Philadelphia-based artist, Angela Rio, makes brightly colored collages using scraps of paper. After being an acrylic painter, a bicycle accident resulted in needing to find a way to make art that didn’t rely on just one hand and a brush. Hence, her paper art techniques.
“I work with paper to balance form, tactility, and color in an image,” she told Ape on the Moon. “My process relies heavily on being resourceful with scrap materials made of anything from paper, wood, cardboard, plexiglass, transparency film, or styrofoam.”
“The scale of the piece is determined once I find a few pieces that work with my sketch, then I can start cutting shapes with scissors or an x-acto blade to build my small paper sculptures. This is when experimentation plays an important role. Depending on the material, I’ll either use paint or pens to embellish the pieces with a geometric pattern or facial expression. “
Her process is, naturally, kinda messy. “Everything starts being constructed on my messy desk, finding stability with a hot glue gun, wire, and masking tape, until it’s ready to be photographed on my clean desk,” she explains.
“It may seem like a lot of time and energy for one illustration but it feels like play. There’s so much opportunity to get your mind off of things and forget about your surroundings.”
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