Collage: Never As Simple As It Seems

I am a fan of "mixed media" art and collage. At first thought it seems relatively simple: find some stuff, glue it to a support and presto! Art. It doesn't work that way, at least not for me. Each of my attempts has looked exactly like what it is: random stuff glued to something else, also random.
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When I walk my dog I pick up stuff along the road. I particularly admire collages that have salvaged bits on them. Such things are mysteriously transformed when in a collage. It seems to me they become mysterious and take on obscure meaning.
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I came across a book, Mixed Media Self-Portraits: Inspiration and Techniques by Cate Coulacos Prato. I think it had 5 stars on Amazon, and it is a great book. One of its suggestions is to blog because it is beneficial to the creative process. To date I have fiercely eschewed blogging, but I've decided to give it a try. I'm working on a web site where I can post pictures of some of my "creations." That's definitely a new thing, so I figure I'll try blogging, too! Yippee.
bex