digital sarah art joy

everything is collage ~ collaged thoughts #1

~ 7 minutes to read

Transcript

This is collaged thoughts number one. Everything is collage. I recently borrowed this book from the library called More is More is More: Today's Maximalist Interiors. And it's just a book full of like photographs about maximalist home decor. And as I'm flipping through the photos and looking at all these beautiful spaces, you know, looking at all the different textures and the different colors and the different patterns, I'm just struck with this thought that they look kind of like collages. And then I have this follow-up thought of, oh, isn't everything a collage?

Isn't everything a sort of mix and collection of a bunch of different various things that you might not think go together until someone puts them together in a cohesive way. So for like home decor, it's a collage of patterns and textures and shapes and colors. Um, music is a collage of sound. It's a collage of different instruments and melodies and rhythms. Movies and TV shows are a collage of scenes and situations and characters and even food. Even a meal is a collage of like different flavors and textures.

And I don't really know why this feels so profound to me that everything is a collage but I just was really struck by this idea and I think actually, well, let's think about it okay everything is a collage and that feels significant, I think for me because I love to collage and collage, collaging is something that is has always been relatively easy and fun for me and I think thinking that everything is a collage feels so significant because it means that everything is potentially easy or could be potentially easy and fun and doable (everything could be easy and enjoyable if I approach it like a collage).

Okay. So maybe let's think about why collages are fun. Why is it easy and enjoyable for me? I think collage is fun because it's it feels like a puzzle, but you get to make up what it looks like in the end. There isn't a right way that everything fits together. The right way is how you want it to look and feel. So, it's the fun of figuring out how things fit together combined with the fun of creating something new. I think also there's an element of ease that comes with using things that already exist. Instead of having to create something totally from scratch, you're using things that already exist, and that just makes it a little bit easier to make something else new. It's arranging things in a composition that gives you a new perspective of those things. Like take for example the text in this collage that I'm making. Like these were words that were, that just kind of stood out to me as I was flipping through a magazine. And as I cut them out and as I collected them, I rearranged them into this little phrase.

And I think that's so much fun. I think it takes the pressure out of trying to come up with something from scratch, from nothing, cuz you're not working from nothing. You're working from something that already exists, but you're putting your own spin on it. You're bringing it new life.

Mm, I think there's something about like the act of collaging of, uh, you don't really commit to anything until the very end when you glue things down. There's, it's like the primary action of collage, I think, is experimenting. It's moving things around and yeah, just trying to puzzle things together. I think collage is also fun because it's a physical thing. (And I think that feels really good.) That's something I'm realizing about myself (and it's easy) as I try different art forms and mediums is that the physicality of creating feels good.

But yeah, now that I've uh rambled for quite a few minutes about how everything is collage, let me introduce myself and this series. My name is Sarah Joy. I call myself an indie app developer plus artist times poet. And I guess you could say I am also a collage. I'm collaging the first page, which I guess is technically the cover of that little Dr. Seuss book you see there to the side. And this series collaged thoughts is going to be video—

I'm feeling called to make something kind of weird is what I just thought a few minutes ago. And my brain was like, "Oo, maybe a website. A funny little website." And then another part of my brain said, "Hey, you're trying to edit a video right now, the very first video of a series of videos about collaged thoughts, and you've been thinking that you want to make it kind of weird instead of your original idea of not weird. And in this case, when I say weird, not weird, I mean my original plan for the audio for these pieces was to sort of try and match the vibe of the video, which is continuous one shot, one take, peaceful, relaxing sort of thing. That's not weird. The weird that's calling to me for these videos is chaos because I've taken I think I took like three takes so far of what the things that I wanted to say and then I've had like other instances where I'm just trying to practice talking to the mic and I'm making all of these audio recordings and now I'm just wondering what does a real collage look like of audio because collaging with paper and collaging with visual elements.

There's overlap (and there's repetition) and there's (and there's repetition) harmony and disharmony (and there's repetition) and that's what makes it interesting (and there's interruption). So like what does that (and there's clean edges) sound like (and then there's ripped edges and then) in audio form (and there's repetition) using just my voice because I don't think I'm at the point where I want to introduce like music or anything else and I think part of my brain, a little a little voice in my brain said oh it's just going to sound like what it sounds like in my brain because I've long believed that my thoughts happen kind of like a montage.

Like when you're watching a movie, it's just like two seconds in this scene and then like a few seconds in this other scene and then a few seconds over into this other scene. And they're all kind of related somehow. Sometimes more obviously related um than other times, but generally they're all like around a central theme. And I feel like that's kind of how my thoughts work. And I feel like it would be kind of an interesting thing to try and replicate with this audio instead of trying to replicate like sounding ugh pleasant like what if I go for sounding chaotic—

s of me collaging every page in this book and then me recording an audio journalesque of sorts but more just like me talking to myself, a collage of thoughts, if you will. And now that I've rambled at you for a few minutes about everything being collage, let me introduce myself and this series and I guess this YouTube channel. My name is Sarah Joy. I call myself an indie app developer plus artist times poet. And I guess you could say that I am also a collage.

I started this YouTube channel I think maybe last year 2024 and I posted a few art videos and then I got really excited about the idea of sharing my work around building an app. And so I created a whole another YouTube channel and did that for a little bit. Um, and then I just stopped posting for a while. But I decided this year that I want to get back to sharing videos. And so I've also decided to combine my two YouTube channels. And instead of having one for art specifically and one for app development, I'm just going to use this one for both. And I think the way that I'm going to do it that feels sustainable.

Okay. I'm going to interrupt myself again here because it's not that I think I'm boring, but I think I have this tendency to like talk about what I'm going to do, like the like what the plan is and what the next steps are. And I just I think that's interesting and I think I do like sharing that, but I don't think that these collaged thoughts videos are meant to be that. I want them to be weird little experiments where I share thoughts. And even if those are the thoughts that I'm having, I get to edit this however I want. So, I'm going to try to not do that. Especially since there's going to be like 10 of these videos, I think.

So, here's a little brainstorm of things I would rather collage into these collaged thoughts audio chaos things. Um, I want to include questions for you, you who you the listener. Questions like, when was the last time you made a collage? And not necessarily a paper collage, but just like when was the last time you were intentional, when was the last time you were intentional about bringing together all of these different things, these different elements, these different ingredients, and combine them to make something new? When was the last time you did that? And and is it helpful or interesting to think of everything as a collage? I'd really love to know what you think about that idea. I'd also love to collage in some things like art or other videos or music that I'm consuming that I'm excited about. And of course, I want to collage in epiphanies and revelations like everything is collage. So, I think those are the three things I want to include in these chaoticish audio collages. Epiphanies, art, and questions.

And so, I've shared questions and an epiphany this video. So, I think to wrap it up, I'll share a video that I watched recently that honestly kind of gave me collage vibes. It's a video called I Made Us a Garden Path on the YouTube channel The Morning Chorus. And I don't know exactly what it was, but there's just something about the editing and the rhythm and the clips that she chose to include. Like she shows herself working in the garden, building the path, but also has like talking clips and there's some dancing in the garden. And it's just a really lovely video. So, if you're into gardening, go check it out. And thanks for listening to this video. I hope you enjoyed that really cool transition I just did. And I'll see you next week for some more chaos. This was collaged thoughts number one. Everything is collage.

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