Check out this emotionally charged (and no doubt musically charged) artwork by Barrett. I love the looseness and amateurish style that work all too well in collage. I look forward to seeing more work from this new artist.

Name (Real or Screename): Barrett Cook
URL (Blog, Website): http://www.flickr.com/photos/hoodedfang/
Location (Where are you from?): San Francisco, California

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Chaos bound, terminally naive, exploring truth and lies.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific! A: Right now I have a small obsession with National Geographic magazines from the 1970s. I'm always looking out for scraps of miscellaneous found paper, pictures, cardboard, letters, books and so on. I use pens, glue and stencils and I mess around with solvent transfers. If I am not creating collages in my moleskine journal I enjoy using the inside of old book covers or record sleeves.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I have been creating collages for almost 1 year. My first collage was intended to be the start of a visual journal. I made a few more on found book covers to fill up the wall by my desk.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I work at a record store and do not make an income from my art (yet).

Here's a little treat: a video about Rex Ray's art, design, and most importantly collage! I have always loved his work, and this is a great video.

via dear ada

I think this artist's great rough graphic collages in his moleskine are similar to that of Sebastian or Patrick (not suprisingly one of his influences). He is another new artist and I hope to see more work from him soon!

Name (Real or Screename): JTG, jtgrothe
URL (Blog, Website): www.flickr.com/photos/jtgrothe/
Location (Where are you from?): Germany, NRW

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Advertisements glued together.

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

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I started this year because I have seen some collages of a friend of mine and I wanted to create some too.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: No, I am not solely an artist. I just do it for fun.

I love all of Richard's work—there is just something about the vintage anatomical imagery and beautiful techniques using beeswax. Overall, I am amazed by the fact that his whole body of work is so well-rounded.

Name (Real or Screename): Richard Russell
URL (Blog, Website): www.myrichardsart.com
Location (Where are you from?): Atlanta, Georgia

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Anatomically incorrect ironies about our growing loss of face-to-face communication.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I collect and dismantle vintage art and science books, love letters, and assorted oddments. I rarely use new or recently printed matter. And beeswax. Lots of beeswax.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: Since I was 6, but I have no idea now what made me start (but I remember getting in trouble for getting glue on my parents' dining room table). Now I use this medium because it's the simplest and most direct means to an end for someone who doesn't like to draw. Collage allows me to get straight to my point and tell a few stories along the way.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I am also a graphic designer with plans not to be a graphic designer for very much longer.

These are some ideas I have for new features, some of which I will be introducing in the next couple of weeks. I hope you are excited as I am, and if you have any smart suggestions I would love to know! (Email me or leave a comment).

Comparing Collage—themed posts that show art pieces with similar inspirations or materials, i.e. anatomical.

How to—instructional techniques by the artists who have mastered them.

Collaboration—featuring images of collaborations between artists accompanied by a little Q&A.

Collage History 101—the basic components of collage in art/design history in subject based installments, i.e. Dada.

Collage in Everyday Life—an aptly titled category, haven't quite developed this idea fully but I do know the first post will be "Collage + Book Design."

PS. I am currently working on the new site design and will be getting a new web host so that I can host all your beautiful artwork myself (sorry flickr and deviantart for my thievery). I know that it currently takes forever to load the images I host. So there will be many wonderful changes that I am looking forward to, I hope you are too!

Layla's beautifully feminine and detail-oriented collages are something special. She uses mainly old materials with techniques new and old. All of her one of a kind works put a little spin on "vintage" art, and if you don't look closely, you would believe it's the real thing.

Name (Real or Screename): Layla Renzi
URL (Blog, Website): www.dollfacedesign.etsy.com, www.dollfacedesign.blogspot.com
Location (Where are you from?): Rhode Island, USA

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Girly, vintage, modern, surreal, with an occasional dose of creepy!

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: Nothing makes my heart beat faster than a tattered piece of beautifully aged paper, mottled with stains and spots, delicate and fragile. i particularly like to use old ledger paper, victorian scraps, vintage catalogs from the 50's & 60's, old books, vintage magazines & photographs, and vintage wallpaper. I also love to use good old photoshop!

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I began creating collages as a kid, my mom was always really creative and always encouraged and supported my creativity as well. I got away from it for a while as an adult, but recently came back to it over the past couple of years and it's really changed the way I view and think about things... every tiny scrap of paper, every image, things that I overlooked for years have become possibilities and inspiration... it's been really eye opening and exciting.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: My "job" is a clinical social worker, and although it's how I primarily support myself financially, I don't feel like it's what I'm meant to be doing... I'm working towards figuring out how to make my living from art, but it's a process... I know i'll get there, it's just going to take time... Etsy has been extremely helpful in moving myself towards that goal.

The right amount of distressing, juxtaposition, and soft colours make me think Kareem is a collage genius. I love his work. His inspiration from Eduardo Recife shows through, but his style is still his own. What else can I say? His artwork speaks for itself. (And it doesn't say too much, because it doesn't need to!)

Name (Real or Screename): Kareem Rizk
URL (Blog, Website): www.kareemrizk.com
Location (Where are you from?): Melbourne, Australia

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Rawness and grittiness juxtaposing orderliness. Technology juxtaposing nature.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: Mostly magazines and books dating from about 1940-1990 as well as postcards and brochures. I also use old photographs, photocopies, tickets, receipts, inkjet prints and a lot of found paper. If these items are not scratched up or worn when I find them I make them scratched up and worn. Most of the stuff I use is discoloured, faded weathered or peeled off another surface. Or made to look as such.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: About 4 years. I was very much influenced by fine art techniques during my graphic design training. My interest in collage started out as a hobby as my focused was on starting a graphic design career. It was a short time after when my interest in fine art collage became more prominent than my interest in commercial design. I then decided to further pursue my interest in collage art on a professional level.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: Most of the time I am an artist. But I also promote myself as a freelance graphic designer. I have done several projects and jobs under both titles.

Q: Do you have any formal art training?
A: No. My only formal training was in graphic design.

One thing that I have always loved is the way collage shows up in everyday design, and today, we're looking at book design!

I recently had the opportunity to speak with John Gall about his work for Vintage/Anchor Books and his own personal collage work. He is the Vice President and Art Director of Vintage, and he uses collage in his book cover designs because he feels it works well with many works of fiction. I was working on a post about his cover designs when he contacted me with a link to his collage site!

The following images are from one of John's personal projects where he was recombining existing old found book covers. The main image (above) is a poster he designed that encompasses bits of his work. "A lot of my personal work seems to end up in projects here and there," he says.

John also does a great deal of collaboration in his personal and professional work, which I think is an indispensable resource for artists and designers for coming with new ideas and making adjustments to your own designs. "I work on the side with a friend of mine, Ned Drew, and we do these emailed, Photoshopped, collage illustrations for a couple magazines. We also worked together on the Kobo Abe titles (below, after break). Some of these started as personal work too."

Ophelia's work is clearly beautiful—ornate magazine cutout collages, featuring gems and satiny textures. I would describe her flower collages as very luxurious! But is a flower just a flower? she says. I don't think it's just luck, as she claims, that her art has been well received.

Name (Real or Screename): Ophelia Chong
URL (Blog, Website): www.flickr.com/photos/opheliachong/
Location (Where are you from?): Born in Canada, Now residing in Los Angeles, CA

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Glue, paper, exacto knife, band aids.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: Magazines, Rococo, Renaissance, flemish, religious, romantic paintings.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: Since I was 10 years old. In an art class where the teacher asked us to create an image using old Sears catalogues.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I am a graphic designer by trade, and a published artist by luck.

Randy's work has impact, probably because of his excellent sense of space. His collages are a little busy at times, but you can still always tell where the focus is. I agree that his style is really becoming "his style." I love his work and I can't wait to see more, I hope it has an impact on you too...

Name (Real or Screename): Randy Mora
URL (Blog, Website): randymora.blogspot.com/
Location (Where are you from?): Bogotá, Colombia

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: I just want to make people feel something good when they look at my work.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: In collage it is common to use these kinds of mediums, but I like to mix them with my own resources, to create identity... found objects, textures, stuff like that.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: Almost a year. I took some magazines and books from a studio where I was working and started experimenting with this technique, and I can't leave it now : )

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I'm studying advertising too.

Q: Do you have any formal art training?
A: Not exactly, just a few notions I have from some subjects of my career.

Well, I'm working on a new site design, as you know, and I need some input. This is the first draft of the idea, and I'm having difficulty finding room for things, I may exclude those things entirely. I would just like to know what you think about idea #1. I might do one or two designs more and have a little poll, but for now, what do you think? Too blue? Too scattered? Be cruel.

If you click on the above image, you can see the rest of the page design.

Please comment!

In this artist's work, there is so much variation between sizes and materials, it almost feels like the work is by many artists! But this isn't a bad thing, Alex takes a lighthearted approach to collage by bravely taking on new styles and techniques. By working playfully and without constraint, these characteristics show up clearly in his finished pieces.

Name (Real or Screename): Alex Hamrick
URL (Blog, Website): http://skin-and-teeth.deviantart.com/, http://www.skinandteeth.net/ (under construction).
Location (Where are you from?): Born in Sarasota, Florida. Raised in Dallas, TX. Reside in Dallas, TX/Boston, MA

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Necessary. Always in danger of becoming stale.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I'm a big fan of found paper. Street stuff, things I pick up when walking around. Older things too, but I'm not concerned with vintage business. I like tags and stickers... paper with a lot of solid color. Used packaging. The dirtier the better, makes for good texture. I like cardboard and card stock like what you find as backing on complimentary hotel notepads. Brown kraft paper. Brown anything, really. I have a soft spot for that. Gray, too. Canal paper. Masking tape, scotch tape, Elmer's white glue, Yes! Paste, x-acto knives and blades, scissors, cutting mats and rulers. Bugs and fabric and hair. Wood. Cretacolor Nero soft pencils. Thread. Random 3-D objects like thumbtacks and matches. I've had a real love affair with matches.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: Hmm. I think I've been seriously collaging for about three years now. I used to make a lot of mixed media work, and as things tend to go, I started to get bored. Gluing bits of paper into my work had begun to really interest me, and so the "media" aspect faded out and collage just pushed itself in. The first three pieces (read, the last three pieces in the gallery) on my Coughing account at deviantart are where the transition happened.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I guess you could call being a student a profession. Right now I'm holding down a job in the frame shop at Michael's in Dallas. Hopefully Starbucks will call me back so I can snag another fifteen hours a week or so of work. I'm having a solo show at the Brooke Berman Gallery in Dallas in September, so there's that too, but I don't think there's going to be any collage work in that. Plus I probably won't sell anything.

I've been communicating with Karine for a while because we are working on a three-way collage for the 6x6 project, and I completely forgot that I asked for her interview a long time ago and just found it today in my inbox! Oops. Her work is excellent, it truly shows her creativity because she uses only other people's materials and every single piece is really unique. I can't wait to see what she makes with what I sent her!

Name (Real or Screename): Karine Léger
URL (Blog, Website): www.karineleger.ca/, www.flickr.com/photos/karinel.
Location (Where are you from?): Montréal, Canada

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: I’m not really good with words. ; )

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: I started making collages last year. I met Guylaine Couture at the CreaCamp meeting. She talked about the project 6x6 and showed some of her work. I liked the idea. I thought it was a great way to be creative everyday. I needed that. So I started making material exchanges with different people around the world. Flickr is a great site to find collage partners ; )

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I’m a graphic designer, working part time. I also paint and do some photography.

April creates characters for us by combining unlikely combinations, resulting in a common link that is often strange or witty. She takes advantage of beautifully sparse, unusual layouts which make the pieces quirky and fun to look at (which means my thumbnails all look funny). I like that she combines vintage photographs with drawn lines and shapes, it gives her work real graphic interest.

Name (Real or Screename): april gertler
URL (Blog, Website): www.aprilgertler.com, www.aprilgertler.blogspot.com,
www.38-avg.blogspot.com
Location (Where are you from?): I am from California, but I now live in Berlin, Germany.

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: It is a re-contextulization of collective memory through the use of found elements.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: Found photographs (the found photographs are roughly from 1910's to the 1980's) and my own photographs, tape, thread, wrappers, magazine cut outs, paper garbage that I find on the street, paint, and book covers.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I started working in the medium of collage about 14 years ago. I was in art school at the California College of the Arts in Oakland, in the photography department and I didn't have money for paper or film. So I started using other people's photographs instead. I have been working on and off in collage since then.

Adriana creates vintage, Dada-esque, wonderfully surreal photomontages, and some of them are so Dada inspired I almost believe they came from the same time period! Her artwork tells offbeat tales of bunnies and... lobster women? And I'm loving it.

Name (Real or Screename): Adriana Petit
URL (Blog, Website): adrianapetit.weebly.com
Location (Where are you from?): Spain

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Dreams-Nightmares, Humans-Animals, Future-Past, Black-White, Shine-Darkness, City-Nature, Noise-Silence, Chaos-Harmony.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I use all of theme, not at random but in an obsessive selection.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I've been doing collages since 2004, after a personal and intense trip to Buenos Aires when I was in my rented house with all the stuff that I was collecting while walking around Buenos Aires. This is one of my methods now because I enjoy the collage process so much.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I don't have any specific profession, not yet. I'm a person with a lot of necessity to do art in all the ways which I can. I love music, and I try to develop this more with www.myspace.com/musofantasma, but the images are my speciallity in some things. I write, I live, I hate, I laugh, I think and the art is a reflection of my life.

If I loved the American magazine Tokion before, I love it 1000 times more now that it has just come out with it's collage themed Issue V.4. Appropriately named "The Collage Issue" it features sound collage, fashionable collage ensembles, collage artist works-in-progress, collage record covers, film collage, collage books, collage exhibitions, etc. It has contributions from 27 artists and designers, including Sagmeister and Saville. This issue just has it.

What more could we ask for?

Amazingly, I haven't heard of 90% of the featured artists, and I have 200 bookmarks of collage artists on my computer (and counting). I will be following up with these new discoveries, and maybe interviews if I can get them! This issue has some pretty exclusive content, and I suggest you pick up a copy!

I love how Clara plays with scale and introduces a lot of large images of hands in her collages. It really plays up the perspective and interest of her work. I love how she combines so many objects and makes them seem perfectly natural together.

Name (Real or Screename): Clara Mata
URL (Blog, Website): http://flickr.com/photos/claramata/
Location (Where are you from?): Spain

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: I try to find new relations between images that already exist—it's kind of a game.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I work with anything printed on paper; my favourites are magazines.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I've been stealing images from magazines since I was a kid. I started playing with them in 1999, but it's been three years since I chose this technique as my language.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: Actually I work as an Illustrator, but it's not enough for living, so I'm always looking for some extra work.

Suzan uses drips and splatters and abstract shapes in her mixed media paintings, which is usually reserved for making an art piece grittier, edgier, or grungier. But by using bright beautiful colours in her pieces, her artwork instead exudes enthusiasm and liveliness. I love the way she uses her stenciled letters and weathering effects.

Name (Real or Screename): Suzan Buckner
URL (Blog, Website): thriftycollageartist.blogspot.com
Location (Where are you from?): Alabama, USA

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: It is an eclectic mix of different things.

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

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I have been doing them for just over a year. I started because I had seen a piece online, and loved it.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I am also a part-time antique dealer, but mainly I am an artist.

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 Shelley 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.