“I’ve been surrounded by people with different cultures, religions, races, and I feel like that’s what really gave me my idea for the overall theme of my collages.“
Interview
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Hello, I’m Elise Jan Bontilao but you can just call me Elise. I’m 21 and I love to create pieces that allow me to express myself in various ways. This includes different aspects of graphic design and drawing!
How much experience do you have with collage?
Before this, I didn’t have much experience with creating collages. It was sort of just the typical junk journaling and pasting, which I don’t really consider to be experience.
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 used the magazines that we had at home. It was a mixture of Cosmopolitan, Realtor, GQ and a few Home Magazines.
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?
My overall theme was the different ways life is lived, ranging from culture to exploring to even different species. I like to say that I stayed on theme for most of it, but I did add some random little images to give the collages some more oomph. I felt like ripping it apart myself added a sort of DIY kind of feel which I liked, and I also tried to layer the pictures to make it more interesting and add some dimension.
How did your background and life experiences inform your collages?
I definitely see traces of my own life and background in the collage, since I’m an immigrant. Coming from the Philippines, life was so different compared to the US and I was able to see how there are different ways of life for different people. I’ve been surrounded by people with different cultures, religions, races, and I feel like that’s what really gave me my idea for the overall theme of my collages.
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?
When I was working on this zine, I listened to music and played a video (like a video essay or gameplay) in the background. When I’m working on any kind of craft, I like to sort of overstimulate my environment. I’m honestly not too sure why, but it really helps me get things done. I did all of my work within my room by myself, since I prefer to do my own thing without any people around me. My room is relatively full of color, so I think that definitely influenced my collage too (like the stars I added in for example).
Scissors or X-Acto?
When working on this project, I used an X-acto knife for any kind of cutting that I did. I definitely prefer an X-acto, since it just makes it so much easier to cut quickly and with a lot less strain on the hands. I also like how I’m able to see the paper and make sure that I’m cutting in a straight line.
Was there anything unexpected that emerged while creating your work? Any new epiphanies?
I would say nothing too unexpected or new happened while I was making my work. I changed up the way some of my images looked, but other than that I would say it turned out the way I expected it to.
Looking at your work again, has your understanding of your collages changed over time? Has any hidden meaning emerged?
I think that I stayed consistent to the intended theme I had in the beginning, and am happy with it. The majority of the images have the same sort of vibe to them anyway, so I wouldn’t say that there’s any kind of hidden meaning.
