The Last Cowboy Under the Stars, paper collage, 2026

I haven’t been feeling particularly creative lately, which has been frustrating. Since nothing reignites my creativity quite like new collage materials, I decided to visit one of my favorite used bookstores yesterday in the hopes of finding some thrifted treasures…and perhaps my creativity along with them.

I am happy to say I hit the jackpot, especially in terms of vintage landscape photography. I also made some great additions to my Agatha Christie collection, which of course, is not for cutting and pasting, but is important in its own right. The biggest find of the day, however, was this slender volume, which I purchased for $0.50.

I love the artwork in this book, and I will get much use out of it. Most of the landscape elements from The Last Cowboy Under the Stars came from here, as do some of the spacey skies below.

I hope you enjoy these experiments in collage art. Many of these collages were built on my scanner, as I’ve only begun exploring my new materials, so you’ll find some images used more than once.