December’s edition of the monthly art challenge started by Kerry & Tina appealed to one person. Will more rise to the January challenge? (See end of article.)

by Susan Latreille I thought I would pass on the December challenge as no flashes of creativity for a wallpaper pattern came to mind.  Then, in a novel I read something like this –‘the room was gloomy with heavy furniture and dark wood, even the cabbage rose wallpaper could not dispel the oppressive feeling’.

And that made me think of all the photos I have of my glorious peonies (not cabbage roses, but oh! so close). So I played around with photos, created a collage, and worked with several editing effects, including adding film grain and the Orton effect, to create a wallpaper that looks romantic and mysterious, it might have been found in that room in the novel.

by Kerry Herwynen McIntosh Okay. So, I rushed. I had a vision at the beginning of this challenge of a classy, Arts and Crafts,  William Morris type wallpaper.  I can still see it in my head. However,  I was busy imagining I was busy with holiday preparations. What I made is not wallpaper but what turned out to be wrapping paper. With matching gift tags.😁

by Tina Whitman I finished experimenting with designing wallpaper. When I painted Fen for the story panels, [illustration for Tales on the Trail for Friends of the Glengarry Trails] I had done her with marshland flowers. I thought at the time, that would make a great wall paper – minus Fen.

So here it is. I think it would make very nice closet wallpaper. I had wanted to print the wall paper with collograph prints made from cereal boxes [A collagraph print is made by glueing different materials to cardboard and creating a kind of collage.Ed.] But once I started I realized I would never finish such a large piece. But I’m determined to make prints some day.

Our January challenge is “Birds”.  At first I had thought your favourite bird, but we decided it can be a chicken’s egg, bird at a feeder or a roasted chicken, anything goes!

Send your creative response to the January challenge by month’s end: words, photo, visual art, collograph print!

Collectif members, send an image (or a few) of very recent work to cagac.ca@gmail.com with up to 100 words describing what you did, materials used, inspiration, etc. Maybe share how creativity helps–or frustrates! We’d like an informative, inspiring show & tell. Writers, send us poetry, lyrics, a short piece or excerpt.