Art&Culture
CRAFTY CANINES
Collage artist Holly Leonardson repurposes old images from books and magazines to create art that’s both mischievous and meticulous.
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CRAFTY CANINES
Holly Leonardson’s work is deceptively simple. A collage artist and jeweller from the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Leonardson utilises materials you could gather from a school art supplies cupboard to create her pieces. She combines crayons, stickers, coloured paper, magazine clippings, glitter pens, and glue to fashion meticulously precise collages inspired by kitschy costume jewellery. With her tongue firmly pressed into her cheek, Leonardson obviously likes to draw attention to and skew a juvenile association, and the title of her latest series highlights this.
First Place Fluffy Puppies frames images of dogs cut out from old mags and books with bubbly sticker borders, and adorns them with pictures of gemstones and spots of acrylic paint. Beneath the jaunty and carefree surface of Leonardson’s collages lies scrupulous staging, rearranging, and attentive colour palette selection. She’s interested in transforming old, found images to make them new again. “My creative process actually starts away from my home studio, while flicking through books at op-shops and garage sales,” Leonardson said in an interview with The Smuggler. “My favourite books to collect and dissect are illustrated children’s encyclopaedias.”
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All artwork courtesy of Holly Leonardson
hollyleonardson.net
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