Comrade Collage Column: Michelle Lanter

Dear Michelle,

Thank you so much for taking this opportunity to be featured on my blog. I am a pretty new collage artist therefore I always love to bump into another one especially with such an inspiring techniques, materials and concept. So, let’s start with the interview now shall we?

1. Please tell me a bit about yourself and how you are first finding collage as one of your creative expressions?
I am a self-taught collage artist living and working in Houston, Texas in the United States. I've always had a love affair with paper. I have an ever growing collection of vintage ephemera and collage is a way for me to give the pieces new life.

2. Tell me about your creative process in making a collage? Is there any specific ritual or just wait for the inspirations to come or any other way?
I consider collage a form of play. I love to spread my toys (my ephemera) on the floor and play with them until an image comes together. I tend to work intuitively and I lose all track of time when I'm collaging.

3. What kind of materials that you have been using or even try out after all these time? How many of them is actually works and are there any failures?
I love all types of paper. I've recently started using vintage maps in my work. They make awesome backgrounds. I've had a few failures with very old and fragile papers, but the great thing about collage is that it is easy to cover up or incorporate mistakes into the final piece.

4. Apart from making collages, are there any other craftworks that you make?
I love to dabble with lots of craft projects but most of them involve collage in some way.

5. Now, let’s talk about selling the craftworks. Does it take a long time for you to decide that you can sell your collages or even actually live out of it?
I've done well selling my collage work on Etsy. I've been able to send my collages all over the world.

6. I notice that several collage artists are also into making and selling kits and organize workshops. I love doing workshops and hoping to have more next year. How about you?
It's something I would consider but right now I'm keeping busy with creating collages and running my Etsy shop.

7. Have you done any exhibitions? Would you like to tell us what was it like?
My work is going to be part of a collage exhibition that will be taking place in Manchester, England. The exhibit will run from February 24th until April 4th 2009. It will be my first exhibition and I'm very excited about it.

8. I’ve notice also that there are so many medium where we can put our collages in apart just make them into wall-hanging or ACEO. How about you? What kind of medium that you’ve used or plan to use for your collages?
I really love ACEOs and I've created over 1000 of them. I also enjoy collaging canvas, postcards, boxes, and jewelry.

9. What do you like most about making collages? Is there anything that you don’t like about it?
I love being able to combine images and turn them into something completely new and different. The only thing I don't like is not having enough time to create collage.

10. Any last words? And please share us your email, shop, gallery or anything that you would like to share with us.
Thank you for interviewing me. I've had fun answering your questions. My Etsy shop address is: http://dadadreams.etsy.com/. I also spend a lot of time on Flickr and I love making new Flickr friends. You can find me on Flickr at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dadadreams/