I'm going to spare you from any ugly "under construction" graphics, and just ask you to please excuse my mess (and lack of posting). We're undergoing a hosting transfer and redesign at the same time, so things may look a little wonky for the next few days. My significant other and I are pulling each other's hair out, (lovingly), because he is a programmer and I am a designer... We just can't work together without going craaaazy! It's a lot of fun though and I am excited to see the results (as soon as we're finished).

Una's work is beautifully playful. A lot of her work has a real comic book style (because she uses cutouts from comics), that also incorporates pictures of people from manuals, maps, soft colours and bright colours. There is just nothing not to love about her collages. I especially love how she uses collage in her Commercial works, it proves that collage can be very effective in everyday designs.

Also, she has a time-lapse video of her new collage project on her website, and I LOVE it, and would LOVE to see more of this kind of thing. Maybe I'll do one myself... If anybody wants to send me a video of themselves collaging, I will post it here.

Name (Real or Screename): Una Janicijevic
URL (Blog, Website): unaart.com
Location (Where are you from?): Toronto (but originally Belgrade, Serbia)

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: The best I can come up with.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I mostly work with books rather than magazines (textbooks and manuals predominantly) but am also easily excited by stickers, electrical tape, candy wrappers, decorative hole punches, maps...

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I guess I've been focused on 'straight-up' collage for the last 4 years and I think it all began with some cut-out speech bubbles from comic books.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I kind of have three jobs: art, illustration and editorial design (at Maclean's magazine).

Q: Do you have any formal art training?
A: A degree from the Ontario College of Art and Design.

[ Continue reading "una janicijevic" ]

This week is full of Canadian collage artists, ironic that this is a Canadian blog! The first is Paul Butler, who makes interesting graphic collages by crossing out words, and cutting images out of magazines so you can see through to the next page. He's talked about having "Collage Parties" here, and I am interested to find out more! Aren't you? This sounds like a great idea.

Name (Real or Screename): Paul Butler
URL (Blog, Website): theotherpaulbutler.com othergallery.com
Location (Where are you from?): b. 1973, Winnipeg, Canada

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Social art.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: Different people and their ideas.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: Since 1997. I had worked in drawing up until then, but as I was nearing my graduation and entrance into the ‘real world’, I felt I didn’t have much to contribute to the history of drawing, so I turned to collage. Soon after, I started hosting Collage Parties.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I direct the nomadic OtherGallery.com as well.

Q: Do you have any formal art training?
A: A Diploma in art with a major in drawing.

Q: Explain your favorite techniques.
A: The ‘One-Two’ move where you combine two elements, then walk away. I try to resist the temptation to overwork a piece.

[ Continue reading "paul butler" ]

This artist style changes from piece to piece, which makes her work interesting to everyone. She started collage because she felt self-conscious about her drawing, and that definitely rings true with me as well. It's a good thing collage can be classified as "fine art" now, so that us slightly insecure artists can take another route!

Name (Real or Screename): Chen Ying Tzu
URL (Blog, Website): www.flickr.com/photos/hahahazen
Location (Where are you from?): Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: It's my visual diary.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: Most of the time I prefer looking for magazines. I love to combine illustrations with some modeling portraits. Besides, I'm a big fan of Polaroids. Therefore, I collage with different films to enhance my works.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I started around 2 years ago, because I realized my lack of self-confidence in drawing. During that difficult period, I read the sentence "I couldn't draw very well, so I chose to collage." It encouraged me a lot and gave me a new way to release my emotions. I totally lost myself in collage. (After this, I did the work long way from home to commemorate my tough time).

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: Actually I don't think I'm an artist. I'm more like a storyteller according to my creations. In my free time I'm a volunteer at an art-gallery.

[ Continue reading "chen ying tzu" ]

This artist has some pretty interesting work, and he has quite a lot of it! One thing I find really unique is the way he uses colouring book pages as a base for his collages, such a smart idea and very inspiring. I found it hard to choose favourites!

Name (Real or Screename): dou_ble_you
URL (Blog, Website): www.flickr.com/photos/dou_ble_you/
Location (Where are you from?): London

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Never ending urge to express/heal/expand myself.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I have two specific areas. One is ‘cut & paste’ paper works. The other is my digital collages and photography. Sometimes, I mix both of them.

For cut & paste I use:
- newspapers & magazines
- free leaflets
- found items (playing cards, tickets, torn bits of posters etc.)
- old ‘for sale’ library books
- comics

For digital imagining my sources are:
- my street photographs
- my photographs of various ‘objects’ I may come across or just shots of images instead of scanning: this could be books, magazines, newspapers. I recently was in a public library, where they had full annuals of 19th century periodicals. I went with my camera through quite a few pages.
- any image out there on the Internet.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I was creating cut and paste images for more than 30 years. It was all prompted by a need to release my frustration at being lonely and misunderstood and by the need to ESCAPE the reality.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I work in another profession, which occasionally feeds my art as well.

[ Continue reading "dou_ble_you" ]

This is something I saw that I thought you might like, some collage-y cushion covers from the french store Bonjour mon coussin. I really want to know who designed these! Something I am definitely not going to rule out on this blog is fabric collage, I hope you are with me on this... They are pretty much art pieces themselves, each pillow is numbered and they are all limited editions. Anyway, I would definitely have these on my couch.

Shelly has some great pieces, I especially love some of her recent work, like the "Colour Burst" series (below set of images). She's having her first gallery show in July, and she deserves one. Congratulations Shelly!

Name (Real or Screename): Shelly DeVous, heartlandart
URL (Blog, Website): www.flickr.com/photos/heartlandart/
Location (Where are you from?): St. Louis, Missouri (Heartland of America)

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Colourful, abstract, vibrant, universal, fun, engaging.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I work with vintage magazines from the 1950's and 60's. The density of color in these magazines is unlike printed pieces we see today. I love incorporating text in my collages.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I've been creating collages for eight years. I've experimented with all sorts of mediums and found that I love collage work the best. I started painting on canvas and evolved into mixed media, incorporating clippings into my paintings. Eventually, I evolved into collage work solely.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I do not have another profession. Years ago I worked in marketing. Today, I do some freelance writing for blogs, but art is my primary devotion. I will have my first gallery show in July, 2008, in St. Louis, MO.

[ Continue reading "shelly devous" ]

I've been following Max's work for a little while, and I saw some work popping up here and there over the last few months, and I loved it. Little did I know that Max has only been creating these amazing collages for about three months! He started out painting (which he is very talented at as well), and turned to collage as a more affordable and accessible method. That's what I love about collage—money, skill nor time are an issue.

Name (Real or Screename): Max Montano, momax
URL (Blog, Website): flickr.com/photos/mo-max, momax.deviantart.com
Location (Where are you from?): Italy

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Impulsive, brutal, emotive, primitive.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: Mostly magazines.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: Three months ago, I needed a fast and inexpensive medium.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: Both, I work as a tattoo artist.

[ Continue reading "max montano" ]

I'm slacking off a little this week, but only because I have so much on my plate! I am painting my apartment and also trying to get the site transferred over (to the new host), and implementing the redesign. I took a little break tonight to make some art of my own, too. It feels good, I missed it! (I'll show it to you soon, I've been without a camera since Christmas and still haven't picked one up yet).

I felt a little overwhelmed for a while being influenced by all of these amazing artists, and a little down about my own work because I have seen some amazing stuff these last few months! I just have to face the fact that everyone's work is completely unique, and there is something good about what I do, too.

Thanks for reading,
Aprile

P.S. Stay tuned for (in clockwise order above) Max Montano (aka momax), Majella Lue Sue, Paul Butler, and Kevin Guthrie.

Do you remember the post about the 6x6 collage group last month? Well, in that post I suggested that they try to do three way collages instead of two, and seeing what two different people would do with the same materials. I did this exchange with Shelleyoi and Karine from the group, and this is the first set of my collages from Karine's materials. This is part one, so part two will be my second set of collages, and part three will be the results of all of the collages together.

This is a very fun exchange and if you are a member of Flickr I highly recommend taking part in this group.

The most exciting thing about this exchange for me was the beautiful Letraset transfers that Karine and Shelley both sent. I have found a new love! I will be putting these up in my Etsy shop this week.