Cohort 52 is a platform for emerging voices from the Applied Art & Design program at Sierra College in Northern California. Cohort 52 is facilitated by Assistant Professor Vincent Pacheco.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
My name is Chara (Car-Rah), and I’m a creative with a background in film and photography. Creativity has been a running theme throughout my life. Music has always been a significant part of my life as well.
How much experience do you have with collage?
I don’t have much experience with collage. I’ve only ever collaged a small handful of times in my life.
Collage artists tend to be picky when it comes to their source material. Can you talk about your approach for selecting your images and/or publications?
I knew from the initial start of this project that I wanted to use magazines to create my collage series. I didn’t have a particular magazine publication in mind when I selected my source material. I just used what was available to me. These were old National Geographic and Sierra Club magazines I purchased for one dollar at my local library.
Were there any large themes you intended to explore or unpack before you began with this series of work? Did you stay on theme, or did things change as you began physically cutting and pasting images?
I had no idea what I wanted my collage theme to be before I acquired my source materials. I went into the process with an open mind and browsed through magazine pages looking for images that interested me. It wasn’t until I looked at all of the many images I had selected from a distance that I began to see how certain imagery could pair well with other images. Instinctively, I found myself creating collage themes that felt personal or reflected my thoughts and views on life.
How did your background and life experiences inform your collages?
My background in film and photography more than likely influenced the narratives of each college I created because I wanted to convey some type of visual story. I also have some background in poetry and feel that a small element of this might be seen in my collage series. Additionally, I would consider myself to be a passionate person with strong views on particular subjects. Injustice, for instance, is a topic I have strong views on. I also consider myself to be a free-flowing spiritualist with an interest in mysticism and the occult. This was probably the strongest theme that came across in my collage series.
What was your environment and set-up like when making the work? Did you listen to music? Did you work in isolation, or were you surrounded by distraction? Do you think this influenced the work you made?
The environment in which I created my collages was in my personal space, with music, and in isolation. The music I listened to while I worked on my collages might have had an influence on the themes I chose to go with; however, it was more instinct/intuition that had the most influence over the collage work overall.
Scissors or X-Acto?
I used both of these tools for this project. But for the most part, the X-Acto knife was my primary tool.
Was there anything unexpected that emerged while creating your work? Any new epiphanies?
I don’t recall feeling any epiphanies while I created these collages. If anything, it reaffirmed the topics and subject matter that have always mattered to me whenever I’ve created art.
Looking at your work again, has your understanding of your collages changed over time? Has any hidden meaning emerged?
My understanding of collages in terms of visual technicality changed when I viewed the works of other creatives and received valuable peer feedback. This type of exposure revealed different ways to approach collage, which I found to be new and compelling. This specifically has given me a new perspective on collage in general.
