Sara Finelli
Sara Finelli's work is really whimsical, quirky and full of childlike charm with a scrapbook-ish, lo-fi / DIY approach and aesthetic. There is really a sense of craftsmanship and the hand of the maker in her work. She chooses bright colours, bold patterns and shapes to create quirky characters with odd proportions and references to the past (Pinocchio, Punch and Judy, etc.) The is a mixture of visual devices at play including colour, texture, shape, line quality, collage and mark making - so she is a perfect example of visual language done well with success. I would like to be able to emulate the same enchantment that I experience when looking at her work!
Luke Best
I discovered Luke for the first time through the collage powerpoint presentation and have fallen in love with his use of pattern, texture, colour and shape. The contrast of light and dark really pull me into his pieces and there is a careful consideration of his paper cut layers. I especially love the big, bold shapes, blocks of colour married with dry brush marks and patches of colour for texture and depth.
My Collage Pieces
• I have never tried collage in this capacity before and found that creating 8 large A3 sheets, in a booklet format, really helpful. There was a big enough expanse of canvas to experiment with and be as detailed or as minimal as I pleased. I also found having a booklet, rather than separate sheets of paper, created a sense of narrative and allowed me to allocate each page to a specific aesthetic or theme - for example, the first page focused on mixing carousel horse parts with human body parts, the second page embodied a theme of war and terrorism - juxtaposing with the pleasant and nostalgic imagery of a course horse, and so on.
• After experimenting with more detailed pieces, and different ways of cutting paper (scissors, scalpel, ripping) upon reflecting I find the more minimalistic collages work best - especially when they have repeated motifs, patterns and shapes to tie it together. It shows a consideration and craftsmanship rather than just slapping images together. I really like the repeated carousel shapes with different gradients and patterns the most as it is recognisable as to what the shapes are but still incorporates a sense of collage through repetition. I also really like the mandala shape as it has layers of visual interest.
Reflection
• I originally found it difficult to work with found images, that already had a context to them, that I wouldn't necessarily illustrate if not for the collage task and felt limited with the images available to me through leaflets, magazines, newspapers and photocopies of book pages. As I continued to go through my collected ephemera and group them into categories such as people, backgrounds, shapes, patterns, etc. I started to feel more free and enjoyed not being restricted by set themes and images that I normally like to work with.
• Collage has really made an impact on me and has changed the way that I have started to make my own pictures, which I want to continue into the Visual Narratives module and incorporate more and more into my own practice. It's a different way of working that I had never considered before, and as a mature student who tends to be rooted in her own ways of image-making, I find a huge sense of freedom with cutting shapes and solving problems with them.
• In my own time I have been looking at illustrators such as Louise Lockhart, Juan Carlos and Bomboland who use a cut paper and collage technique to create their work for a unique sense of simplicity, shape and colour.
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