Contemplating Hollie Chastain’s collages, you’d think you were stepping into a 1950s diary…
The American artist reuses old texts and photographs and embellishes them with stitches and ephemeral scraps of paper to create unique and beautiful collages.
“I have always been a collector of found and old papers and ephemera, so collage was a natural choice.” Chastain explains.
On one side men play the saxophone, on the other a child with a braided skull… each piece has its own story. The artist often uses images from the old National Geographic editions of which she cuts out the strong characters or characters in action.
“I fell in love with scribbling, stamps, library and school identifications, water and ink marks and all the other visual history and how it added and sometimes altered the composition of the work.”
To share the use of this medium, Hollie Chastain has published an instruction book explaining the methods of creating her vintage collages. Find If You Can Cut, You Can Collage in her shop and follow the artist on Instagram.
