Magazines, Mod Podge & Mayhem

The past year and a half I have been living at home, studying remotely. I live in California. My school is in New York. Yikes.

I was a freshman at Colgate University (yes, like the toothpaste) when the pandemic hit. When the news came out last March, I booked a flight back home for the next day. Now, going back to Colgate for what seems like the first time, I will be a junior. And yet, that freshman feeling has not faded.

I constantly dream of leaving my small town to go back to school. A dream that is quite familiar, actually. It's the same feeling I had when I was a senior in high school, ready to leave the petty cliques I wasn't a part of and start something new. A new place, new friends, but most importantly, new opportunities. Who knew that those opportunities would present themselves in such bizarre, seemingly backwards ways?

Though I could focus on my strengthened familial connections, stronger sense of self, or bonding time I have spent with my dogs, why not focus on the most important thing of all: magazines.

The College Collage

My family throws out most mail. I can't tell you how many advertisements, bank statements, and other solicitations I have thrown out in my lifetime. But coming back home from school last March, I started paying closer attention.

That's when I noticed the Colgate Magazine.

Every Winter and Spring, Colgate sends out a magazine full of images and articles about its alumni, students, and whatever Colgate is up to. I skimmed the Spring 2020 issue when it arrived in the mail. It was the beginning of the pandemic and I didn't know what to do about it. No one did, or does, for that matter. So I grabbed a pair of scissors, some Mod Podge, and began to snip away.

This was my first collage of last year. As I flipped through the pages, I realized how much chaos was happening outside around us despite people being stuck inside the house. George Floyd was brutally attacked and murdered, along with countless other black lives. The pandemic was roaring at full force, weighing heavily on nurses and doctors everywhere. People were dealing with unemployment. California wildfires were about to start to plague the West Coast once again. And yet, at the heart of it, everyone was trying to find a sense of togetherness, of community amongst all the uncertainty.

This is what I tried to capture in my collage: a snapshot of the times through the lens of the Spring issue of the Colgate Magazine. I used the back of a Lucky Charms box as my canvas and some other stuff around the house, but it all centered the Colgate Magazine.

Then, Winter 2021 came, and I was sent another magazine.

Colgate has a strange tradition in which it favors the number 13. It's our number. So I knew that my next collage needed to both incorporate this number and provide another snapshot of the times.

We were all depressed and feeling alone. The pandemic was in its second wave, climate change was being debated like it was an issue of convenience, and I found myself wanting to go back to school. And yet, 3,000 miles away from where I wanted to be, I knew there was hope. Chance for growth, new opportunities, hidden beauty, and most importantly, pets. You can see this sliver of hope featured as Number 13 at the bottom of my collage.

And so my second collage was created, this time using a paper bag from my local grocery store as the canvas.

The Spring 2021 magazine was just mailed to me a couple weeks ago, so I can't wait to see what my next collage has in store.

I'm broke. Just your typical college student.

That's probably why I don't have a single magazine subscription. At least not one that I pay for. Instead I use the magazines that I randomly find in my mailbox. Or should I say, my mother's mailbox.

You could call it stealing, but I wouldn't give myself that much credit. No, I would call it "Taking Creative Liberty with My Mother's Personal Property (Whilst Hoping She Does Not Notice)." But that's beside the point. I have also received many generous donations from friends in town who don't need their magazines anymore. With the magazines I have, I find interesting phrases, images, or quotes that catch my eye. But it's also not as random as it sounds.

Most of the magazines I have are pop culture or women's clothing magazines: Venus, Boston Proper, Sephora, etc. I use what's in front of me and try to find meaning.

If you look deeper, read the headlines, examine the clothing, what do you find? That's the goal of one of my next collages, in which I hope to fit the puzzle pieces together to make a statement on the origin of the perception of women's bodies. I also hope to incorporate some of my own artwork and designs to mix things up.

Sometimes, I already have a goal in mind. And this was the case for one of my latest collages.

The No-Bake Cake

Mother's Day was just around the corner and I found myself fearful I would have to buy another gift card. Imagine: baby me buying a gift card for my mom to Venus, not knowing their magazines would fuel future art projects. How poetic.

And so I decided to switch it up and make my mom a cake. Not a literal cake, of course, but a collage cake. I looked at my materials — bathing suit-clad models and fitness magazines — and decided that I needed some new material.

Recycling gods forgive me, but I went to my local Rite Aid and *whispers* I bought magazines for the first time in my life. Luckily, trash didn't fall from the sky and the ground didn't break from underneath my feet in the process. I did what had to be done, and I would say it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself.

Each of the three tiers features a different color, with some random garnishes — pickles, cherries, sunflowers, pistachios, etc. — to top it all off.

I'm always improving.

This time, I used an actual canvas and even painted it. I didn't think an old cereal box or paper bag would suffice for my mother. And, as I mentioned earlier, I hope to start incorporating some of my own drawings and other art into my collages moving forward. My favorite part, though, is being able to make something new from something that was not originally intended for that purpose.

Whether it's a statement, a sign of the times, or a gift, these collages both comfort and help me process the world around me. I have been stuck inside for a long time now like everyone else, but it's these little things that become big opportunities to express myself creatively (and hopefully make someone smile while I'm at it).

During these unprecedented times, I hope to keep creating. That's all I could ever ask for.

. . .

About the author: I'm Lita! A college student trying the earn their bachelor's degree in English and Psych during the pandemic. I haven't attended school in-person in over a year, but I'm hopeful.

My animals, lovely partner, and family help support me during these very strange times. I'm also new to Vocal!

Read more of my work here!