Collaborators
Afy Downey (California)
Monica Church (New York)
Elizabeth A. Littlepage (Arkansas)
Mary Valle-Cooper (Texas)
Ruth-Anne Siegel (California)
Delivery Sequence
Afy sends to Monica
Monica sends to Elizabeth
Elizabeth sends to Mary
Mary sends to Ruth-Anne
Ruth-Anne sends to Afy
LETTERS AND FLATS ONLY
PROGRESS GALLERY
March 26, 2026—Elizabeth Littlepage’s completed collage has arrived at headquarters.
Elizabeth Littlepage, March 17, 2026
Took completed my collage to post office for final delivery. Sorry for tardiness! Cropped collage overall for better composition, while retaining some of everyone’s contribution. Moved some collage elements around, “weathered” others to provide more cohesion. Overall a great experience and lovely challenge.
March 9, 2026—Monica Church’s completed collage has arrived at headquarters.
February 26, 2026—Ruth-Anne Siegel’s completed collage has arrived at headquarters.
Monica Church, February 22, 2026
I remounted this collage on a larger sheet of Rives BFK when I received it from Afy as the margins were uneven and it seemed a better solution to expand them.
February 13, 2026—Mary Valle-Cooper’s completed collage has arrived at headquarters.
February 7, 2026—Afy Downey’s completed collage has arrived at headquarters.
Ruth-Anne Siegel, January 13, 2026
I’ve attached my additions to Afy’s collage. I am on phase 5, and I sent it to her to finish! At this point in the process there were lots of little additions and parts so the piece didn’t have harmony. Again, I went bold! Most of the collage pieces were of sea animals. I highlighted the original octopus with matte pink paint and painted most of the rest with turquoise blue and greens.
Ruth-Anne Siegel, December 5, 2025
Monica started this collage, then added to by Elizabeth, Mary, and now I am the stage 4 artist. I went BOLD! I felt like I needed to unify the whole rather than add an accent. I put a piece of heavy paper with cutouts on top, plus used indigo and transparent blue to tint the rest. I also added polka dot and blue tissue paper. As always, I had to stop myself from trying to “finish” it!
Elizabeth Littlepage, November 20, 2025
I completed additions to Afy Downey’s fun canvas and have sent it on to Mary for her contributions.
Responding to the whimsy and mid-century elements, I added a vintage bingo sheet and some semi-translucent circles (mulberry paper, vellum, sewing paper) of various sizes and colors. I wanted the circles to connect to the theme of circles both in the octopus arm suckers, and in the the seedpods and colorful beads Afy attached. I considered adding some paint to the background to help unify the piece, but will leave that for consideration of future participants.
I have received my original piece with everyone’s contribution. How fun and thoughtful and creative, and so good to work with something different than my own style! I’ll work on my final contribution after I have finished the others and upload photos then.
I currently have both Ruth Anne Siegel’s piece and Mary Valle-Cooper’s piece (they came from Monica together). I’ll send the next one on next month.
Monica Church, November 14, 2025
This is Elizabeth’s Starter collage-
Afy Downey, November 14, 2025
The [left] one came to me from Ruth Anne and the [right] one is after I added my touches. I think it’s pretty cool Am I the only one in our group who is not an artist? I hope that’s okay with everyone. I do enjoy playing with collage, artist or not.
Best, Afy
Elizabeth Littlepage, October 29, 2025
I completed my additions to Monica Church’s collage and sent it on to Mary. It should be there by Friday. I added an image transfer of a personal drawing of a Carolina Mantid (a native species). I was thinking about the abundance of life in nature congregating all around us, unseen, in response to the human collective featured in her starter. Her layout also gave me the sense of a world, or worlding. I added some small gel plate printed papers in variations of yellow, red, and blue. Apologies for the poor quality photograph!
Ruth-Anne Siegel, October 29, 2025
Here’s stage 3 of the collage started by Elizabeth. Mary added a layer and I’ve added mine and it should be with Afy now.
Monica Church, October 21, 2025
My additions to “Weave”
Monica Church, October 20, 2025
Mary Valle -Cooper’s starter collage with my additions. Love that you used the cardboard support!
I am posting these two photos for Afy as she was having difficulties using this platform.
I have not worked on either of these colleges yet and will post photos once I do.
Monica Church, October 16, 2025
I added the black octopus tentacles to unify the piece, responding to the small seed pods that Afy glued to the canvas surface.
Ruth-Anne Siegel, September 24, 2025
I received Mary’s wonderful collage and had to keep reminding myself that I wasn’t finishing it, but rather adding to it for the next collage artist! It’s so hard to stop!
Elizabeth Littlepage, September 23, 2025
For my starter collage, I created a fairly neutral background, hopefully leaving open lots of possibilities. No restrictions on future changes and additions.
Substrate: Canson XL Watercolor paper, cold press, 140 lb (300 gsm)
Adhesive: Golden regular gel matte medium
Collage: Weathered vintage book pages, painted papers, vintage paper strip, handmade paper, dyed mulberry paper
It’s on its way to Mary, and should be there Thursday.
Elizabeth Littlepage, September 21, 2025
Received Monica Church’s lovely starter collage. A silkscreen print plus added papers on Rives BFK paper. Uploading a photo before I begin working on it.
