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 Daisy Baer, and I am an Illustration and Design Major at Sierra College. I am 22 years old and I use they/them pronouns. I have always had an interest in Art and making my own books.
How much experience do you have with collage?
I have been taking classes at Sierra since 2022.
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?
For my materials, I went to my local SPCA thrift store and looked at their book selection. There were books on how to blow bubbles, scrapbooking, and children’s books. I couldn’t find magazines, but I looked for ones that had the same quality of print and color.
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 cut out pieces of pages that I liked, put them in separate piles based on being an item, person, or place. I started arranging them based on ideas that came to me. I wanted my message to be one of urgency, one of appreciating the planet and people around us. I wanted to portray both the beauty and horror that I see in the world.
How did your background and life experiences inform your collages?
I have always been a sensitive person, being autistic my whole life and not knowing always made me feel like an alien, and I was on the wrong planet. I was always told I was “too sensitive”, and that I overreact to things that to me, seemed perfectly sensible. Every page is a serious reflection of how I view myself and the world around me. I try and portray an environmentalist, anti-war perspective based out of love for our fellow humans.
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 worked while listening to Youtube videos and probably the news. I think that definitely contributed to the themes. I work well with a show/video so I can focus for long periods of time, I can also take a short break from what I’m doing and not get distracted by something else.
Scissors or X-Acto?
I used both in these collages.
Was there anything unexpected that emerged while creating your work? Any new epiphanies?
There were some moments where I look at two images, and I realize there is a story there that I can make, I add on more things as I go on. I didn’t expect to go as political, but something felt right about two images being together to say something I feel like I need to say.
Looking at your work again, has your understanding of your collages changed over time? Has any hidden meaning emerged?
There is a sense of longing I feel while looking at most of these images. I don’t remember large parts of my childhood, so reflecting on the past feels cathartic and comforting to me. I feel comfort because I can’t recollect those moments I had, but I can replicate the feeling that I have.
