rice paper collage

asian thoughts, collage,  5.5 x 8 inches

I keep a mason jar filled with odds and ends of paper on my art table. When I need a trigger, I empty it as though it were a box of puzzle pieces.

Lately, I've been into stamping and previously used corks and cabbage. On this day, my heart leaped toward several, dried orange slices on my art table that I'd been saving for stamping. Using acrylics, I stamped rice paper with the dried orange slices and got the resulting marble-effect.

rice paper stamped with dried orange slices

The figure was a trial linoleum print that I did on tissue paper. After adhering it to this collage, I outlined it with sumi ink.

The background has more bits of paper from the jar:

• edging from a Chinese restaurant placemat 
• sewing pattern 
• monoprints on tissue paper 
• page from a Japanese paperback
• sumi ink on rice paper

If the imagination is to yield any real product, it must have received a great deal of material from the external world.
Arthur Schopenhauer