Ciara's digital collages are so colorful and playful that I had to feature them! I love the shapes and compositions that she puts together--using charming antique black and white imagery with a huge juxtaposition of colour. She's not afraid to mix different ideas and different eras together in one collage. This is what makes them so refreshing.

Ciara Phelan
www.iamciara.co.uk
London, UK

Describe your work in 10 words or less.

Playful, vibrant, fun, colourful, vintage and geometric.

What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!

My preferred medium is vintage encyclopaedias from the 1960s. I love the texture and grain on the photographs from the slightly mis-registered printing. I also use a lot of pattern, I find inspiration for these in fabric and textile swatch books.

How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?

I've been collaging for the last 2 years. I stumbled upon the medium quite by accident whilst exploring ideas for a vinyl sleeve project at university. I started arranging imagery closely on a page to save paper and created quite an interesting composition so I thought it was something I should explore a bit more. Since then I've just created more and more.

Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?

I work full time as a freelance illustrator, luckily I am able to make a living from it as I don't know where I'd find the time to get a proper job!

Do you have any formal art training?

I studied Graphic Design at Brighton University but I have never had any training to be an illustrator.

Explain your favourite techniques.

I try not to get into a routine in the way I create my work as I think it starts to become a bit predictable and formulaic. I always do a lot of research before I start any project as I like to read around the subject and let my mind wonder about the possibilities. Then I gather imagery and scan it into the computer. Nearly all my work is cut out using photoshop and digitally manipulated, I find this the easiest way to work as I can play around with scale easier. Sometimes I cut out lots of elements and move them around on the scanner to create different compositions. I think I avoid cutting and pasting as the finality of placement scares me, I like to be able to move objects easily.

Describe your favourite piece ever created.

My favourite piece created was my first collage which has a massive panda and tiger. Compositionally its not amazing, but I love that its not particularly well thought out, it didn't have any end goal and there was no grand message to convey. The more I collage and create illustrations, the more i think about what I want to say with the elements I use but in this first collage I was just collaging for the sake of collage.

What other artists do you admire?

There are so many talented people both past and present that its hard to pick out but a few artists I admire are Hannah Hock, Valero Douval, Charlie Harper, Saiko Kato and Micah Lidberg.

Thanks Ciara!