Collage – Stone Sculpture & More

Reading (Snow White)

Reading collage over Snow White jigsaw puzzle

Ah the power of reading and fairy tales! This puzzle collage has many images of women and girls reading. Reading, eating, and exercising are subjects that I have not exhausted yet.

Doctors, hair cutters, and auto mechanics should not leave me in their waiting room too long. The next customer will certainly find a hole or two in the pages. I can not help but scour waiting room magazines for collage images. There are so many publications that I do not subscribe to. I try to be discreet when I plunder so as not to attract dirty looks. Well, that is, unless the appointment is running dreadfully late!

Completed:	2002
Collection:	Available for sale by the artist Deb Vandenbroucke
Puzzle Title: Artist: Size: Manufacturer:	Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Scot Gustafson 26.8″ x 19.3″ (1000 piece puzzle) Falcon

When Needed Use Leg Strength for Balance

Collage over Bavarian building jigsaw puzzle

Growing up I always loved these overbearingly cheerful Bavarian buildings. Now my more cynical self expects hidden dark secrets under the surface. In this puzzle collage almost everyone is smiling; lips and eyes are amongst the firewood and flowers.

I used to travel quite a bit for my moneymaking job. The perfect use of time waiting in airports was cutting out images. It takes a lot of time to do a precise job on small pictures, and time is what you have in those situations. Unfortunately, this use of time is long gone. They won’t allow anyone to take scissors onto airplanes anymore. Except for the presentation on this web site, there are no digital images in these collages. All pictures are found in popular culture print materials (magazines, brochures, programs, etc) and cut out with scissors.

The puzzle collages are framed with glass and clips. If I were wealthy, I would love to pick out just the right mat and frame for each one.

Completed:	2001
Collection:	Available for sale by the artist Deb Vandenbroucke
Puzzle Title: Size: Brand: Manufacturer:	Gramisch – Partenkirchen, West Germany 18 15/16″ x 26 3/4″ (1000 piece puzzle) Case-tete Kodak

With our Projector He’s Even Brighter

Images arrive at my door unbidden. It is hard to avoid getting magazines and advertisements through the mail. I wage a constant campaign to keep off of mailing lists and in spite of my diligent efforts, the house is flooded with glossy catalogues and ads. After I finished the two collage portraits, I decided to start harvesting the materials at hand. Ends up I look more closely at what arrives in my mailbox as I’m always on the look out for a picture that resonates.

How fun it was to play with this heroic image. It felt like “letting the girls out”.

Completed:	1998
Collection:	Available for sale by the artist Deb Vandenbroucke
Title: Puzzle Size: Brand: Manufacturer:	Mount Rushmore, SD 20 1/8″ x 26 3/16″ (1000 piece puzzle) Big Ben Milton Bradley

She Has Her Mother’s Eyes

This personal collage was made for my friend Carol. Many of her friends, pets and heroes are represented with Mary Tyler Moore in prominent position.

Completed:	1997
Collection:	Carol Comella Rockford, IL
Puzzle Title: Size: Brand: Manufacturer:	Through the Winter Woods 20 1/8″ x 27 1/2″ (1000 piece puzzle) Guild Parker Brothers

Your Success in Life Must be Earned with Earnest Efforts

This collage was made for a benefit show at a women’s event.

After the puzzle pieces are assembled, I introduce images from popular culture that might be a good match. My work table is full of small cutouts that swirl over the puzzle surface. “Is this right?” “Does this one resonate?” “Lips here?” A veritable dance of images over the jigsaw puzzle ensues. It can go on for days and months. During this time, some phrase or other from an advertisement, picture caption, or fortune cookie presents itself as a required element. This becomes the title of the piece.

Experimenting with images is a nice counterpoint to stone carving. The process is playful, results are immediate and changes can be made quickly. With stone I must contemplate the next move and be sure it is what I want to do. In collage I just try it out and accept or reject the juxtaposition.

Completed:	1997
Collection:	Stacy Siebert Madison, WI
Puzzle Title: Size: Brand: Manufacturer:	Kings Canyon, Sierra Nevada, CA 19 7/8″ x 13 7/8″ (500 piece puzzle) Croxley Milton Bradley

Grandma Dombrou

This was the first puzzle collage I made. It is a tribute to my mother’s mother Antoinette Dombrou.

Grandma was a comforting figure in my childhood and I needed some comfort when I made this collage. During this sad period of my life, I hermited myself in my apartment. Every night after work I sat down and worked on jigsaw puzzles. After I finished one, I’d pile it at the end of the table and start another one. I had a couple of inches of puzzles put together when the idea came to me use the puzzle as a foundation for collage.

The grid pattern of the interlocking pieces helps formally with the placement of the images; it adds a stabilizing affect. The puzzle picture size often relates to print images with just the right dimension. The puzzles themselves are often intimately familiar because viewers have also assembled them. It’s true I have been accused of using jigsaw puzzles because it’s a high brow excuse for spending my time putting them together. I will not deny the charge; I love piecing them into a picture.

Completed:	1993
Collection:	Deb Vandenbroucke, the artist Madison, WI
Puzzle Title: Size: Brand: Manufacturer:	Daffodils in the Snow 15 1/2″ x 18″ (500 piece puzzle) Guild© Golden©