Yep, Wednesday 27 May was the last Collectif Coffee House. Eighteen creatives attended the Collage Activity. The word collage comes from the French term for to glue, coller. The art form involves gluing material to a substrate. Everyone received a glue stick. It was going to be a sticky evening.
The crowd was attentive, even a little beguiled.
Session leader Susan Irving discussed the potential of tearing – not cutting – coloured paper into shapes for image-making.
She also outlined the program. Folks would be leaving with two works, a group image and a solo work. She also shared samples done by Susan and Lynne Ayers.
For the group project, groups of 4-5 worked together. Everyone spent 5 minutes developing a concept – portrait, landscape, still life, abstract, etc. – then started in on the work of choosing raw materials, tearing and pasting.
At the end of that time the collage was passed to the person on the right. Then for 4 minutes that person worked on the image. Then it was passed to the person to the right, and so on.
Artists can be possessive. The addition of imagery by another artist occasionally (usually) caused angst in the first. Discussion, and laughter, ensued. No fisticuffs.
Folks also observed and learned from one another.
Here we learn ways organize in the heat of creativity from a pro hard at work . . .
There was no shortage of raw materials: magazines, photographs, fliers.
Note that in this image our creatives have torn apart the brown paper trash bag for use in collage!
Once the cooperative-artwork had passed through all hands of the group, it was declared done. For now. The originator can continue at home.
Here is a sampling of the group projects: interesting and colourful interpretations from torn scraps, glue and a little coloured pencil.
Then folks worked on smaller canvas boards to create individual collage works. The work stations only look like a mess . . .
Interesting works emerged from the piles of paper and sticky fingers.
A great evening of camaraderie, shared creativity with hockey playoff updates from timekeeper and photographer, Bobi.
Our final get together at the Sandfield Centre will be for a very short Annual General Meeting followed by a catered Farewell Collectif Party for members. Mark your calendars for FRIDAY, 16 October 2026.
Reminder, the Wine & Cheese Vernissage for the 4th Annual Juried Show at Glengarry Nor’Wester & Loyalist Museum, 19651 John Street, Williamstown is Friday evening, 5 June, 18:00 – 21:00. Open to the public and free.
Photos by Bobi Leutschaft Poitras
Collectif 
What a brilliant idea…a sample that would benefit all provinces in Canada…how cooperation with each individual, not separation, can result in a winning goal for all…hockey teams are well-known for this type of play.Sent from Samsung tablet
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That was my intent in a way. To learn to not be so artistically attached to something as silly as that exercise was. To be able to share different points of view-ing . To be able to detach enough from a work that you can see it more objectively . For artists, our work is our progeny in a sense. We fret about it, try to nurture it,wake up in the wee hours of the night with theories, dreams and PLANS for it. But to really be able to try see our work in a new light, we sometimes need to detach, and attempt to see it as others do. Which is why handing your new “baby”, a mere piece of thin paper with even more shredded up paper glued to it, was often so difficult. You thought someone else would “spoil it”, it would become a bratty little work, uncontrollable by the time it was returned to you. But maybe the other artists would try to be kind to your “Baby” and attempt to enhance what you started. To fear what someone else might do to it, rather than be confident that no matter what you had planned, that they might try their best to enhance it. Sometimes we just have to let go and trust. So, yes, I suppose that really could apply to our provinces and country!
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