Mixed Media + Typography

Mixed Media + Typography: Place

Inspired by the work of Catherine Mackey
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What are we doing?
You will create a layered mixed-media artwork on cardboard that combines collage, typography, drawing, and painting to represent a place that matters to you.

We are using leftover cardboard from our sculpture project as the base surface. That cardboard already has a history — printed text, graphics, wear, and marks — and we’re going to build on top of that instead of covering it up completely.

This is not a collage project and not just a painting. It’s about building an image in layers, where earlier decisions still matter even if they become quieter over time.

Why are we doing this?
This project is about learning how artists:

• Build complex surfaces instead of starting with a blank one
• Use typography as texture, atmosphere, and meaning rather than decoration
• Let materials influence decisions instead of fighting them
• Turn personal experience (places you know or care about) into visual imagery
  
  

Catherine Mackey’s work shows how images of real places can feel layered, weathered, and lived-in. Her paintings often include fragments of text, collage, and surface texture that sit underneath the final image. We are borrowing those ideas while making something that is specific to you.

We’re also reusing materials on purpose. The cardboard already has a story. Your job is to decide how much of that story stays visible.


The Big Idea
Place has memory.
Buildings, rooms, streets, and structures collect time, wear, text, and traces of people. This project is about showing that through layers.
Your place might be:

• Your house (interior or exterior)
• A place in the city where you live
• Somewhere you’ve traveled
• Somewhere you want to go
• A space that feels important for personal reasons
  
  

The place should feel grounded and real. Mechanical elements, architecture, structures, or constructed spaces work best.


Project Steps

1.Cardboard Base

• Choose the size you want to work.
• Use cardboard from the sculpture project or other provided cardboard.
• Pay attention to what’s already printed on it. Logos, text, shipping marks all count as material.

2. Collage Foundation

• Glue down magazine imagery, typography, and graphic fragments.
• This layer is not the final image.
• Think of it as a foundation or texture layer.
• Overlap, crop, and arrange without worrying about perfection.

3. Quieting the Surface

• Dry brush primer over parts of the collage.
• Some areas should become muted and pushed back.
• Some areas can stay fully visible.
• Decide intentionally where text and collage should show and where it should fade.

4. Choosing Your Place

• Collect reference images of a place that matters to you.
• You can use your own photos or images you find online.
• Think about what makes this place recognizable. Shapes, structures, angles, surfaces.

5. Drawing the Image

• Draw your chosen place on top of the prepared surface.
• The drawing should respond to what’s already there.
• Let the typography and texture influence your lines and shapes.

6. Building with Paint and Drawing Media

• Use acrylic paint along with charcoal, pen, pencil, or other drawing tools.
• Work in layers.
• Allow cardboard, typography, collage, and paint to all remain visible in different ways.
• Use Catherine Mackey’s work as a guide for color, not a template.

How do I know I’ve been successful?
You’ve done this well if:

• The cardboard, collage, and typography are still visible somewhere in the final piece
• The image clearly represents a place, not just an abstract surface
• The layers feel intentional, not accidental
• The drawing and painting respond to the surface underneath
• Color choices feel thoughtful and connected
• The work feels personal without needing an explanation

Success here is not about realism or perfection. It’s about decision-making and layering.

What this project is NOT

• Not a neat collage
• Not a flat painting
• Not a copied version of Catherine Mackey’s work
• Not about hiding all the text or cardboard

Messy is fine. Thoughtless is not.