Zack, 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 have been doing art for as long as I can remember (doesn’t everyone say that?) and I always enjoyed painting the most. But I always got bored of having a blank canvas to start from and so I started to paint on old worn out book pages. I eventually got bored of doing this method and so now I am destroying various pages and papers and then assembling them into something that I am happy with emotionally and intellectually, but more so emotionally."
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 tend to usually start by gathering different surfaces and papers. I will then rip them, cut them, fold them until I have the sizes I want them to be in. Then I lay the papers all out and start to arrange them into something that feels right. It’s kind of primitive but I think the process is fun. After everything is matted down and dried I usually find myself taking a break (sometimes a day to even a week) and I start to think of ideas of what to paint on top of the surface. This is where I think my ritual ends and inspiration begins. It could be anything that catches my attention or something that I have stored away in my head that I will decide to paint one day, it’s always different. But like I said I might have an idea in a day or I could sit for a week until something provokes me to paint. "
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 like dress pattern a lot. It’s translucent so you can build a lot of stuff under it and the color of it is nice and natural looking. I also use a lot of foreign articles or books, I like the fact that some of those papers have traveled and lasted so much and they now have a permanent home stuck in a collage. Other than those I have used sheet music and some thin fabrics. I have found that metals, even paper thin metals, are very hard to use because they can bend and change under different temperatures so sticking them to something is troublesome."
4. Apart from making collages, are there any other craftworks that you make?
"I can’t think of any at the moment. I have assembled books with my paintings on each page, but I haven’t done that in years."
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?
"Right now I still haven’t made it to where I am able to live off of just my art, but I hope that day is soon. I always knew I would want to sell my art but it wasn’t until my girlfriend discovered Etsy that I found a nice and easy way to do it. "
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?
"I enjoy the workshops and kits that people put out too. Although I haven’t really thought about doing it myself because mine would probably be having people destroying things and making a mess. I guess it would be amusing to watch."
7. Have you done any exhibitions? Would you like to tell us what was it like?
"I haven’t done a solo exhibition yet, I have been apart of a handful of group ones though. I am hoping sometime this coming year I will have enough work to have a solo show. My favorite part about exhibitions is the fact that you have all of these people from around the community, sometimes world, together enjoying artwork. And it is such a neat partnership between artist and the community."
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 have been noticing that even videos, cartoons, and commercials are doing things that have the illusion or effect of a collage. It is interesting to see but I am happy with just making wall-hanging collages. It keeps me satisfied enough, but who knows what I will do when I am bored of it."
9. What do you like most about making collages? Is there anything that you don’t like about it?
"I like that it can have so many layers upon layers of material. I think doing this makes it look deeper and have more character to it. It also makes the creative process a more enriching one, because you get to hunt for source material and you can also be surprised with what you find. And the ritual of assembling and destroying is always fun, I think it’s kind of like a electronica or hip-hop musician, they are always sampling and editing things until it satisfies them emotionally or for whatever reason. Right now I can’t think of a reason to not like the process."
10. Any last words? And please share us your email, shop, gallery or anything that you would like to share with us.
"I enjoyed this interview very much and hope I made some sense. You can get a hold of me at mailto:zack.pinson@gmail.com And my growing shop is on http://www.etsy.com/ under the username “DoomGloomBoom”. Selling art isn’t the most important thing, but having a source to exercise your creative muscle is. I don’t make a lot of money on my art but I enjoy it being out there for people to see and remember it. "
one busy and sunny sunday indeed. went to the office,
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