Mango Collage, 22.25″ x 22.25″ hand-dyed tissue paper on canvas
Mangos and more mangos! I am experimenting with a different art medium — collage with hand-dyed tissue papers. Here is my third piece finished yesterday, a diptych composed of two panels. I plan to put both into one frame for the square shape shown.
The big mango tree in the corner of the studio garden cooperated this year by bearing luscious fruit that we are enjoying. We are able to pick the mangos before the cherry headed conures get to them. That and the color palette of tissue papers that I had on hand inspired the work.
Managing the thin, flimsy papers with glue, water, and X-ACTO knife is tedious work and messy. At times it is carving paper, either wet or dry, being careful not to poke a hole in the canvas! In the end, I love the effect of layering and the jewel toned quality of the finished collage.
My colleague Susan Rogers-Aregger taught me how to create with this medium. She learned it from Gloria Foss, our late oil painting instructor and mentor. Together they wrote Paper Dyeing for Collage & Crafts (Honolulu: Belknap Publishing & Design, 2004; ISBN 0-9723420-3-6).
Susan has scheduled her next paper-dyeing and collage workshops for February 2015 in Kaneohe, Oahu.
Rebekah’s Studio 
Thank you, Betty, for your words of remembrance. Gloria and Susan were both special people in our lives. Aloha.
I came upon your entry when I googled Susan”s name and found out that sadly she is no longer with us. When we were staioned at Ft Shafter in the 1970’s I was an enthusiastic student of Gloria Foss , and especially enjoyed learning about her tissue paper collage technique. I discovered the paper dying book that she and Susie had written a few years ago and also found that I could buy some dyed papers from Susie. So I did, but in the process we had several nice emails and discovered that I had been in her gallery in the International Marketplace and I even have a painting that I bought there. She seemed to be lovely and generous person and I am sorry that you have lost such a special friend. It still impresses me that Gloria had such a wonderful impression on so many people. And I really enjoyed seeing your collages .
They are lovely….Betty