For some, the idea of collage as art conjures up notions of hastily-slapped-together-second-grade-school projects, whole images clipped from magazines and pasted onto a piece of construction paper.
One look at Auburn artist Carol Chen Lord’s collage pieces, however, and those images quickly vanish. Although the basics are the same – magazine paper cut or torn and glued onto another piece of paper – the finished product is nothing like those elementary school projects.
Rather than snip whole images, Chen Lord’s art uses the base colors in the clippings, melding them into whole images and landscapes, with subtle shadings and light, resulting in a finished piece that bears no resemblance to original magazine pages.
“Collage is a challenge,” Chen Lord said. “You don’t want to use the image, you want to use the color.”
On Saturday, Chen Lord shares some of her collage secrets with festival-goers at Auburn’s annual celebration of the arts, ArtRageous, at Les Gove Park.
Born in Taiwan in 1957, Chen Lord came to her chosen medium late in life.
After a successful career abroad with an international publishing company, Chen Lord moved to Vancouver, B.C., where she met her husband, race car driver Michael Lord. Before moving to Auburn in 2004, Chen Lord started her own publishing company, Lynx Publishing, which focused on producing English language text books for students who were not native-English speakers.
Looking for a creative outlet to keep her busy while following her husband to weekend races, Chen Lord and a friend began to do collage.
After a trip to a local art supply store and a shopping cart full of the requisite supplies – glue, glitter, paper and ribbon – Chen Lord came to a conclusion.
“This was too girlish for me, so I just started tearing magazine paper,” she said. “We have Pottery Barn and other places send us these fancy magazines for free. And I would just transfer them from the mailbox to – and I hate to say this – the garbage bin. And I thought can we do something with it … because they are really great pages.”
Chen Lord’s first project was a Christmas card, but she quickly moved on to bigger pieces.
“I just kept doing it, tearing, tearing, tearing,” she said. “At the end of the year I had 15 or 20 works. And I just kept tearing and kept tearing and soon I had 40 or more pieces.”
Chen Lord soon was given an opportunity to show her work at a local Starbucks.
Her art was an instant hit with patrons and employees at the coffee house.
“I was very surprised,” she said. “You don’t see people, because they come for the coffee and then leave. But they (store employees) said the response was very positive.”
So positive that the showing resulted in her first-ever sale of an original art work.
“The manager bought my first one for $75,” she said. “My ego got really big, I got big-headed and thought, ‘Wow, someone will pay me for a print. Hey, I’m going to make it.'”
By 2010, Chen Lord was experiencing such success with her work, she decided to focus on her art, selling her company and getting a booth at the Pikes Place Market in Seattle, where she sells her art.
Although she admits to dabbling in other mediums, oil and acrylic, Chen Lord prefers collage because of the artistic challenges, as well as its reduced impacts on the environment, a realization she came to while taking a painting class in Bellevue.
“I know it sounds lame, but I was washing my brush. It was acrylic, so you have to wash it thoroughly,” she said. “I was just watching the water. Ten people in the classroom all washing their brushes. We were just using so much water.”
Chen Lord uses recycled or scrap supplies for much of her art, scouring local framing shops for matting board pieces that would likely just end up in the trash. The green aspect of the art also is part of its appeal, and why she decided to volunteer at ArtRageous.
“This is very inexpensive, very affordable and very green,” she said. “Anyone can do it. You don’t even have to buy paint or brushes or canvass. You don’t even need scissors, just your hand and glue. I want to show people how I do it.”
For more on Chen Lord’s work, visit www.cclord.com.
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It’s ArtRageous
• What: City of Auburn’s free festival invites the public to create and celebrate art. Fair includes hands-on art-making activities for all ages, local art organizations, professional artist demonstrations, art vendors, food booths and music.
• When: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday
• Info: 253-931-3043, www.auburnwa.gov/arts.
