few days, then decided I didn't like the text. I thought the ladies needed an audience, so I gave them one. Lots and lots of men and boys, from old kids books.

What was I THINKING????? I don't like the result at all. I'm not sure what I will do with it. There's one detail I'm pleased with -- I stenciled words all around the edges of the collage. All synonyms for "zaftig." Maybe I'll gesso over the front and start over...