Finger-painting With Fruit...Collage-ing for the Vernissage

I've written before about the collages I make with fresh fruit and other items from my garden, so as I prepare my pieces for the  September 12, 2009 galerie opening, I thought I'd share the story of the development of the process and the actual technique with you.

That fateful summer of 2005, my friend Jane Jolly was working at a gallery in Calvignac. The show that summer was called "Reflections of Moist Triangles", with various artists and their different takes on the theme in different locations around the valley.  In the gallery that Jane staffed, the artist used cherries and strawberries (fruit of the region of course) and paints to create a variety of works that were mostly abstract. (It appeared to Joan, Sue and I that most of his focus was on parts of a woman's anatomy!) I was inspired!  Working in my garden, everything began to look like a triangle to me!  Plums were falling from my plum tree and I decided to try my hand at this fresh fruit art thing.  I had some poster board in the house and got to squeezing plums all over it.  Instead of paint, I tried adding leaves, flowers, herbs, and other things from the garden to my plum pulp...fun, but messy.  The next question was how in the world could I preserve it?  Enter, kitchen plastic wrap (cling film for you Brits).  I put a layer over the top of my fruit and other treasures and voila-a beautiful collage, with lots of texture, color, and a stain-glassed effect when held up to the light!  If you think you'd like to try your hand at this-the following instructions should get you started:

Materials:  Card stock (notebook paper size or smaller recommended); smooth, hard surface to work on that you don't mind getting dirty; roll of paper towels; scissors; plastic wrap; container to hold your pulpy fruit; assorted flora from the garden; and the pulpy fruit of your choice. 

Your choice of fruit can make or break your collage experience.  I recommend plums, peaches, figs, blackberries, strawberries, and cherries.  Pumpkin, apricots and melon can work when juicy, but things like apples, pears, oranges and tomatoes are difficult.  Apples and pears don't have enough juice and the citric acid in oranges and tomatoes seems to make them less pulpy and more watery.

Squeeze your fruit of choice all over your card stock.  (Skin from the fruit can add a nice touch and balance out your collage with your other items, but big seeds are a problem.) 

Artistically place your other items in the juicy fruit pulp and make sure that there is pulp on top of each item.  This facilitates the stickiness needed for the next step.

Once you have your design laid out in your fruit.  Take a piece of kitchen plastic wrap that is the size of your collage, and smooth it over the top, pressing down into the pulp of the fruit as you go. 

Once your plastic wrap is in place, you can use your fingers to give texture to the collage by moving the pulp around in different directions! 

I have begun to hang my finished collages on the clothes line to dry!  It works well in nice dry weather.  Last night the collages I did in the afternoon were totally dry...I was shocked!

Once your collages are dry-or even wet-I put them under something heavy to keep the air out and flatten the plastic wrap to the collage. 

I recommend framing them as soon as possible, to keep the air from getting to them once you're finished.  It helps to maintain the color of your fruit and various garden items, as well as prevents you from ending up with some fruit cobbler looking thing.  (I've found that if the pieces get damp again, they are very unhappy!) So have some fun with fruit!  Be a kid again!  Let go! Get lost in your fruit and flora fantasies!  I don't know about you, but I sure loved finger-painting as a kid...think of it as Finger-painting with Fruit!

The photos are of my materials, an arch I love in Calvignac, my works in progress on the clothesline, and pressing down with phonebooks and dictionaries!

Comments

[Laury Bourgeois]

My poor Larousse is falling to pieces! There's no reason why you can't munch and squish at the same time! I end up wearing my plums whether I'm eating or squishing, so it doesn't really matter and can be a lot of fun! This year I have millions of plums, last year very few! I understand about your blackberries...if you should decide to use them, layering them on a little more lightly is better since they're so dark! Okay-I'm done-have fun!

[Evelyn Jackson]

I spy your Larousse!! Here's the question..how do you keep from eating the fruit? I have a few blackberries in the 'fridge; not sure I want to sacrifice them for art! I've been intrigued with your references to collaging with plums...now I know the rest of the story. I'll have to give it a try.