DIY Interlude (Part V: The Conclusion)

Alright, we’ve reached the dramatic conclusion! This collage project did incorporate some of the suggestions that you guys gave me, but unfortunately I could not incorporate all the ones I received (sorry!). However, I think that the final product is radiant. I incorporated ideas of interior/exterior in order to show that you can be whoever you want both inside and out – although, another purely aesthetic reason that I used strips instead of the whole block was because I enjoyed the collage pieces underneath and didn’t want to block them entirely! I also attempted to use a diverse set of library book covers in order to represent diversity in as best a way as I could. Read on to see the final product and the last bits of the process!

This basically took me two hours to finish up in the end, over two days because my weekend was eventful, to say the least. I started out by actually buying glue from the store and gathering my other materials. I decided to tape some leftover paper bags to the back so that there would be a backing and all the pieces wouldn’t fall apart when glued down.

Then I started drawing out the concept art from last week onto 11 x 17″ pieces of paper. Because the center figure spans two pieces of paper, I had to split it into two halves on the sheets – I adjusted the top half a little too far to the right, so I had to think fast and cut a little extension for the end of the hand, as you can see here.

When they were all drawn out, I set them aside and put myself to work with the taping of bags. Long, loud, and arduous was this task – it was definitely not the most fun part of the whole experience! After that, however, I got to cut the interior and exterior of the strips so that they resembled the concept art even more so.

I was left with a set of detailed strips, which were going onto the actual collage broadsheets, and some large panels that I have saved for some later usage.

Then it was time to glue. And glue… And glue until:

Voila! The final piece came together. I decided not to tape the broadsheets themselves together because it would be difficult to transport. Above are the pieces laid out in the proper way on my floor.

And here is the final piece as it stands right now – tacked to the wall of the Well Woman office! Below the collage are some of our current Well Woman peer educators, waiting around hungrily for the final dinner.

I am really glad to have finished this project just in time for finals to kick in, and would love to hear what you think about the finished work. I will probably also be doing more process posts on this blog for other work – let me know if you have any suggestions about what I should do next!

Take a look at how this collage process all started in steps one, two, three, and four.
You can also check out some more posts featuring my photography.