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While We Wait … Guest Post

My guest sharers this week have given me so much inspiration I can hardly wait to pass the mic. Laurel Purvis and Eleanor Johnston are two women with such style and creativity I am not surprised that they have found the coolest artistic outlet to pass these crazy days

collage reading go ahead!Pre-Covid, I would make collage birthday cards once in a while for friends but living through a pandemic has ramped up my production considerably. With more time on my hands and proper birthday parties not possible, it’s a nice personalized way to let someone know you love them and spent time thinking about them.

I aim to be humorous with my cards. This pursuit makes me happy as I search and then come upon appropriate images and/or text for the friend I’m celebrating. The cards tend to end up silly and surreal enough to incite a laugh from the recipient.

Whether for example: the art historian/dressmaker/Bieber-lover; the fashionable friend studying to be a psychotherapist; or the X Files fan who just bought a cottage, putting the various elements together as you look through your materials can be very satisfying.

Those materials have greatly diminished during Covid so I long for the thrift stores to open again (although friends just cleaned out their garage and loaded me up with a pile of old books and magazines to feed my need).

Making collage is a freeing and creative way to spend time, costs very little, repurposes paper that would otherwise be discarded — and it’s therapeutic!

My colleague at Mirvish, Eleanor Johnston, makes very elegant, more fine art-based collages. A couple of those featured here have theatrical elements but Eleanor says that generally she is led by a colour or an image or how she feels in the moment.

Pre-Covid, I would make collage birthday cards once in a while for friends but living through a pandemic has ramped up my production considerably. With more time on my hands and proper birthday parties not possible, it’s a nice personalized way to let someone know you love them and spent time thinking about them.

Have you turned to arts and crafts during this pandemic? We’d love to hear from you. We’d especially like to see photos of your creations. Don’t be shy. It’s time you blew your own horn and shared your work with others. If we feature your work in future issues of Meanwhile, we’ll reward you a $100 Mirvish gift card. Email us at creations@mirvish.com.