Emergent surprises

Greetings Collagista!
I have really been enjoying Julie's "travel log" as she has been continuing her creative journeys. I've decided to post something that I think folks might also appreciate as we all travel through the creative forest. I recently put a post up on my blog lamenting a little bit the fact that my recent successes have made me a bit less spontaneous in my studio and feeling like I "need" to do a "good" piece every time I create. But last night I had an interesting surprise. A couple weeks ago, I showed students in my Psychology & Visual Arts class the process of adhering elements in collages which I learned from Jonathan Talbot. I brought in a bunch of scraps that had been laying around in my studio just to show them the process. I wasn't expecting to put together anything usable or necessarily aesthetically-pleasing in such a spontaneous demonstration (btw, Jonathan is VERY good at that!). Since then, I have been using that piece to try some techniques with paint and other scraps. Last night when I looked at this "throw-away" piece, it struck some note with me, so I decided to see what it looked like in a mat and frame. Lo and behold, I actually kind of liked it. It doesn't really represent my normal "voice", and I don't think it'll show-up in any exhibit, but I found it intriguing. So I went to bed last night encouraged, for whatever reason; and I think I "needed" something like this to happen to help me through this hairy leg of my creative journey (see recent "contamination" post). Enjoy!