Paper Prankster

I have memories very far back into my childhood of creating collages out of Barbie magazines and into college where I kept a journal of collages and into my early twenties when I collaged cigar boxes and sold them at flea markets and then in my thirties collaging flower pots and cards as gifts for friends. The act of flipping through pages, precisely cutting out photos and delicately placing them together to form new images has always been a meditative practice for me where I find my flow state.

​I began collaging again a few years ago as a means of sparking writing ideas. I kept a small notebook and filled it with mini collages with which next to I would write the first line that came to mind. Later, I turned these into flash fiction, or mini stories. This evolved into creating collage animation for my stories and poems, most of which you can find on my Vimeo page. I learned how to do stop-motion paper cut animation while at a writing residency in Southern Carolina with an artist who did this kind of artwork professionally. I was enamored by her work and tried out the idea at home. When I published my novella, I made a book trailer using collage animation and on book tour, I created a small collage animation to go with an excerpt from my book.​

Collage allows me to express myself creatively and  have an immediate audience, purely for the pleasure of sharing, art for arts sake without anything at stake or any profit to be made. Instagram was my inspiration for my current identity as Paper Prankster. I was inspired by the thriving community of Instagram collage artists, so I started by own page @paper.prankster.​

​

More recently, I taught myself photoshop and have been interested in digital collage. Many of my cards and prints can be found at Indigo Market in Taos, NM, as well as original button art and original prints. I have also worked on an upcoming oracle deck, The Wise Birthing Deck (more info on that to come). I do commissioned collages for the right project, such as the Paseo Project.

​

​My ritual used to be to deconstruct my collages the following week and reuse the images for new collages or to make buttons. This was a practice in impermanence and non-attachment. That is until I learned that there was an actual interest in framing my artwork and displaying it on the wall, maybe even selling it to art lovers. This had not occurred to me. I was so centered on the social media sharing that I never considered preserving my collages. Now, I both scan them for Instagram, and frame them for the walls.​

​

My collages tend to be narrative and surreal. I enjoy creating fantasy worlds filled with giants, visitors from outer space, colossal horticulture, intergalactic playgrounds, mythic creatures and portals to other dimensions. Color also plays an important role in my work where I seek contrasts that entice the eye and brighten the mind. In my collages, anything is possible—the ground can be the sky, your head can be a flower, a bird can be a god. I invite you to take time to frolic in these imaginative worlds and let them tell you a story.

​

GALLERIES:

Paseo Pottery in Taos NM, Summer 2019

Rock + Feather on Canyon in Santa Fe, Winter 2021-Summer 2022

Indigo Market in Taos NM, Fall 2022- Present