I attended a collage night last night.
Although I've done collaging before and I've seen plenty of collage arts too, it wasn't as easy as I planned.
The collage artist who taught us last night, Lydia uses female body images from 60' and 70's magazines she scores at second hand stores and adds beautiful flower images cut with precision to the female body images.
Her work speaks so much volmues about femininity, female identify and, sexuality in minimalist but beautiful collage work.
Our eyes are naturally drawn to her work, as it touches our sexual being, vulnerability, rawness and beauty in the form of nudity. Flowers added become part of the female body, embracing her and setting her free at the same time.
Anyway, I admire her work a lot but when I made my collage and other students made theirs, it was just so interesting to notice none of us could make work like her but all of us created something so unique to our own individual expression of self.
Some made collage work that was very textured and congested with saturated colors. Some amputated a body (an image of course) and reconstructed in different orders with symbolism. Some made dreamy collage and some full on female celebration.
For me it created a gateway, a portal to my next body of work, my dream work. I could see myself using collage to play freely with images, gluing connections and patching stories. Doesn't it sound fun?
Well, if you are in Vancouver and looking for some creative fun evening, I highly recommend coming to Lydia's collage night in East Vancouver.
Lydia Cecilia's collage night will happen again soon at August Studio, 1320 E Pender Vancouver
You can follow Lydia's work here https://www.lydiacecilia.art/
Check out when the next collage work here https://weareauguststudios.com/