Text by Jack Felice.
To me, one of the great allures of collage is the endless search for the right material. The right image. The right color or texture. I get so much joy out of amassing stacks of vintage magazines or books to pick apart. My approach to collage begins with a found image, or section of an image, and then balloons from there. There might be some small aspect of the found image that I am drawn to at first, but as I work on a collage my focus quickly shifts to different corners. When I work, I try to be as fluid as possible. I don’t like to dwell too much on a decision because it can lead you down a path that is difficult to escape. When I am flipping through a book or magazine and come across an image I like, I very quickly decide what about the image I want to preserve and what I want to cover up. My goal with every piece is to create as much space as possible between the initial image and the final piece. Using found imagery in my artwork is difficult at times because it comes with its own associations and connections. My main goal is to move as far away as possible from the surface meaning of an image to create a new identity and draw new connections.
My source material has changed a lot over the years. I am always collecting books and magazines even if I’m unsure I will use them. I never know where I will be artistically a year from now, or even a month from now. I’ve gone from modern fashion magazines to 1950 Esquires; from black and white portraits to advertisements for dress shoes; from comics to abstract shapes. I am always excited about the endless ways to use paper as a medium as the type of paper in my source material is just as important as the image itself. In my current work, I’ve been experimenting with vintage Esquire magazines from the 50s and 60s. Vintage paper from magazines and books have a certain life to them. While thumbing through I can feel the texture of the page and see where the ink meets the paper with subtle imperfections. When I first started making collages, I discarded pages with blemishes or tears and instead searched only for those clean pages to choose from, however, I quickly realized how inspiring the imperfections can be and shifted my focus. I now look at the imperfections as something to celebrate and bring attention to because even though we may have the same issue of Playboy, my issue was stored in a humid attic in Ft. Lauderdale for decades with its pages sticking together and dogeared and pencil-marked in ways that make it uniquely mine.
A promise I try to make with myself is to never get too comfortable with source material or how I interact with the material; to always search for new and different things to incorporate into my collages. I may go through the same magazine a dozen times and each time be drawn to something new. At its core, this is what keeps collage exciting for me while also acting as a completely therapeutic practice – each page becomes a new avenue to explore and a new way of expression.
Learn more about Jack Felice on Instagram or his website
