Collage—the art of assembling different materials like paper, photographs, fabric, and found objects into a composition—is a powerful medium for self-expression. Its layered nature mirrors the complexity of identity, memory, and emotion. By combining disparate elements, collage allows artists to tell stories, evoke feelings, and explore inner landscapes in ways that are intuitive, symbolic, and richly textured.

Some artists whom I am inspired by, like Henri Matisse, Picasso and Kurt Schwitters have used collage to express deeply personal and cultural narratives.

Whether working with vintage photographs, scraps of maps, or handmade prints, collage invites us to piece together who we are—one fragment at a time.

Recently I’ve been working on two collages as a continuation of Froyle Davies’ Skillshare class 100 days of collage. The prompts for Day 59: Self-Identity Map and Day 60: Textures of Home came at a good time. I have been particularly introspective of late: this was a good way to incorporate the personal into my art practice.

Day 59: Self-Identity Map

This prompt asked us to create a map of ourselves using collage—a visual representation of our journey and identity. I began with fragments from an old atlas of Birmingham and the West Midlands. This incorporates my birth place and the childhood homes of both my maternal and paternal families. My colour palette consisted of greens, yellows, blacks, and oranges. I pulled these colours from the vintage map book. These same hues became a through-line across both collages.

I layered collage papers that I had made using printmaking techniques. I used a gel plate, mark-making tools, stencils, and old photographs in my pieces. I wanted to create a visual language—full of suggestion and symbolism rather than literal narrative. One recurring motif is the bird, which I’ve been using lately to symbolise different parts of my psyche. Without delving too personally, the birds represent internal forces—thoughts, memories, emotions—that pull at the threads of identity. In fact, I created prints using thread to echo this idea of birds pulling at the threads of self. The natural world—where I am most at home— is represented through imagery throughout both pieces.

Day 60: Textures of Home

For this collage the challenge was expressing the feel of home through texture and symbolic objects. Again, I returned to those same atlas pages, carrying the colour palette and place-based imagery from the previous day’s work. This time, though, I layered in something more intimate—vintage photographs of my maternal grandmother. These images are tethered to the words “My life is my message”. This phrase encapsulates not only her legacy but also my desire to live with intention and depth. I made the assemblage with my grandmother’s photograph in, from a lesson from Fodder School one and incorporated it as a focal piece in this collage.

The textures of this piece—transparent in places, opaque in others—speak to the layered complexity of identity and memory. I worked with printmaking as well as with found papers. The sense of “home” for me isn’t confined to a building. It can be found in the natural world, in a sense of identity and belonging.

Both of these collages explore where I’ve come from, my ancestors but also who I’m becoming. The use of maps anchors me geographically—to the West Midlands, where both sides of my family are from. But the process also let me explore the interior terrain of identity. How birds, threads, and layered transparencies can hold meaning beyond the obvious.

I really enjoyed this process of creating meaningful, expressive collages. I liked using a restricted colour palette that was interwoven through both pieces. I had a great time playing with my gel plate. It was a useful process for me to take some action after all the introspection I’ve been doing recently.