A tableau of miniature collage works by Leslie Rottner now showing at the Lake Placid Public Library. (Photo provided)

LAKE PLACID – A collage is defined by Webster’s as “a work of art (made) by pasting on a single surface various materials not normally associated with one another, as newspaper clippings, parts of photographs, theater tickets, and fragments of an envelope.”

Pretty much everyone can manage that, but few possess the talent to transmute the jumbles into creations conveying a thought or a mood or perhaps conjuring memories.

Leslie Rottner is one of the people who can see the possibilities and possesses a natural sense of composition to put it together. A show of her works, “Midwinter, Original Paper Collages by Leslie Rottner,” is now open for viewing at the Guy Brewster Hughes Gallery in the Lake Placid Public Library.

“I’ve just always loved creating with bits of paper and objects that would normally wind up in the trash,” Rottner said. “It started as a sort of hobby: I would look at disparate pieces of paper and I would visualize ways in which they could relate to one another.”

Rottner began allowing that preoccupation to break free several years ago, trading art photography for collaging. At that time, her family, including three sons, lived in Darien, CT. Then, a couple years ago, she and her husband Chris, who is a Bloomingdale native, moved to Lake Placid, where she has had more time to develop her art.

“As a grown adult, I have discovered that I have a brain that needs to be quieted, a soul that needs to be fed and a heart that needs to be full. I must be present and I love to immerse myself in the feel of paper, the placement of seemingly insignificant scraps and the endless possibilities. It has become a necessary part of my day.”

The “Midwinter” show will be at the library until mid-March, and some of her works are also on view at Gallery 46 on Main St.