There is a unique wonder and obscurity to the art of collage. With a simple change of direction, position, or layer in any medium, a piece can continually be reborn and reworked, sometimes to the point of exhaustion; but other times, surprising success. The beauty of re-purposing images and sounds to convey new meanings – be it political, abstract, or even meaningless – is most of the fun.
This virtual art show, unveiled Friday, March 5, 2021, highlights the creativity of collaging in all forms: sights and sounds, and any other imaginable formats.
E.F. Hartl
Featured Piece: “Terror Tuning / Tear~er-Tou(r)ning”
New Brunswick, NJ
Eric Hartl is an experimental musician, writer, and conceptual artist based in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Employing a DIY approach towards creativity, Eric has cultivated a unique style for producing multi-media art, emphasizing spontaneity and aesthetic dissonance over accessible technique or harmonious composition. www.mmmm3.bandcamp.com
Why did you choose this medium?
I’m fascinated by the way audio/visual media influences our perception of community and individual identity. Focusing on 20th Century American horror films, I wanted to converge and concentrate images which I believe exacerbate fears imbued within normative (i.e. cis, white, hetero) American culture. Considering how the current production and consumption of media is so rapid and decentralized, reflecting on popular media of the past can offer insight into the fears and prejudice which still permeate within contemporary American culture.
What are some of the pieces of your life that influence what you create?
My experience as a multi-ethnic 1st generation American informs the subjects and aesthetics of my work. Overwhelmed with the ubiquitous role media plays in our social and private interactions, my work aims to facilitate unique mediated experiences that challenge preconceptions for how one may experience sight, sound, and other sensations.
Ann Calandro
Featured Pieces:
“Bringing Bread and Salt” and “Subway Reads”
Flemington, NJ
Born in New York City, Ann Calandro is a medical editor, writer, mixed media collage artist, and classical piano student. www.anncalandro.webs.com
Why did you choose this medium?
I could never decide on one medium. When I focused on line, I wanted color. When I worked with pencil, I missed pastel. With collage, I can incorporate many media and perspectives; it’s fun as well as challenging.
What are some of the pieces of your life that influence what you create?
The memories and magic of childhood.
JoAnn Telemdschinow
Featured Piece: “Moon Priestess”
New Brunswick, NJ
I am a largely self-taught digital collage artist and photographer. My collages are influenced by my love of the art and architecture of the past, but also by my interest in travel, history, and mythology.
https://imaginedpast.weeblysite.com/
Why did you choose this medium?
Digital collage has the spontaneity of traditional collage, but allows you the freedom to revise and transform your ideas during the collage process.
What are some of the pieces of your life that influence what you create?
I love to experience other worlds…through travel, history, and different kinds of art. This stimulates my imagination and gives me a starting point for my own collages.
Hannah Fielo
Featured Pieces:
“Once Upon a Time” and “Waiting”
Philadelphia, PA
Hannah Fielo is a multimedia artist working mostly in analog photography and collage. Hannah is self-taught in the art of collage, and with that work, she uses found imagery as well as her own photographs. In these works, Hannah strives to deconstruct the world we live in and reconstruct new ones. Throughout her collages, Hannah targets themes of mental health and violence, as well as solitude and melancholy amongst a chaotic image. Favoring community and collaboration, Hannah is the co-founder (with peer and roommate Liam Carroll) of Street Table Productions, a photography, video, and animation studio.
www.hkfielo.com
Why did you choose this medium?
Collage has always been a way for me to deconstruct and reconstruct the world around me. I am very detail-oriented, so being able to pick and choose what aspects of an image I include or omit is a large part of my art-making practice as a whole. I feel that this part of my workflow translates the best as collage pieces.
What are some of the pieces of your life that influence what you create?
The feeling of loneliness and isolation despite being surrounded by chaos and love is something that influences my work and my practice. My work gets very personal into my experience with bipolar disorder and the coping mechanisms present in that, so that is a huge influence as well. I am also very inspired by music and songwriting, and the people that I surround myself with. My peers and roommates are all incredibly talented artists, so they are constantly pushing and inspiring me to create work.
John Marron
Featured Pieces:
“Last Laugh Postcards from Albert on Mt. Meru/Kailash” and “Flagstaff Mesa Deer Rose Eulogy & Kanzeon”
Highland Park, NJ
Never went to art school. Scribbled & doodled since ever. Designed poetry chapbooks, magazines, countercultural rags, performance art stage sets, action paintings, surreal collage a la Kurt Schwitters, Dali, Max Ernst, Duchamp & Kazuaki Tanahashi. Then jumped off the zen cliff into sumi-e, poured acrylics, color field large format ensos, & multimedia dreamscapes. Presently, doing more social justice murals & chalk street art, BLM signs & art benches. @marronzola
Why did you choose this medium?
Texture, improvisation, availability, flow, simplicity of gesture, organic roots, zen aesthetic of wabi sabi.
What are some of the pieces of your life that influence what you create?
Zen practice, near death experiences, growing up in Iowa, Arizona, California & Oregon, Tibetan mandalas, patchwork quilts from grandmothers, being a pirate, Renaissance rambler, oldest of 10, survivor of a dysfunctional but very funny complex family, but also 40 years of being a Family Therapist & clown/performance artist/dancer/zen student/ recovering Catholic.
Lisa Cameron
Featured Pieces:
“Wolf der Stadt” and “Nevada Landscape”
New Brunswick, NJ
I am an artist and landscape architect based in New Brunswick, New Jersey. My work centers on the relationship between humans and the earth. I use digital imagery as reference material for paintings, as the basis for collages, and as finished pieces in themselves. I use my own photographs, as well as found or borrowed images. Any image that grabs my attention might be a starting point. The process of assembling and editing a collage is intuitive; I look for synergies, rhythms, and connections through formal elements as well as content. I use color, line and texture to unify what might seem like disparate juxtapositions.
I have participated in group and solo exhibits for more than thirty years, primarily in New Jersey. I hold a BFA from Philadelphia College of Art, and a BS from Rutgers University. www.lisacameronart.com
Why did you choose this medium?
I’ve always loved process. I also love collecting and multiples. I remember seeing Louise Nevelson and Claes Oldenburg at MOMA when I was just a young child, and cobbling together scraps of wood from my father’s basement workshop to make “sculptures”. I learned photography and darkroom technique from a wonderful teacher in middle school, and have used it ever since. In college I studied every manner of printmaking, along with typesetting and bookbinding. I also enjoyed drawing, woodwork, and ceramics. Landscape architecture taught me how to use drawing to illustrate multiple perspectives at once. My work today draws on this whole array of experiences and interests.
What are some of the pieces of your life that influence what you create?
My current work has grown from many years of commuting on the New Jersey Turnpike while designing public parks in the New Jersey Meadowlands. My ‘artist eyes’ and my ‘landscape architect eyes’ were captivated by this urban wilderness, where infrastructure merges with the estuary. The intertwining of the natural and constructed worlds is laid bare here; herons, egrets, and bald eagles can be seen amid highways, crumbling factories and gleaming towers. All the while, the unrelenting tide and tenacious vegetation work relentlessly to wear them away. Out of this landscape, as well as from my own halting spiritual journey, and my experiences with illness and loss, the themes of growth, death, and renewal have become ongoing currents in my work.
Kara DJ
Featured Pieces: “Half Full” and “Reflections and Flowers”
Readington, NJ
My name is Kara and I’m a collage artist and zine maker. Analog collage is my main discipline, using everything from magazines and found materials to envelopes and printed images to bring paper to life. @sacredsomethingbykara
Why did you choose this medium?
I basically only work with physical paper. As someone without any drawing or painting skills, ripping and cutting paper is the way that I paint! I’ve always especially loved florals and landscapes, mixing in images from nature into almost every piece that I do.
What are some of the pieces of your life that influence what you create?
Collage is the way that I celebrate the things that I love and it’s also the main way that I express myself. My favorite part of the process is how things that look like they have no relationship can become something new. I collect paper scraps and images in huge bins and going through them then putting together a larger image is how I meditate and it‘s the thing that keeps me going.
Lauren Curtis
Featured Piece: “Reflections of the Heart”
Somerset , NJ
Lauren Curtis graduated with a BFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University in 1988. She’s been creating ever since and now, as a full time artist, enjoys working in a variety of media, including oils, collage, pen & ink, watercolor and photography. The artist is happiest when creating pieces that represent her love of nature, wildlife, travel and spiritual subject matter. The symbolism and mythology of ancient cultures are fused with the symbols from modern-day, natural spiritual practices, to form a unique and eclectic style. These images are often portrayed through the woman’s perspective, showing the importance of “The Feminine,” which is sometimes over-looked. Travel is another major influence in Lauren’s work and the pieces, usually photographs, created from these journeys helps the artist to convey the beauty found in diversity, as well as in the similarities, that run through various cultural belief-systems.
Lauren has had artwork and poetry published by greeting card and crafter companies, magazines, children’s books and historical organizations, including the Middlesex County Cultural & Heritage Commission. One of her pieces was selected for the permanent collection of the Joyce Kilmer Library in central NJ. www.laurencurtisart.weebly.com
Why did you choose this medium?
The mediums I choose depend on the feeling and message I want to portray with my piece of art. For a softer, more melancholy feeling I like watercolors with collage. For a more dramatic, modern look I use digital elements and photographic collage and for a more stylized, bold look I prefer oil paints with collage.
What are some of the pieces of your life that influence what you create?
Nature is a big influence on my work as is my spirituality which is nature-based. Also, what is going on in my life both personally and globally has an effect on my mood, ideas and therefore my artwork. There have been so many important, upsetting, controversial and intense issues and situations over the last year that have had an effect on everyone and everything which inevitably shows up in artwork as reactions, protests, feelings and hopes.
Jill K. LeClair
Featured Pieces: “Liberty” and “The Gaze”
Newtown, PA
From a young age, I’ve been interested in colors, patterns and textures in the natural world as well as in two- and three-dimensional design. While I’ve taken some art classes over the years, I am primarily self-trained and find inspiration in scouring art history books and museum catalogs and bringing new life to familiar and classic art form images, including antiques, artifacts, paintings, sculptures and textiles. My preference is paper collage; the physical cutting, pasting, and final re-creation is my “therapy”. www.littlebrickhousestudio.com
Why did you choose this medium?
For the pure joy of playing with colors and shapes and images and arranging and rearranging pieces of paper, often highlighted with acrylic, oil pastels and/or ink, until I find an interesting combination of things that is often whimsical and invites the viewer to step inside the room or space that I’ve created.
What are some of the pieces of your life that influence what you create?
Most directly, my mother and all of her creative talents and her wanting to share her appreciation of all forms of art with her children. One of my earliest memories is finding a tin of embroidery threads in a chest of drawers and lifting the lid to find the most beautiful colors and silky textures of these jeweled bundles. A treasure! And, when my mother brought me with her to the fabric store, she would show me a swatch of fabric for a new dress she was making and let me pick out a spool of thread from the display of varying hues and when I selected one, she would say “yep, that’s just the one!”. My love of art, architecture and textiles (and music) is because of her.
Marie Corfield
Featured Pieces: “Spring Rain” and “Redbook Mashup”
Millford, NJ
I am an artist and elementary art teacher. My work includes traditional drawing, collage and assemblage. Drawing on imagery and symbolism of the universal feminine and my own experiences with femininity, I seek to express the hidden shadows of myself that aren’t always able to be expressed with words.
Why did you choose this medium?
I love fashion. Couture clothing is like sculpture. Nothing can inspire me like a thousand-page Vogue Magazine spring or fall issue. And exquisitely decadent jewelry on the scale of Harry Winston or Bulgari sets my heart a flutter. It’s not about owning these excessively expensive things; it’s more about marveling at their beauty and construction, their lines, shapes and colors, and how they enhance the inherent beauty of any woman who wears them. No other type of art can do this. These collages are mashups of advertisements from several women’s magazines and incorporate not only jewelry and clothing, but images of skin, hair and the most beautiful and natural jewelry of all: eyes.
What are some of the pieces of your life that influence what you create?
My mother was a woman of great beauty and style, not only in how she looked and dressed, but in how she kept our home. She made all our clothes when my sisters and I were little. When she dressed up, she did it right. When she entertained, it was silver and linen on the table and cut crystal decanters at the bar. All of that ended when she died tragically at age 37. All of that was imprinted on me at a very early age. I hardly knew her, but she lives on in me through my art.
Jeff Hersch
Featured Pieces: “Can’t Sleep” and “The In Sound”
Highland Park, NJ
Jeff Hersch provides analog collages for the modern being. Like his thoughts, these pieces are often constructed in short, frantic spurts of energy, with bursts of self-doubt, though calm and subtle. Also like his thoughts, these pieces represent everyday observations and conclusions about the vast world that erratically suffocates us, with little time for a quick escape or chance to relax, as we are currently inhabiting an advanced state of infinite stimulus. His works lend themselves to your own interpretation of meaning – if any – but should also serve as inspiration and demonstrate the simple notion that you too can and should create something/anything on a regular basis. www.infinite-stimulus.com
Why did you choose this medium?
I am obsessed and enamored with vintage advertisements and books. Images from that era are usually wacky and ridiculous to begin with, so repurposing them to create a new (or no) meaning is a fun and cathartic daily exercise. The freedom and endless possibilities is why I love collage. You can rearrange the same clips a thousand times to create a thousand different pieces.
What are some of the pieces of your life that influence what you create?
I am a hyper person, and collage allows me to quickly create a piece of art in a short amount of time. Consciously or not, I tend to incorporate themes of nervousness and apprehension, social commentary, and observations of everyday life in this so-called “modern” and “civilized” world. Perhaps I project my own fears and anxieties into my work, but most times, the clippings create their own narratives once glued down.
Dorothy Sabbarese
Featured Pieces:
Lebanon, NJ
Dorothy Sabbarese is an interdisciplinary artist.
Why did you choose this medium?
Collage necessitates undoing images and piecing their detached fragments together. This process of creation through destruction is cathartic in a chaotic world, allowing the mind to disconnect from source material and focus solely on arranging visual elements such as color and form.
What are some of the pieces of your life that influence what you create?
When selecting images to use in my collages I prefer to work intuitively, a process through which I feel a connection to surrealist automatism (creation of art without conscious thought, first expressed through collage by Max Ernst). I have found that by doing so I allow my mind to process larger-scale issues that are areas of research/interest related to my art practice and beyond. Most frequently these involve gender, socio-economic status, age, race, consumerism, image manufacturing, industry, food production, propaganda, nostalgia, ethics, and humor.
Tali Rose Krupkin
Featured Pieces: “Explore Here” and “Madonna of Pasta”
Jersey City, NJ
Tali Rose Krupkin is an Israeli-American artist based in Jersey City, New Jersey. She attended the Year Course program in Israel, and received her BFA in Painting and Art History at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. She is a member of the artist collective Vision Coven. Tali transforms upcycled materials to create her analog collages, giving the imagery new life, often parodying societal themes depicted in consumerism. She draws inspiration for her work from her own experiences as they relate to topics of feminism, spirituality and nature. Through her artwork, Tali pays homage to women reclaiming their voices to oppose forced societal pressures of objectification and expected domesticity. @talirose_art
Why did you choose this medium?
In my collages I repurpose materials, selectively assembling upcycled imagery to compose a new reality. The materials I’m using are aged and precious, affixing them to my work provides continued appreciation for them. Working with collage as a medium, allows me to explore an artistic process void of brushstrokes.
What are some of the pieces of your life that influence what you create?
I draw inspiration for my work from my own experiences as they relate to topics of feminism, spirituality, and nature. My artwork is symbolic, I often use parody and satire – opposing the initial intent for the imagery. I’m liberating the female body, and transforming it into confident and powerful femme figures.
Caitlin Servilio
Featured Pieces: “Color Computer” and “Nostril”
Clinton, NJ
Caitlin Servilio is a Clinton, NJ-based artist. She has a BA in Studio Art from American University and an MLIS from Rutgers University. She is currently pursuing an MFA at MICA in Baltimore, MD. She teaches art at a NJ high school while pursuing her own artistic endeavors, which include painting, drawing, and printmaking. @caitlinservilio
Why did you choose this medium?
My mixed media work reflects the fact that I am interested in multiple ways of “seeing” the same subject. Switching from one medium to another allows me to approach the composition as a traditional representational or abstract artist, an illustrator, or a mapmaker. I also like to imagine myself as a different type of being, whether plant, animal, or AI, and how I would bring that point of view to the artwork.
What are some of the pieces of your life that influence what you create?
When I collage, I like to incorporate items that give the viewer a peek into my artistic practice. In “Nostril,” the collaged pieces of paper that make up the plants in the foreground are scraps from old or discarded paintings that are repurposed to avoid waste. I often struggle with how to make work in an environmentally responsible way, and this collage is part of that effort. In “Color Computer,” the collaged color wheel and color picker are tools that I use all the time in my studio, making an appearance in a finished piece when they usually only figure into the creative process. I feel that I consistently underestimate how much I am influenced by “stuff,” and collage, for me, is a great way to grapple with that influence.
Shannon Oldroyd
Featured Pieces: “NorCal” and “Nature”
High Bridge, NJ
I make art because it’s all I know how to do.
Why did you choose this medium?
This past year has been a challenge. Trying to paint hasn’t been working. Travel is an integral part of my practice, and since I can’t travel right now, I’ve been making laser copies of my photos and cutting and pasting, which I’ve found to be very meditative.
What are some of the pieces of your life that influence what you create?
Travel is huge for me, and I lived for many years in Joshua Tree California. I haven’t been able to visit, and my photos of California make it into all my collages to remind me of my heart.
Ana Cristina Coura
Featured Pieces: “Desejo” and “Real”
Montclair, NJ
I hold an Associates Degree in Visual Arts from Westchester Community College, but have been making art with my eyes, hands and mind for as long as I remember. I’m interested in colors and l’m moved by current issues concerning women and motherhood.
Why did you choose this medium?
I’ve always loved collages, but tended to use more laborious and time consuming mediums. Since the pandemic started I’ve been so busy juggling kids in remote leaning, work, and housework, and that resulted in my turning back my passion for collages – it allows me to build a narrative that comes out more quickly and I get very inspired by looking through magazines in search of what attracts my eyes and calls for me. The possibility of playing with the elements, trying in different arrangements of elements before settling to a certain composition plays a large role in making collage a favorite medium. It becomes a game of trying to listen to what the collage is asking me to add, subtract or just move around. It’s a beautiful metaphor to life, I think.
What are some of the pieces of your life that influence what you create?
I read the statement above after I had answered the previous question.So interesting! I felt very emotional as I read it… It felt comforting to know these sentiments and ideas towards collage, which I share, expressed in the statement. For the pieces I’ve submitted the feelings are of being thorn between dreams and the reality of life as a mother, a woman and an immigrant. The divide between what is expected from me within the community I live in and even from my partner, and how I usually feel or perceive being perceived.
Sandy Jones
Featured Pieces: “Justice For All?” and “Chance”
North Plainfield, NJ
Visual artist, Sandy Jones, graduated in 2017 with a B.A. in Art, concentrating on jewelry and metal design from New Jersey City University (NJCU) in Jersey City. While attending NJCU, Jones was inducted into the Kappa Pi International Honorary Art Fraternity and received multiple scholarships from Peters Valley School of Craft where she learned advanced silversmithing and enameling techniques. Through these workshops, Jones learned enameling techniques to play with colors on metal resulting in a greater visual impact to her jewelry artworks.
Jones is the founder of Open Call for Artists (@opencallforartists) on Instagram which is directory of open calls worldwide. With 7,000 followers including galleries, curators and museums – the directory provides opportunities to those that are statistically underrepresented in the arts, such as women, LGBTQIA, BIPOC, emerging, and low-income artists. @deemakesjewelry
Why did you choose this medium?
After the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a shortage of art materials, this led to learning and creating analog collages using the art of refuse. The change in medium has allowed me to continue my love of color to make a visual impact in my art, while creating a visual memory of today’s current events.
What are some of the pieces of your life that influence what you create?
I think growing up as a biracial child in a multicultural (Latina/American) low-income home has allowed me to see the truth about racism and poverty; and its impact and consequences to society and its children.
