Please, introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about you.
My name is André and I’m a visual artist and illustrator from Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Recent, current or future projects you are involved in that you would like to share with us?
Right now I’m just trying to organize all the magazines scattered on the floor. I also got to come up with titles for some new collages and finish on a few illustration commissions. As for projects; none at this moment, I’m just focused in making new stuff.
What kind of things do influence your work?
Corkscrews, dead birds, cut down trees. My biggest influence are the images themselves and the particular way they ask me to cut them. Most of what I do is by instinct and I feel I’m getting more interested on movement, shapes, colors and textures than in any specific subject matter. Music is also a huge influence and I think rhythm is very important for any visual composition.
How is your normal process of collaging? (idea or commission, where do you get your materials or find your images, which is your cutting technique, best way you have found to paste, where do you work and how, and very important: what do you do with your scraps)
Seventies magazines used to be my favorites specially Life, Paris Match and Manchete (which was popular mag in Brazil back then). That said, as a collage artist I think I should be able to work with any sort of stuff, from fashion magazines and art catalogs to plain colored paper and random found material. What’s important is what you’ll do with the images you find. I use a x-acto knife for cutting and glue stick for pasting. Right now I’m stuck at using a white background on all my collages but that shall change any time. I browse randomly and when I see something I feel like cutting out, I cut it out. Most times I cannot differentiate between cut out images and scraps. To me they are just as valuable.
Which is your latest discovery in the collage world? What advice can you give to a collage beginner?
I avoid looking too much at collage. It’s all over the internet and most of what you see are just variations on the same boring fads. Most of my new discoveries I met through the Weird Show (cheers to you guys for taking collage seriously). As for advice to a collage beginner; try to have a vast array of influences and not just concentrating on collage. Getting inspiration from music, painting, films is a good way to keep your mind open to all the possibilities you have.
What do say your friends/family about your collage work? And, what do you do when you are not working on art?
They seem to like it and are very supportive. Not that I’d expect harsh criticism from family and friends but anyway it’s cool that they dig it. When I’m not working I’m usually at the supermarket.
Would you like to ask anything to John Baldessari? Shoot.
Wanna hang out and burn stuff?
http://andrebergamin.com
http://andrebergamin.tumblr.com
