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).

And... we're back. After our little break, I'm very pleased to post about the work of Amanda Hawkins. I feel like her work is all about hidden beauty, while still being extremely playful. Like a lollipop that's been picked up off the ground—covered in ants. It's still good! Okay, that may have been a little contrived, but I haven't done this in a while... Anyway, her work is fantastic: dirty and grimey and lovely and fun.

Name (Real or Screename): Amanda Hawkins
URL (Blog, Website): www.ahhh-design.com, www.flickr.com/photos/ahawkins
Location (Where are you from?): Las Cruces, New Mexico — living in Phoenix, AZ

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Color and textures combined to portray simple, honest emotions. Yeah.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I never work with anything glossy like magazines & photographs - they're too clean! I have a box full of scrap paper, ripped up dictionary pages, scrapbooking paper, found objects, ribbon pieces, punched out letters, lace, ripped fabric. I have a large letter stamp collection and tons of ink pads... I smash the ink pads directly onto the paper and use them as a tool.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I started about 3 years ago, I came across this community on livejournal—and was so inspired and thinking, wow, I don't have to do big paintings all the time—these little scribbles in little books are so intimate and personal, I fell in love! I found an old day book and started pasting paper and words over the top of it and I was hooked.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I work as a graphic and web designer at Anamorphics, a small web firm in downtown phoenix and also do some freelance design.

Q: Do you have any formal art training?
A: Bachelor's in Fine Art with an emphasis in Graphic Design at New Mexico State University, Associates Degree in Digital Graphics, I took my first art class in 10th grade.

Esen's digital and traditional collages are gorgeous, I love the vintage feel and the mix of oranges and turqouise. She uses collage in her illustration work, and I can definitely say I would be pleased to open up a magazine and see her work there!

Name (Real or Screename): Esen Demirci
URL (Blog, Website): http://www.esendemirci.blogspot.com/
Location (Where are you from?): Istanbul, Turkey

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Thought, retrospective, tissue, scratch, photoshop.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I like using old fashion photos, old book pages, wallpaper patterns. And I love taking a glance in my sketch book while working.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I created my first collage last year for a fashion magazine.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I'm working from my office as an illustrator and graphic designer.

I know that this project may be old to many of you, but after reading Miranda July's book "No one belongs here more than you" I was interested in her work yet again. Her website Learning to Love you More is a collaborative project with regular people. I thought this might interest you because there are a few that I find pretty "collage-y," like the one where you ask a friend to point out all the things that they want in a magazine and you make a collage of it, or where you cover up only part of a photo album page. It inspired me a little to try some new techniques, and I am probably going to make a contribution. You should too!

Assignment #28
Edit a photo album page.

Look through a friend or relative's photo album. Choose a single page that includes details that you find interesting. Take a piece of solid-colored paper that fits over the entire album page and cut one to ten holes in the paper that reveal details of the pictures. These details can be parts of people's bodies, their pets, a cake, a poster, anything you find visually intriguing. These holes should be small, just isolating the details, with holes that are the shape of the thing you are isolating (cake-shaped hole, tiny hole isolating just someone's head, etc.) Give your page a title that includes the name of the person who's photo album you have used. For instance "Erika's trip to Florida," or "Dave and his dog Walter at the Beach."

The part of Nick's work that I would like to draw your attention to is definitely his altered/collaged books. The first five links are each links to an entire book (which may take time to load). I personally love seeing whole collections of collages in book form, but maybe that's just because I love books so much. Nick's collage books are beautifully arranged, and by that I mean messy and disorganized. Collage is just so ironic.

Name (Real or Screename): Nicholas Tassone
URL (Blog, Website): www.beecombs.com/
Location (Where are you from?): Original Ohioan, to Philadelphian, to upstate New York.

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: A sham of clairvoyant esoteric stylish magazine flip throughs.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I tend to work through certain old and new books at a time (old to the world, new for me). A lot of my work comes from flea market/thrift store findings and dumpster treasure!

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: Since my junior year in high school when I realized that I didn't have to draw to make art. I still draw, but it's hard to say that collage has not influenced my work as a whole very significantly.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I'm studying right now at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. Very currently, I've made myself an intern at an art studio in Ithaca, NY where I help decorate Disney cruise ships and hotels! I'm only in my second week now, but I'm enjoying it more and more.

Q: Do you have any formal art training?
A: 2 years of new media design training under my belt, another 2 to go (plus lots more I'm sure).

Eva is just too good. I was avoiding this post because I just love her work so much, and I knew it would be impossible to narrow it down to 11 pieces. But here it is, I had a difficult time! Her work is just so unique and beautiful, and she has such a range. Some of her work is simple, and some of it elaborate, but all of it is genius. Her artwork is something that no one will tire of.

Name (Real or Screename): Eva Eun-Sil HAN
URL (Blog, Website): http://evahan.weebly.com/
Location (Where are you from?): I'm Korean, curretly living in Belgium.

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Finding Nemo with Alice.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: With lots of vintage stuff—magazines, post-cards, photos and old wallpaper, japanese paper + pencil, gouache, gesso.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I've been doing collages for 2 years. Before, I did more paintings and drawings but when I saw Max Ernst's collage works, it changed everything. I really love his mixed media works, they are so special.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I'm solely an artist, 24h/24h, 7 days a week ;)

I find Majella's work very comforting, it has the feel of the pleasant illustration you would see in any women's magazine, cartoon-like and soft. But the one thing she does differently, is of course, using collage in her illustrations. I am amazed by how she so subtly uses textures such as newsprint in her illustrations. I know there are a lot of affluent illustrators who practice this collage/illustration technique, and it's nice to know that collage functions so well in so many artistic careers.

Name (Real or Screename): Majella Lue Sue
URL (Blog, Website): www.majellaluesue.com
Location (Where are you from?): Originally, Trinidad and Tobago, but I now live in California, USA.

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Finding expression and storytelling through drawing and paper.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: Mostly vintage. Anything that would achieve the look and feel I want. It's the most fun way to recycle old and forgotten paper or fabric.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I've been illustrating for at least 5 years, professionally for 3. I wanted to try to create imagery with media other than the traditional ones.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I'm an illustrator/designer. I illustrate and do graphic design professionally.

After I transferred the domain to a new host, aggregators (i.e. GoogleReader and Bloglines) weren't picking up the feeds for a little while, but it's back to normal now.

Posts you may have missed:
Amanda Hawkins, Esen Demirci, Nick Tassone, Eva Han, and a non-interview post about Miranda July's Learning to Love you More project.

Kevin has a truly distinct artistic style—with his rough, textured collages, and distorted caricatures—that he claims to have learned and developed on his own, despite the four years of art school (ps. OCAD?). I'm excited to be posting about another collage artist from my very own city! I particularly like the continuity (of the forks, really) in his series called "Disease Logic."

Name (Real or Screename): Kevin Guthrie
URL (Blog, Website): www.kevinguthrie.com
Location (Where are you from?): Toronto Ontario, Canada

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: The fragmentation of personal experience represented through the fragmented elements of a collage.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: Since I was 19. It was the most accurate way to present my ideas.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I also do graphic design and I'm involved in film production.

Q: Do you have any formal art training?
A: I consider myself self taught, although I did go to an art school for four years.
... That's my little joke.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: Photocopied Photographs, moved while the machine is copying to get a distortion. That and traditional mediums like paint, pastels, etc, but no scissors.

Carmen loves creating characters, and reading her interview made me smile, because she really is a character herself! Her collages are twisted, distorted, and yes, violent. But who says that's not wonderful! Collage is all about being different, because you can't copy—it's impossible to copy—and even using the exact same materials we all think differently. Her work is a little creepy, yes, but I love it. Don't you?

Name (Real or Screename): Carmen Burguess
URL (Blog, Website): www.carmenburguess.com
Location (Where are you from?): Buenos Aires, Argentina, currently living between Barcelona and Berlín.

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: The Body is The Spirit's Dog.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: Fashion & women's magazines or hairdresser's catalogues for my collages & dolls for my objects, I find everything in the garbage in the street.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A:I started in 2004 with "Bosque Clínico" (Clinical Forest), a magazine wich I made in colaboration with Rey SalOmem by air mail Buenos Aires-Madrid. He's a collage artist, sadly we have never met in person. He introduced me in the world of collage and the basics of the Dadá movement, which totaly fascinated me in the beginning. But gradually I left behind Dadá aesthetics looking for a collage form similar to what I have always made: drawings. I'm not into Dadà, I'm into making characters, I use the pieces of paper for give life to characters from my imagination.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I play along with Tomás Nochteff in a band called Mueran Humanos (wich means "die human"), it's a duo, I play synth, sing and write songs. I'll be having two collage exhibitions in Berlin this year and we'll play in both openings, also we use my collages for the artwork of our albums.

I love that Teri uses wallpaper in her collage works, which results in beautifully feminine pieces (that are a little distressed, too). I admire this use of materials, because I have always loved wallpaper and collected it, but never known what to use it for. It gives you really unique patterns and textures you don't get from regular paper. Anyway, Teri's work is gorgeous, and she's even from Toronto (like this blog)!

Name (Real or Screename): Teri Donovan
URL (Blog, Website): www.teridonovan.ca
Location (Where are you from?): I was born in Paris, Ontario, but I've lived in Toronto most of my life.

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Currently it's about how identity is influenced by time, desire, and context.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I use old family photos as references for painting. Sometimes I re-work the photos in Photoshop and use ink jet prints of them. I also use scrap-booking papers, wallpaper, japanese papers, tissue paper, wrapping paper,encaustic, mylar, oil, watercolour, and pencil.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I've only been using collage for four years. I started because of a course I took in mixed media. I was drawn to it because of the layering, and because it allowed for more spontaneity and flexibility than straight painting.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I teach part-time in addition to working in my studio.

Q: Do you have any formal art training?
A: Yes. I have a B.A. in Fine Arts from York U., as well as many years of courses at art schools such as Toronto School of Art, Ontario College of Art (now OCAD), and the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Christopher's work is beautifully simple, he uses shape and pattern to his advantage in his works. What makes his work fantastic, though, is the textures he creates using paper, cardboard, and thread. It certainly makes me want to touch his artwork, because the textures are so perfectly visible even in just a scan or photograph. Almost, 3-Dimensional?

Name (Real or Screename): Christopher Bettig // the Mountain Label
URL (Blog, Website): themountainlabel.com
Location (Where are you from?): France > Connecticut > Baltimore > Los Angeles

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Organic, colorful and a complete mess.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I tend to work with everything and anything that is available. I use a lot of "trash," paper I find on the street etc., but the main thing I use is mail. Envelopes, catalogs, restaurant menus... really anything that would be considered "junk mail" especially if it has patterns or large areas of solid color. I like to work with what is put in my environment versus me seeking things out, and I second life a lot of things that would ordinarily just be thrown away.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I started making collages in college as a way to collaborate with a friend at the time who solely worked with paper. We made several books together and I just kept it up since. Sometime in 1998 I think.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: Just an artist.

Q: Do you have any formal art training?
A: Yes, I have a BFA in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art.

It seems like collage-a-day blogs keep popping up!

I think this is a great exercise for artists to make art consistently, and collage allows for these daily exercises because of its randomness and speed. Many of the pieces are made small, which helps to keep time to a minimum with this daily routine. I want to say "I wish I had the time to do something like that," but I know that if I really set myself to it, I could make the time. That's why I admire these artists who are taking the time to make beautiful collages every day.

1. Deborah Fisher—Daily Collage
2. Michelle Caplan—Collage Lab
3. Randel Plowman—A Collage A Day
4. Anna Hannan—Collage 365
5. Dilar Pereira—Daily Collage Project

Please leave a comment if you know of any more collage-a-day sites or if you have one of your own!

I am from now on going to publish monthly calendars (after the month is finished) of all the interviews done that month. The size of the calendar is 1024 by 868, a little longer than most desktops, but it can still be used as a desktop if you like.

Download the May 2008 calendar.
Download the June 2008 calendar.

Enjoy!

Claire's paint chip collages are just gorgeous. So little can say so much sometimes. It's one of those "Hey, why didn't I think of that?" ideas. The best part about this kind of collage is that it's small, fast (with most of the time spent finding the perfect image), and makes great affordable and mailable art. And she sells them on Etsy—who wouldn't want a little collaged and framed paint chip on their wall?

Name (Real or Screename): Claire Teschel
URL (Blog, Website): www.claireteschel.com
Location (Where are you from?): Originally from Pensacola, FL. Living in Savannah, GA now.

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: I create visual and verbal connections illustrating that paint chips are truly more than just a color.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I use paint chips—those coloured swatches you get from Home Depot or Lowes—and then collage torn magazine words or images on the chip.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I began collaging on paint chips last year. One of my good friends wrote me a note on a paint chip because that was all she could find in her purse. And I instantly fell in love with the unique color names. Each one is so very personable and can relate to any emotion or state of mind.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I have a background in Communication/Advertising but I plan building a career in the arts.

I think that the reason I am so drawn to Leron's collages is that they remind me so much of my own first works! I really understand that "collage 'cause it feels good" method, and that's what made me really continue. Similar to my own, her collages are all so different—like they've come together of their own accord.

Name (Real or Screename): Leron
URL (Blog, Website): http://ehh-soso.livejournal.com/
Location (Where are you from?): Cape Coral, FL

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Random, ironic, colourful, mess.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I go to thrift stores and buy the really old national geographic type books. I use a lot of art and fashion magazines as the material inside the books. Everything else is just an assortment of things I find around my house or on the street.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: About 3 years I believe. A friend of mine started making a similar type of book in our portfolio class in high school. I love the idea of scrapbooking with art magazines because I always look through the magazines and want to hang everything I see up on my wall. I figured I'd spare my walls the pain. I also got deep into scrapbooking as a form of therapy. I just turn on some music, silence my phone, and go at it for hours. It’s very relaxing.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I'm currently a 3rd year college student studying dietetics.

Q: Do you have any formal art training?
A: Not really. I took a few art classes when I was in high school but that's as far as my art training has ever gone.

Today I stumbled upon some stunning new works from Clara Mata. Her collages done in a graph paper moleskine with what looks like colourful origami sheets pasted in at skewed angles are like simple geometry. And of course, she adds her own touch in the details—little collections of seemingly disparate objects gathered inside the squares.

I get so excited to see new works from all of you!

Clarissa's gorgeous collages are soft and worn in. I love that she is influenced by my favourite musician, Jenny Lewis, which is what stood out about her work to me personally. But I really love her combinations of printed text, stamped or stenciled letters, natural colours, and things with wings. She says she is realistic, and realistically, she is an excellent artist (even if she doesn't believe it's possible)!

Name (Real or Screenname): Clarissa
URL (Blog, Website): http://www.flickr.com/photos/spaces/
Location (Where are you from?): Wisconsin

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Simple words and simple messes.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I love working with small scraps of paper that I find, old photos, bits and pieces of ribbon and text passages. My most recent works have relied heavily on pages from an old Wuthering Heights copy I found at a thrift store.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I've been creating collages for about three years. I started after I graduated from high school—I bought a large journal hoping to turn it into a leaving-home-finding-myself type thing to take with me to college. I'm not even close to finishing it.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I'm a student, entering my junior year and studying English and Anthropology. I would love to make a profession out of being an artist, but I am appallingly realistic.

Again, we have another practicer of the "collage that feels good" method. It's obviously collage that looks good, too. Michelle says she feels like it's a crime to rip pages out of books, does anyone else feel this way? I know that I felt pretty guilty once when I had a little tour of a rare book library... And I got to touch books like the Gutenberg Bible, and older, gold-leafed, leather bound, vellum books—with little notes written in the margins by a previous owner. And I'm a book lover, I respect books. I'm just not convinced that today's mass market paperbacks are going to be collector's items one day. But you never know.

Name (Real or Screename): Michelle Shofet
URL (Blog, Website): No real site, but I post things on my flickr.
Location (Where are you from?): Los Angeles, CA

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Mostly it's a precarious merging of the soft and the crude.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I am constantly on the lookout for National Geographic magazines published before the 1980s; the print quality is something really special. I am also excessively fond of "found things," though I struggle with that term and am not entirely sure of where one draws the line. Still, I will stop in my tracks or get off of my bike for a seemingly interesting scrap of paper or fabric. Aged paper is also my favorite—I like when it's real soft and smelly. And old science/anatomy textbooks. I once went to an estate sale and bought all of these gorgeous medical texts that belonged to the late doctor who had lived there for dirt cheap. Sometimes it feels like a crime, tearing apart such precious pages.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I think I started last November. I had been collecting scraps and weird pieces of string and little photos and I just started fixing them together in a book that I was prompted to purchase from a used book store because of it's nice-looking spine. It's a copy of Andre Gide's journal and the paper took watercolor really well so I just went with it. Over time, I graduated to loose-leaf sheets, but most of the paper i use as the backdrop of my collages have text on them. I'm afraid of blank spaces.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I'm not comfortable calling myself an artist. I'm a student and making these collages has a therapeutic effect on me; I make them for fun. Some of them were shown in a university art gallery and that just made me anxious. I like showing what I make to my friends and I'll put images on the internet, but standing in a room with a bunch of people and professors examining my little works that are very dear and personal to me is the opposite of fun.

Right now I am looking for anyone with a technique they've mastered that not everyone knows how to do, to help me get the "techniques" section on the blog started! I'm hoping for either step-by-step picture instructions or a little video or something. If anyone is interested in this, please comment or email me.

Hints: image/letter transfers; decollage; digital; cutouts; inks/spills; sewing/fabric; hand-lettering?

I love the simplicity vs. complexity in sr García's works—the pale backgrounds with very detailed subjects in the foreground. Collage can often get too heavy, too cluttered, and it's artists like this that really know how to use the perfect amount of both.

Name (Real or Screename): sr García
URL (Blog, Website): www.elsrgarcia.com
Location (Where are you from?): Madrid, Spain.

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Always continue learning.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: Ground search in old bookstores and El Rastro, old magazines, postcards, books.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I do not remember very well. For 7-8 years?. I started when I saw for the first time the work of Diego Lara.

Take a look at these breathtaking pieces from young artist, Nancy Lam. There's such a romantic, soft deterioration in her works—with white lace, ripped paper, pretty images and tiny text. Her collages are bright and airy, and have just the right amount of colour... and the right amount of everything else. I love it!

Name (Real or Screename): Nancy Lam
URL (Blog, Website): http://hillsides.livejournal.com/, http://nansea.net
Location (Where are you from?): Northridge, California

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: A conglomerate of messy accidents, silly and whimsical.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I usually work with old pieces of lace, duct tape, tissue/napkins, and scraps of paper that I tear out of old, unwanted fashion magazines. Occasionally some dried, pressed flowers, watercolors, or penciled drawings are added in.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I started creating collages in 6th grade, which was when I received my first ever school agenda. It started with mediocre doodles and post-its and eventually developed into this hobby of ripping, pasting, taping, painting, and drawing that engulfs me in a wonderful world at the end of a terrible day.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I'm currently a high school student aspiring to become an artist of sorts. At the same time, I'm hoping to get a summer job at the local sushi restaurant!

Check out this awesome time-lapse gluebook creation by Amanda Hawkins. I just got a new camera so I will be working on my own time-lapse video!

I wanted to show off Jessica's work mainly because of her experiments with fabric collage, as I am really interested in how this works. She has some great work, and she's definitely a promising collage artist! I can definitely picture some great things from her in the future.

Name (Real or Screename): decorums, Jessica
URL (Blog, Website): http://decorums.livejournal.com
Location (Where are you from?): USA

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: A smorgasbord of caprice on paper.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I keep a shoebox brimming with newspaper cutouts, colored string, paper doilies, buttons, wrapping paper scraps—basically anything I can find. I like incorporating everyday print materials like receipts and ticket stubs in my collages because they possess such a raw quality that, in my opinion, can't be embodied in a glossy fashion spread. I've also recently started working with cloth, which is interesting to experiment with.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I've been creating collages for almost three years now, after stumbling upon this fantastic Livejournal community. I was awestruck by how much could be conveyed within the pages of a journal without being confined by words. I started keeping my own scrapbook, and I guess it all started from there.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I'm a student. Still slaving away at school!

Q: Do you have any formal art training?
A: No.