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 Zach, I am 20 years old and am planning to go to Sacramento State this upcoming winter. My main hobbies are creating art, working on my car, listening to vinyl, and going to the gym. I am a major fan of listening to music on vinyl and I am constantly listening to all types of music and always enjoy finding new artists or bands.
How much experience do you have with collage?
I have not done many collages during my life, but for the ones I have done I would say I really enjoyed doing them and making up something into a new form of art using existing images, the idea of that seems super unique to me.
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 mainly surfed through countless magazines, specifically ones that involved furniture or kitchenware and found images to use through those, but I did find some through some mailed magazines from brands and companies that I am subscribed to. Lastly, I did find some online.
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 did and did not have a theme at the same time. Originally I did not have a theme at all and started just cutting pictures out of things I liked based on the way they looked or if I had some interest in them. Over the course of cutting images out though, I determined I would make the Zine of mainly some retro or vintage stuff I liked.
How did your background and life experiences inform your collages?
Well since the Zine was essentially based around stuff that I liked, it in a sense was just my life. I tried to put certain aspects of my everyday life or of things I simply just have interest in.
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?
I am constantly listening to music as stated in an earlier question so I just sat at the kitchen table in my house with music blasting and worked away. Other than the music, it was pretty quiet around me. I would not say the music had a big influence on the way I worked although maybe listening to faster paced music may have had me work faster.
Scissors or X-Acto?
I used only Scissors when cutting each piece out.
Was there anything unexpected that emerged while creating your work? Any new epiphanies?
I would not say that there were any big epiphanies, but there were some thoughts like, “oh using this piece would go perfect for this style of collage”.
Looking at your work again, has your understanding of your collages changed over time? Has any hidden meaning emerged?
I would say my understanding of collages has changed somewhat. I am always amazed of what one can create and the message that can be broadcasted from simply using other already existing images.
Many artists are using the pandemic as a moment to pause and reflect. Do you think Covid-19 informed your work in any way?
I do not believe that the Covid era had anything to do with my work.
