This week's collage represents a convergence of two communities I moderate: @letsmakeacollage (LMAC) and @theinkwell. The template picture for the LMAC collage contest this week featured a circus tent, and the fiction prompt for the Inkwell community was "Clown".
Here is the LMAC template, author @shaka
My relating the two prompts is probably a good example of the way I often use lateral thinking. This is not a conscious process. Concepts come together in a kind of idea environment.
Certainly the way those ideas come together is influenced by events in one's life. Currently, I'm dealing with some rather grim events--life's less rosy aspect. Last week I posted a blog about a vampire's existential crisis and today I post a collage that shows a grotesque clown peering down on helpless humans. These small, relatively helpless actors are unaware of the menace.
Lateral thinking. Two prompts and life come together to make a not entirely uplifting collage. This sort of lateral thinking is said by some to be at the core of creative activity. Whether it is or not, lateral thinking is obviously partly responsible for what I produced today.
The grimacing clown is I think not typical of where most of my collages go.
Resources used in making this collage included the template, photos from Unsplash, Pixabay, Pexels, and most significantly images from the LIL Gallery, LMAC's dedicated image resource. I thank in particular my friends at LMAC, @yaziris, @muelli, and @redheadpei.
Contributors:
Clown
https://unsplash.com/photos/black-and-white-lion-painting-M98DitdZi0QJuggler
https://pixabay.com/sv/vectors/cirkus-clown-skrattande-jonglering-160165/Contortionist
https://www.pexels.com/photo/circus-actor-performance-14145587/Woman in costume
https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-a-costume-jumping-midair-in-a-city-street-14139791/Ringmaster
https://pixabay.com/sv/vectors/cirkus-man-person-skrattande-152870/Broom
@yaziris
https://www.lmac.gallery/lil-gallery-image/7638
Weird figure
@muelli
https://www.lmac.gallery/lil-gallery-image/6530Jester
@redheadpei
https://www.lmac.gallery/lil-gallery-image/6783
I used the programs Paint, Paint 3D and Gimp to put the different pieces of the collage together. I finished the surreal effect with a filter from Lunapic.
I had to separate the tent from the template, enlarge it and open its doors. Paint 3D was extremely helpful in this process:
I had to find the right clown, separate him from his background and make him even creepier with with red, spiky hair. I placed him menacingly over the tent.
Time to add my 'players'. I kept thinking of the quote from Shakespeare:
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
In each case I had to separate the 'players' from their backgrounds. In the case of the jester, I combined a body supplied by @muelli with a head supplied by @redheadpei.
I placed the broom by @yaziris in the hands of the ringmaster to make him more absurd.
The hardest part for me was getting the proportions of the players right. I have trouble with visual spacing perception (takes me a long time to park a car), but it worked out fairly well.
In the end, the filter from Lunapic (fantasy filter), helped me to achieve the effect I was going for.
LIL is not only a valuable image resource for the Hive community, but is also a way for community members to participate in LMAC. Anyone on Hive can contribute to the library and everyone can borrow from it. Learn about the procedure here.
Every week we offer prizes to fifteen finalists in the contest, but it's not only the prizes people create for. I personally spend hours giving vent to my imagination, though I don't compete in the contest. Others in the community have also developed the habit of 'speaking' through collage.
This week's contest has not yet concluded. Collages will be accepted for competition until tomorrow evening. However, anyone can make a collage, freestyle, anytime and post it in the community, outside of competition. We love art :)
As @shaka has said many times, everyone is an artist. I may not be an artist in the technical sense, but LMAC allows me to nurture my own unique artistic voice.
Thank you for reading. Peace and health to all.
You have taken the circus tent to new heights. Your menacing ginger headed clown is definitely scary with the four eyes. The other characters seem to not notice him and are having a fun time,
Thanks for including my lil image in your collage.
I hope you are not getting this extreme heat we are having, my friend. I’d rather complain about the winter weather. Lol
Hello my friend @redheadpei,
It is hot here, but I would rather have the hot than the cold, although our top temperature so far has been 85--so it will probably get worse.
The horrible clown spoke to me...so there is he is. Not very endearing :))
Hope things don't heat up more over there on your lovely island.
Thank you for your visit and comment. Hope you and your family are well.
Take care dear @redheadpei.
Quite a curious collage because of the "horror" approach, many are afraid of clowns and I think the clown in the post can scare them 😅😅. The characters and the circus theme reminded me of different movies whose antagonist is an evil clown, it was interesting the post @agmoore, I always liked your creativity to give a unique style to each collage you present us, something really excellent.
I hope all the problems you have are solved in a good way, a hug and happy week to you @agmoore.
Hello my friend @abneagro,
Very kind of you to stop by and comment on my collage. Most of my life I was creative only in writing. I never could express myself visually. Then this community offered me an opportunity to be visually expressive. It's a great outlet. Words have always worked well for me, but the visual expression captures emotional states much more viscerally.
People in my life are struggling. Sometimes that's harder to take than if I am struggling. So the sense of helplessness and menace came through in my collage.
I receive your hug and return one warmly. I hope you and your family are peaceful and well. Take care, my friend.
In that I understand you, when our relatives suffer for something we feel very helpless for not knowing what to do to eliminate the problems they have, there are many things that are not in our hands, but I think the most important thing is always to be present in some way. I hope all the bad things pass soon and you can return to peace of mind @agmoore, a hug from a distance.
Not your usual style, though the collage with the menacing crows was close. Likely a reflection of those grim events, as you said. I wish you all the strength you need to get through. As my father was so fond of telling us 'man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward', but whether or not that's any comfort I do not know.
It is a comfort, my friend. We are all in it together. Rather than making me bitter, this awareness increases my compassion. If that sounds corny, I apologize.
Thank you very much for those words. It's a time for me to find the grown up in myself. I hope she's there.
Fascinating collage! Love the dark twist you took on the circus theme with the creepy clown.
Thank you, @malos. There is a place for light and dark in life. This time, I went dark :)
I appreciate the comment.
While it is true that this style of collage is not exactly what we usually see in your collages, it is also true that art is a way of representing a vision of things and in this case, from what you tell us, it has something to do with that. Be that as it may, this work was creepily well done. Congratulations!
Hello @esthersanchez,
Thank you for stopping by my blog. Art, even bad art, is supposes to express some part of ourselves. When I write exposition (science, or history), I stay out of the piece. But when I create visual art, or I write a story--the piece will necessary reflect what is on my mind. That is the cathartic value of art, isn't it?
Your collage was buoyant this week because you felt buoyant, I believe.
Hope your Sunday is great. I'm going to look at some gardens, a peaceful place.
This is scary 😂😂
Yet intriguing...
But mostly scary 😂😂
I'd say your pretty tough for you to have reached such a lovely age so I'm sure you'd outlast this tough time too...
This is a creative collage as always!!
!BBH
Hello my young friend,
It is always a pleasure to hear from you.
My concern is not for myself, but for others. I am, as you say, a lovely age and certainly am not greedy enough to demand more time. So far, the grime reaper seems to be keeping his distance from me, though 😅.
I appreciate your thoughts and, yes, the collage is creeeeepy😇
I hear he's quite a cowardly fellow, loves coming to those who least expect him.
Dreadful habit, coming to visit a person without a heads up 😞
Can't sneak up on me at this age...he is never a surprise when you are as old as I am 😅
😂😂😂
We really shouldn't joke about such things 😂😂
Other: the importance of the article
Me: that clown over there scares me is the Joker 🤡 but two eyes twice as dangerous is not enough with the 3 that were there.