Elena Lomas

Year of birth: 1966.
Where do you live: Brisbane and Sunshine Coast, Australia.
Your education: PhD Candidate, MPSR, BVA, BTech.
Describe your art in three words: Positive, Colourful, and Daily.
Your discipline: Analogue collage. Mixed media and installation.
Website

Your work often involves upcycling and reusing materials from your own wastepaper bin. What initially inspired you to focus on sustainable collage art?

Analogue collage has always been a part of my professional and personal life. Two years ago, I started creating collages every day and am continuing this ritual. I have participated in regular collage workshops and masterclasses. All these activities have accumulated lots of paper offcuts. I decided to use them and started to work on the series from the wastepaper bins last year.

For the University of Southern Queensland 2024 Exhibition Telling Tales: Person-centred Narratives in Art, I produced the body of work From Paper Bin (images below) and selected my work from the past few months and from last year to exhibit. I continue my experimentation on how to upcycle and reuse materials. One day, I would love to play with old posters from the streets of Paris, Berlin and New York if I had a chance to have them in my studios. I am also open for collaboration projects and the opportunity to create with likeminded creatives.

How does your process of cutting, arranging, and gluing influence the final story you aim to tell in each collage?

I am introducing an element of chance for the randomness in use of collage materials, which often results in unexpected possibilities. As I cut out and arrange different collage elements, unplanned connections and stories can emerge organically. Instead of a predetermined idea, this technique allows me to be creative on the spot. Placing different images and elements next to each other can create completely different meanings and associations. Taking images out of their original context and placing them in a new collage setting allows me to reimagine and reframe their meaning within a new visual story.

Elena Lomas | From Paper Bin Three | 2024

Can you tell us more about the themes or ideas you explore through the reconfiguration of these paper fragments?

For the Paper Bin body of work, I let the materials tell the new visual story with a minimal interruption of themes. I may have a general idea on what background colour to use. However, a slow process of creating work is very meditative. I deliberately glue each piece without estimating if this is the best place for it. This makes it possible to use visual connections to explore intricate concepts.

As someone working on a PhD in Creative Arts, how does your academic research inform your practical collage work?

As a Doctor of Philosophy provisional candidate, I am working towards my confirmation of candidature. I am participating in a community of practice with local and international analogue collage workshops and masterclasses as part of my academic research to further develop a creative connection and expand my collage portfolio. The academic research is elevating my skills and assisting in developing new knowledge which stimulates my ongoing development as a lifelong learner and scholar.

Elena Lomas | From Paper Bin Four | 2024

What role does intuition play in your creative process? Are there specific moments when you allow instinct to guide the arrangement of materials?

I often rely on intuition when I choose collage materials. I gravitate towards images or textures that resonate with me without necessarily knowing why. The placement of elements within a collage is often guided by my intuitive sense of balance, rhythm, and visual harmony. I might follow a “gut feeling” to combine seemingly unrelated elements, leading to surprising and meaningful juxtapositions. My process of knowing when to stop, and the decision that a piece is “finished,” is often based on my intuitive feelings rather than a predefined set of criteria. I do incorporate unplanned elements or “happy accidents” into my work.

How do you feel about the current movement towards a paperless society, and what impact do you hope your work has in response to this trend?

I accept digital technology. In my opinion, the paperless society concept has its own place in business, education, and other areas. However, in my own creative art practice, after a long day in front of computers or very early in the morning, I want to feel my materials. I want to flip through discontinued journals and magazines to select images and words and cut them out with my favourite scissors and glue them with the best glue stick in my journal or on colour background paper.

Without glamorising the handmade/analogue approach or minimizing the role of digital technology, I want to remind myself of how important it is to create/produce something with my own hands. As humans, we are connected via our senses. This is why I am not using digital creative technology in my art practice and favour analogue/handmade collages for developing the body of work.

Elena Lomas | From Paper Bin Two | 2024

Could you share more about the significance of colour and composition in your collages, and how they contribute to the emotional impact of your pieces?

I love to bring positive energy of colours into my life and into my art. The interplay between colours and composition can greatly impact the emotional resonance and meaning of my collages. I do consider the colours and compositional aspects of my artwork, which communicate positive intended ideas and potentially evoke specific responses from the viewers.