Almost ten years ago, I went to a workshop at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts. The class was geared toward teachers to model Carle’s process of collage. I wasn’t a teacher. I just went for fun.

I had a plan for the perfect picture—a landscape with clouds, hills, and maybe a little brook running through. But when we sat down at a table with an array of paints and tools, the instructor told us not to think about the final product. She told us to just make pretty paper.