Click image to enlarge:
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Notes on this collage:
- I saw the movie E.T. when it came out in 1982. I remember loving it very much and crying without shame. Looking back on it now, I realize that many of the visual images in the movie are wonderfully collage-like, from the movie poster to the iconic image of the boy riding/flying his bike (with E.T. in the basket) through the night sky. I remember the surge of emotion while watching that scene in 1982 and how magical it still was while watching it twenty-five years later with my son.
- I wanted to put that image inside a scene that disrupts the beauty of it. The image of the man dragging the woman is from a Readers Digest book about what to do in various emergencies. I’ve used a lot of images from this book. It was published in the late 80s and the illustrations reflect the fashion sense as well as the escalating despair of the era.
- I’m not sure why the E.T. image is framed inside a car tire, but I feel like it works well with the cold snow on the ground below it.
- I debated whether or not to take a pink highlighter pen to this collage to make a blood moon. I guess it’s never too late.
Paper Trumpets Spotlight: Eugenia Loli
If you’ve ever searched for collage art on Tumblr or any other site these days, you’ve likely come across the striking work of Eugenia Loli. Her wildly inventive creations seem to spill out of her with amazing speed and precision. Some of her collages are immediate tickles on your funny bone or clever trickery on your visual expectations, while others—like these “Three Minutes to Nirvana” pieces—are piled high with wonders that keep you discovering things,
even after multiple looks. One of the hardest working and most outspoken collagists working today, Loli has had her work published internationally, including in the pages of Cosmopolitan, UTNE Reader, Le Monde, New Scientist, Curve, and Glamour. Originally from Greece, she now lives in California. I asked her a few questions via email.
The Rumpus: How did you first become inspired to do collage?
Eugenia Loli: It was April 2012, and I first saw this new kind of collage, dubbed pop collage, on Tumblr. I fell in love instantly with the style, and I started doing my own collages very soon after.
Rumpus: You’re very prominent on social media. How important is that to you? Do you post new things every day? How long does it take you to finish a collage?
Loli: All my business depends on social media. I don’t work with galleries that usually take on that role. I do that part myself. I post a collage every day. It used to take me 3-4 hours to make a collage; these days I can do one in half an hour.
Rumpus: Where can people find the best collage artists and find inspiration right now?
Loli: They should go through the curated “art” tag on Tumblr. That’s where all the new type of art is listed, so if an artist wants to see what’s “in,” that’s where the ideas are. Sure, they can also follow 100-150 good collage artists on Instagram, but the curated “art” tag on Tumblr remains a better choice.
Rumpus: Do you do some of your work digitally? Some of it is so clean, almost shiny, that it doesn’t look vintage.
Loli: All my collages are digital. In print, paper and digital collage look exactly the same. So there’s no reason to spend the extra time required with scissors. For me, it’s a waste of time. As for the few of my collages that look more digital than others, it’s because I pushed the contrast and saturation on them. But if you don’t do that, and you use “hard cuts”, then all digital collages look just like paper collages on screen/in print.
Rumpus: Are any of your images inspired by dreams, drugs, or other altered states?
Loli: I’ve never taken any drugs, not even marijuana. I wish one day DMT would find me though. Now, that’s an entheogen worth exploring. Having said that, I do have my own share of altered states, and that’s lucid dreams. I encounter very interesting things when lucid.
