I will be away this weekend for a (well-deserved, I think) vacation at the cottage. Hope everyone else has a great long weekend too! See you Tuesday!

Vivienne's collages have very vintage, nostalgic qualities... with strange modern twists. She says that people either "get it" or don't, and I don't know if I do or not but that's the best thing about her work. It makes me want to read into it even more.

Name (Real or Screename): Vivienne Strauss
URL (Blog, Website): http://www.vivienneart.blogspot.com/
Location (Where are you from?): Portland, OR

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: I strive to produce works that are aesthetically pleasing but have a touch of subtle humor or irony.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I love working with vintage magazines and old books. Sometimes I add some sewing for additional texture.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I started out doing what I consider more decoupage because I had to do something with all the images I had amassed and wanted to be able to see them all the time. This was probably about 10 years ago, I started decoupaging my thrift store furniture, then it spread to the doors and walls. I finally decided it needed to be "contained" and moved on to collage.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: Right now, I am solely an artist.

You might have another "why didn't I think of that" moment when looking at Margarita's work, because it's so clean and fluid and looks effortless (though I'm sure a lot of effort does go into each composition). It just seems like such a natural composition is made with different fabrics and fibres. It's almost amazing to think—this is all just paper.

Name (Real or Screename): Margarita Gestrich
URL (Blog, Website): Colour Gradient Collages on Flickr
Location (Where are you from?): Hamburg, Germany

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Parts of fashion-photographs building forms in an empty room.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: Lots of fashion magazines, a cutter, glue and a computer.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I started working on these collages without any intention during my university time. These are sort of the first collages I ever did.

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

Q: Do you have any formal art training?
A: Just working on my degree in communication design.

I just cleaned out my email inbox, and I found so many emails I haven't yet responded to or interviews not yet posted. Oops! So today I bring you the work of Johanna Wilhelm, an artist already mentioned by a few interviewees on my site as an influence. Sorry Johanna, for not getting to this sooner. Anyway, her work is (like Sebastian's and Patrick's and Jonas') graphically fantastic. I've only included a few pictures here, but I urge you to look at the rest on her flickr.

Name (Real or Screename): Johanna Wilhelm
URL (Blog, Website): www.johannawilhelm.de.vu, www.flickr.com/photos/johannawilhelm
Location (Where are you from?): Würzburg (Bavaria), Germany

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Hm, I think this would be something like: colourful, mixed stuff, prearranged, undesigned, fast, slow-going, sometimes minimalistic... You see that's all different. ;)

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: Well being specific is not really easy... I've got a lot of different magazines at home. But I like to work as well with other things like photos, vintage stuff, transparencies etc.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: Wow, that's difficult. I think it all started when I was 14. We had to do a little collage work for school which was quite funny.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I like being creative but I wouldn't say that I'm solely an artist. I'm working as well as princess, troubleshooter.

I made this tonight, as well as a big mess! It's for a project I'm working on (working title: CMYK) and it's the third in the series, Y. It's pretty long, and you may not watch it all, but it was so much fun to make!



P.S. Tomorrow's interview will be with Max-o-matic!

What a great (art exhibit turned book) idea, from Uppercase! Artists recreate their school days, and not surprisingly, a lot of collage is involved. Don't you remember cut and paste while growing up? (Click picture to view book)

Found via Michelle Caplan

Max-o-matic is a very talented designer, who came loves Photoshop but came across collage while stuck without a computer for a while! And regardless of the circumstances, aren't you glad he experimented? The taped up style he uses reminds me of Carmen Burguess' collage characters, but it a more design-y kind of way. His minimalistic digital collages are excellent too, but I'm secretly hoping for another computer breakdown so he can churn out some more great handmade collage work!

Name (Real or Screename): Max-o-matic
URL (Blog, Website): www.maxomatic.net
Location (Where are you from?): Barcelona, Spain

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Complete control of chaos.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I don't have any space to store old magazines. So: internet (everything's there) + Adobe CS3.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I've been fooling around with collages since 1996, when I started my first zine. I got into collage because I didn't know how to draw and had some things I needed to say through images.

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

Q: Do you have any formal art training?
A: No, I wish I had. I studied Communication... so I read lots of books, but hadn't painted a single canvas during all my university years.

Gracia Louise is a collaboration between Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison. Together, they create artists' book, prints, zines, postcard collages, and other small projects from their home-based studio in Melbourne, Australia. I am very pleased to bring you notpaper's very first collaborative interview, with slightly different questions based on creating art as a team! I would like to do more like this, so if you have a collaboration you would like to tell me about, please email me!

Q: Can you tell me a little bit about the collaboration/project?
A: We enjoy working side-by-side in collaboration. We each bring different things, different strengths and different ways of seeing, but we work so harmoniously together. It is an effortless collaboration; one we enjoy.

Q: How long have you been collaborating, and what made you start?
A: We have been working collaboratively for almost ten years now and I guess you could say it officially began when we started working on our first series of limited edition artists’ books (in 1999). It all began with ‘This morning I went into the garden’, a small book bound in emu leather, featuring our collages and drawings and collected pieces of ephemera.

Q: What do you like most about working with a partner?
A: It enables you to create something you could not otherwise create on your own. It is challenging. It is rewarding. It feels like the perfect fit.

I always want to describe work as "trashy," but I mean it in the best (if possible) way! Exo says he finds his collages (that are mostly made out of found papers) boring sometimes, but I think his work really brings some excitement to the materials he uses. Trash is pretty boring on its own...

Name (Real or Screename): EXO
URL (Blog, Website): www.flickr.com/photos/alejoalejo
Location (Where are you from?): Buenos Aires, Argentina

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Sometimes it's interesting but most of the time I find it boring, hahahaha.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I like to work only with old vintage magazines and trash paper.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I started five years ago. One day when I was bored in my home alone looking through some old magazines, I started cutting them up and creating something strange. I remember that I liked it a lot and started to look up (on the internet and in books) for material about collage... So here I am "collaging," and I ask myself if this will have an end.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: Oh yeah, I'm a web designer and I work sometimes doing that. But I spend my time creating art and studying.

Andree's work is youthful and playful—it reminds me of a storybook illustration style. Yet, at the same time it is a little curious and strange, like the dada style that collage comes from in the first place. (Also, I can't concentrate at all right now because there are four people playing Rock Band in this room!) Great work, Andree!

Name (Real or Screenname): Andree Tracey
URL (Blog, Website): www.andreescollages.com
Location (Where are you from?): Minnesota, USA

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Surreal, fantasy, dreamlike, whimsical, humourous.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I like working with vintage photos, my own photos, magazine clippings, decorative papers, text, maps, old postcards, paint, and any ephemera that seems to fit the mood.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: Collage is actually new for me—I've been working on it for about a year. I had been painting large scaled paintings for many years when a family situation changed. I'm now care-taking, and all my artwork must be done in a small room in my house. So I decided that the dreamlike imagery that I favored in the paintings could be created with magazine scrap and photos in a smaller scale. It's been quite interesting to go from one scale to the opposite!

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I work full-time as a freelance illustrator.

Q: Do you have any formal art training?
A: I graduated with a Bachelor Degree of Fine Art from the University of Iowa and later studied at Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, California.

Dneese has taken the "scrapbooking" style and given it a raw edge that suits collage. She says she feels okay with collage because "it's not art." Now I know some people would argue this, but I'm still not sure where I stand on the Collage as Fine Art topic. I feel like it's more design connected—feel free to let me know what you think. I think Dneese's work is like a wound down and grungier version of today's typical family scrapbook.

Name (Real or Screename): grrl+dog, Dneese
URL (Blog, Website): http://flickr.com/people/dneese_l/, http://www.dneese.blogspot.com/
Location (Where are you from?): Inner West Sydney, Australia

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Runs with scissors, chews pencils, gets glue everywhere.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I will work with anything that is on my table... I am basically lazy and I find the synchronicity of What Lies There quite magical. I am very fond of vintage text, especially handwriting... you just don't see much of that anymore.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: My partner is an artist, and he was stuck. One day I picked up some craft book, who knows what... and just started sticking stuff on stuff. It's not rocket science, and it was such a relief because I could tell myself, "This isn't art, so it's OK." I could free myself from having any "arty" expectations.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I am a dominatrix by profession in a House of Bondage and Discipline... Not much of a crossover...

Q: Do you have any formal art training?
A: Nope... but I love courses.

Title: It's All Under Control
Media: Mixed Media, Quicktime Movie
Length: 3:36
Producer: Shellie Fiocca
Music: Bloc Party "Pioneers"

Because I just love these videos, here is one by Shellie Fiocca. Now it's not actually collage, but it does strike me as a technique that is definitely used in collages: painting over or covering up part of an image. So, similar to cutting a piece out of a magazine, Shellie instead paints out the background with an opaque white paint.

This particular video is her thesis work which is meant to reverse the role of "producer vs. purchaser," by changing the message and distracting the viewer receiving the messages. She uses magazines and mail order catalogues that she paints white and then draws a new message over the old with black ink. I think this project is great, and I wish I could see the finished magazines all together!

Yay for downloads! I am going to have a monthly wallpaper from one of the interviewees of that month. This month (the first) is from Max-o-matic, and you can download it by clicking on the above image.

Chris makes deliciously mathematic, scientific, and architectural collage pieces. His collages look like they are made with such planning and precision, and yet he describes them as simple. Yes, they look simple to the untrained eye, but more work has gone into them than that, I'm sure. You can definitely tell by the arrangements and negative space that he's a designer.

Name (Real or Screename): Christopher Butler
URL (Blog, Website): www.christopherbutler.info, www.newfangled.com/chris_butler_blog
Location (Where are you from?): I am originally from Massachusetts, but have also called Michigan, Delaware, Rhode Island, Malaysia, and now Chapel Hill, NC, home.

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Analytical, cheap, collage, fast, geometric, simple.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I tend to do most of my drawings in a cheap sketchbook, though I also make hand-bound books. (The last 30 images on my Picasa gallery come from two books I made recently. The rest of the images come from sketchbooks I've kept over the past 5 years.) The thing I like best about inexpensive sketchbooks is that the paper is pretty thin, so it keeps me from getting precious about anything I make. I also like how the page will reveal marks from the other side, which can be controlled by using different kinds of pens and layered papers. As far as the collaged material is concerned, I'll use just about anything from magazines and old books to receipts and bill envelopes. I'll also use many different pencils, pens, markers, ink, paper, stamps, glue, etc.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I started making drawings in my sketchbook that incorporated collaged elements while in high school. At that point, I was much more interested in painting and considered my sketchbook more of a practice area. However, I found myself spending more time working in the books while in college, to the point that it became a major focus of mine.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I work for Newfangled Web Factory, a web development and strategic consulting firm, by day. It may not seem so at first glance, but even management requires creativity ;-)

Q: Do you have any formal art training?
A: I studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating in 2003 with a BFA in Film/Animation/Video.

Mark's work has a really "vintage graphic design" style, and it's probably because of the bright colours and outdated cutouts he uses. It's like something right out of Print magazine in the late eighties/early nineties. He earns his unique illustration style this way, and allows us to fondly reminisce about how graphic design used to be.

Name (Real or Screename): Mark Lazenby, boywithaski
URL (Blog, Website): www.marklazenby.co.uk, www.virb.com/marklazenby
Location (Where are you from?): London

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Layers of Paper and meaning born of necessity.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: Anything from Rubbish picked up in the street, antique books/prints, postcards, discarded paper of any kind, The Sacred and Profane.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I've been working in collage for 15 years, I found my voice in it and couldn't get away from it.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I'm also a Graphic Designer.

Douglas Coupland is one of my favourite authors, and he's a really interesting person all around. I haven't had the chance to meet him... yet, but he's Canadian as well so it's not impossible that I might run into him at a supermarket one day. He studied art at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, and has taught at design schools in Japan and Italy. This is a side of his not as well known, and I was surprised to find out about his artistic abilities. But I'm glad I did.

I posted a while back about the intro to his TV show, JPod, which I loved the design of. Now I'm posting about just a couple of his collage works called The Penguins, which are made out of old penguin book covers. I think they're fantastic and I would love to see more like this. More of his art work can be found here, at his website.

I chose the above image from Francisca's work because it has the most visual impact. It's part of a mini-book she's created about Chernobyl, which I am interested to find out more about. It uses a lot of little black confetti pieces, which seem to represent... Radioactivity? Illness? Ruin? Something profound, at least. But what I really love is when she uses thread (see the first 5 thumbnails—they all involve thread).

Name (Real or Screename): Francisca Pageo
URL (Blog, Website): www.flickr.com/photos/misspaq
Location (Where are you from?): Molina de segura, Murcia, Spain

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Emotions, thoughts, feelings.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I like to use different things depending on the moment. Sometimes I use vintage magazines and old papers, sometimes I use my photos and any paper, and sometimes I use 3D things like thread or charms or something I like.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I always loved graphic design and crafts and I started to make collages 3 years ago in my free time like a visual diary.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I'm working in a creative studio as editor and photographer, but lately I've started to work with my collages and crafts too.

I haven't posted for a few days, and will be back with interviews tomorrow. But here is something nice to tide you over, if you have an iPhone/iPod Touch. You can download these three collage wallpapers here, from Long Live Analog.

It's been a while since a new version of Misprinted Type was out, and I am excited to say that it's here! Eduardo Recife's new work is beautiful and new—it has a warm and romantic feeling. I've included some of the new stuff above, but be sure to go and check out the rest.

via The Post Family

Temple33's work has gorgeous colours muted with black and white, and the with paint she adds movement to her pieces. She has such an interesting array of work, but I've included only her paper collages here. What I think is really interesting are her unfolded packaging journals and her fabric collages, which I may cover a little later (check them out on her flickr).

Name (Real or Screename): temple33
URL (Blog, Website): www.flickr.com/photos/temple_33/
Location (Where are you from?): Taipei, Taiwan

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Found+sort+cut+glue+print+tear+paste+stitch+draw=my work

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I work with whatever I found or got for free. Mostly the flyers/posters/ brochures/free magazines/yellow pages/maps... Also I work with the aged notebooks/date books/calendars I've collected since I was a school girl.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: I've created collage “intensely” for only 1.5 years. I worked as a travel /lifestyle journalist for years. Since I love papers very much, I have stocked lots of magazines and prints. One day, I found I needed more space to live and had to clean out some of the paper collection, so I started creating collage.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: Well, I take the sole artist as my life long career but now I need to work as a part time translator/journalist to live.

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

MB77s work is cool and quirky—he plays with unconnected objects and adds interest with size differences. His very surreal pieces create for us very surreal stories that are different for every viewer. It's interesting that he turned to collage after having his camera stolen, and it makes me wonder what sort of connections collage has with photography. I can name the first one... it uses photographic images. But what else?

Name (Real or Screename): MB77
URL (Blog, Website): www.flickr.com/mb77
Location (Where are you from?): Amsterdam, Netherlands

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: An unending adventure.

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: Found paper of any sort—encyclopedias, postcards, travel books, comics, photographs.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: About 18 months. My camera was stolen.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: In between jobs at the moment...

Raoul's collages embody a retro illustration style, that you can tell is very influenced by the Dada style. His work also has a sense of humour reminiscent of that style. I like that a lot of his work features portraits, because collage portraits are really interesting and the few people who make them make them really well.

Name (Real or Screename): Raoul Weiller
URL (Blog, Website): http://www.flickr.com/photos/raoul_weiller/
Location (Where are you from?): East Coast, USA

Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Assembled figures, a bit dark, with humour!

Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!
A: I like anything retro, old mags, industrial books, postcards, Ebay's a great source.

Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?
A: Around 15 years ago, in graphic design classes, the assignments required us to illustrate whatever brochure or poster. Since I had no drawing skills, I learned collage by necessity! I've been making them ever since.

Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: My day job is totally removed from art which I do at night and weekends.

I'm glad that I attended the 6th annual Square Foot Show in Toronto yesterday, at AWOL Gallery (100 Ossington), because there were so many different styles and techniques on display. Including, an important one for this blog, collage! I was excited to see how many local collage artists there are, and now I find myself wanting to know more. This year was the biggest show ever, and I am definitely going to participate next year.

In the above images, #1 is by Alex Cirka, and #3 by Hyein Lee.

So here's a little review of what we saw. Sorry about not giving credit where credit is due, but the list I wrote of the artists was misplaced today. (So if you are one of the artists of these fantastic collage works, feel free to let me know).