Leah is a Toronto-based collage artist. She’s always used humour and thrifting to cheer herself up, there’s no surprise its leaked into her artistic style.
Meet the artist.
After years of making collages, I finally got the courage to open Flanzella as an art Etsy shop in January 2020. I had 5 art prints for sale.
The pandemic gave me the time I needed to become a confident collage artis. After months of creating, a friend and I decided to host an art exhibition in August 2020. It featured all the artwork we had created during the pandemic. To our surprise, almost every art piece sold, giving us both the monetary investment we needed to take our businesses to the next level. It was then I realized the importance of giving customers the option to buy prints online.
Four years later and you can now buy 50+ surreal collage artworks, making it one of the best places to buy art prints! 😉
I couldn't have done it without my Flanz Fanz, thank you so much!
Leah
Meet the art.
Each collage you see is hand crafted from what I like to call "creative chaos". The process of creating each collage is always wildly different for each one; which is why I have started filming almost every collage process and sharing it on social media! Although the artistic styles are the same, the artwork collage is all made differently.
I use a variety of tools but most pieces are hand cut with scissors, smaller pieces are cut out using a knife, and I use a variety of gluing methods like medium and your classic archival quality glue stick!
Every collage is created using magazines from the 1920's to 1990's. I have a large collection that surround themes of lifestyle. I got into vintage magazines when I met a woman at a flea market who sold vintage ads.
I asked, "what do you do with the rest of the magazines?" She said "I throw them out." I knew that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
I am able to give vintage artwork a new life and meaning in our ever changing world.
The process.
Dive in and get a closer look at my art process. Here is a video using a traveling notebook.
Follow the journey.
It was inevitable my whole life that I would be an artist. I never had much interest in anything else. I started collaging from a very young age but got hooked it in high school. I'd decorate my locker and binders.
When I went to university for multimedia, I worked primarily in video and audio. My passion for collage seeped into these mediums. While focusing on digital art for school, I really missed traditional collage. With all my projects (and now work) being all online, collage is my escape from the screen. I ran a collage club throughout university and continued it in my home.
I always saw collage as a hobby and not a career. I guess in my mind, it was less valued in society compared to painting or sculpture. It wasn't until 2019 I noticed a surge in collage work on social media... I knew it was my time to shine!
I'm still well on my journey but I am learning and practicing every day.
