Laura Iseley

A native to North Carolina, Iseley spends hours scouring the plentiful antique and junk shops local to the Piedmont region (a region that historically birthed many textile and furniture factories), searching for the perfect vintage frame for each collage. Though pre-loved, each frame is matched aesthetically with the collage sealed inside and is very much seen as a part of the ultimate artwork.

Through private commissions, Iseley’s original collage work has found homes in Switzerland, Australia, Canada, and coast-to-coast across the United States from Washington to Virginia.

In 2022, Iseley joined The International Collage Guild as a recognized maker in her craft. Iseley is represented by internationally acclaimed online-Austria-based gallery Return On Art.

Online, Iseley promotes her original collage artwork primarily on TikTok to 50,000+ followers — finding viral success in filming the meticulous process of creating each collage.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

Hiya, my name is Laura, and I am a 24 year old mixed media analog collage artist, content creator, and mermaid. I grew up in a small town in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, so the Appalachia and Outer Banks have been significant influences throughout my life. I like to describe myself as equal parts left and right brained, as I studied biology in university but have always been drawn to crafting and creating. After an introductory collage course in 2019 for my studio art minor, I’ve been creating my collages and sharing them fervently online since.

Since graduating, I have worked freelance as a content creator on social media, most notably when I was hired to tour with British popstar MIKA on his For the Rite of Spring Tour as part of a partnership with the job-search platform Indeed. This experience was pivotal in my development as a young adult, as it truly solidified my love for traveling and passion for artistry (especially since I have been a massive fan of MIKA since middle school!).

A true Scorpio, my love for traveling and the outdoors has also extended to aquatic sports such as mermaiding. Just last year, I obtained my PADI Advanced Mermaid certification for this specialized type of expressive freediving, and I work gigs as a mermaid performer both on land and underwater as an entertainer. 

With such a variety of rotating creative projects and identities, I’m currently splitting my time between New York City, North Carolina, and Atlanta, Georgia (though you’ll never see me turn down a trip!).

What is the main medium, content, and/or themes that are frequently present in your work?

I primarily work in traditional hand-cut analog collage, sourcing imagery from secondhand paper-based material such as old books and vintage magazines. From tossed wrappers to decorative corners of spare flyers, my collage work demonstrates the unity and beauty to be found in everyday ephemera that is so often taken for granted. Though collage often warrants an absurdist style, I seek to revolutionize the medium by creating as much compositional cohesion as possible. This presents a unique challenge when all pieces are of different texture, proportion, colour, and origin. Through excruciating colour-matching, my methodology can best be described as ‘painting with paper:’ final works looking more like whimsical painted scenes upon first glance, but only recognized as an eclectic collage assembly upon closer examination. 

Though at its core paper-based, I make use of various foils, organic material, and enamel varnishes to highlight key motifs throughout each work. From conception to completion, each collage is made for a specific vintage frame that I thrift — becoming pressed behind glass and sealed inside as part of the final artwork. Though my prints possess their own pleasurable visuals, I ultimately seek to make viewing my original collages an irreplicable in-person viewing experience as I invite my audience to delve deep into the fantastic, tactile, surreal worlds held delicately within. 

Much of my work seeks to empower women, embrace femme aesthetes, and allow for the divine feminine to take up space in a historically patriarchal world. Much of my imagery is selected from Old Masters’ paintings, and thus, was likely painted by a male artist at the time. I like to remove these female muses from their original contexts and introduce them to entirely new scenes and identities. 

As such, I tend to make collages that represent various states of the female experience, exploring femininity in a safe, sensual place where I can literally piece together symbols of womanhood. I often recreate classical ideas or motifs from various religions into something more pagan or blissfully neutral. Some of my audience find this comforting, while others experience discomfort at this notion, and I challenge them to think of why. Viewers of my art are entitled to form their own conclusions, but most (not all) of my art is to be viewed from an aesthetic standpoint. Nevertheless, I wholeheartedly encourage deeper readings of my work whenever one feels compelled to do so. I want each of my collages to be a hyper-specific, whimsical world – contained in a frame, yet implying that the world reaches infinitely beyond. As such, any person or community who wishes to maintain a childlike sense of wonder, an eagerness to play, and an interest in the fantastical intricacies of setting a scene are whom I want to speak to.

Tell us about your artistic process.

Many people inquire about my artistic process online and I never quite know how to respond. I think an artistic process is something that is ever-evolving and unique to both the artist and current project on hand. With collage, it is a bit difficult to detail a specific process since the medium is so untraditional itself. Nevertheless, I take an approach that I like to describe as ‘painting with paper.’

Essentially, I apply the same compositional techniques associated with creating a painting towards creating each of my collages. The three core values that I hold within my art are 1. Colour, 2. Scale & Perspective, and 3. Theme, in that order.

Colour is, believe it or not, the most important consideration for me when creating my art. Historically, collage art has warranted an absurdist or abstract style. It seeks to create a caricature, speak politically on something, or even serve as a practical effect itself via the Dadaist and Picasso trompe l’oeil works. When the intended aesthetic of a work is to be wacky or out-of-place, many collagists opt for contrasting colours to exaggerate the discrepancies in the individual imagery’s origins. My work does the opposite; I want to create pieces that don’t look like a traditional collage. My work intends to present in a more painterly fashion. I meticulously select imagery that adheres to a tight colour palette to create as much visual cohesion as possible.

Additionally, my collage work tends to fall in one of two typical categories: portraits or landscapes. With portraits, I still aim to follow the second most-important principle of scale and perspective, but there is more creative liberty to create something looser and dreamlike. Portraits tend to balance between positive space and negative space, as opposed to grounds.

With my landscapes, however, I spend hours shifting and layering papers around to create the most realistic scene. In Art 101, you learn that in addition to background, you have middleground, foreground, and everything in-between. Generally, farther away things are smaller and placed higher up on the plane, whereas closer objects are larger, and lower. I use these same basic principles when selecting imagery and deciding where to place it to create the most effective illusion of depth. An additional thing to consider is the style of the selected imagery. If it looks too photographic or too illustrative, then it won’t match the majority of other pieces in the work. However, I can use these differences in style to my advantage by placing the more figurative imagery as ‘farther away’ (given that it suits the scale and perspective requirement), since objects farther away are rendered more loosely and soft, whereas closer objects are sharper and in-focus.

Surprisingly, theme is the third most important criterion when selecting imagery for my collages. Only once an image has met my requirements for colour and scale do I judge whether the actual image itself is relevant enough to be included in a certain work. I tend to use lots of motifs that are fairly neutral: flowers, candles, curtains, birds. Imagery that has a more abstract symbolism is more ubiquitous, and so this is why the theme or concept of specific imagery isn’t nearly as important as a lot of people think it is when selecting images for my collages.

As I go through this meticulous process of not only selecting the imagery but electing to cut it out, I simultaneously start laying the pieces out and putting them together like a puzzle. This is one reason why collage is so stimulating to me, because it implies that there is a correct way to put it together (and arguably, there is), but there are potentially a handful of different assemblies that would still yield a satisfying result.

Once I have a solidified composition, I strike everything from the board and commence glueing things one-by-one, starting with the largest and bottommost pieces.

What are your hobbies and interests outside of creating art? How do these affect you creatively?

Something annoying about me is that I will always try to monetize my hobbies and interests, which is, admittedly, not the best habit. I love to swim, hike, and enjoy the outdoors. Even though I do mermaiding professionally, there is a large community aspect of it as well, and I’ve met quite a few friends through the industry. I’m a big animal-lover, furry, slimy, feathered, or scaled. Environmentalism, sustainability, and conservation are important to me.

I love going to art museums and other cultural and/or science centers to learn new things about our world. The things I learn often affect me creatively, as I will seek to replicate a concept or theme I observed in my own style. Concerts and fandom culture specifically have influenced a lot of my work, whether it’s collage or not. I’m a big BTS fan; my bias is Namjoon.

I’m also an avid thrifter and lover of the classics, so aesthetically, I am constantly inspired by the fashion and design choices of certain periods that I directly try to emulate in a lot of my works. This extends to costuming and cosplay, of which I am always DIYing character outfits, playing around with self-portrait photography, and sewing. I also do a sick Frodo cosplay.

Do you have any advice for students or other artists who are looking to start selling their work?

For us artists, it is nearly incomprehensible to imagine that other people aren’t artists as well. And while I believe every single person has creative value, some people just aren’t wired as ‘artists’ in an impactful or professional capacity. They of course have other inherent values, skills, and talents that lie elsewhere, but for us artists, our ability to create is something so important to society whether it is sold or not, and is coveted by a great many.

Everyone lives a life completely unique to themselves. The word for this is called sonder. Because of our experiences, no matter what stage of life we are in, we possess our own lens through which to make art with. You may work in the same medium as hundreds or thousands of others, but with practice, experimentation, and time, you will develop the skills and tools you need to stand out as an artist with your own distinctive style.

Once you’ve developed a style, people are more inclined to purchase your work, originals or prints. However, this is not to say that I think you shouldn’t try to sell your work in the beginning of your artistic journey. I absolutely think you should market yourself and label yourself as an artist whenever you feel comfortable adopting that label.

One thing that has surprised me is just how supportive some of my friends and acquaintances have been towards my art. Even if we are not the closest, it is often your loose and amicable connections with others that inspire people to purchase your work and share it with their network. Another interesting concept to consider is that there is no market-ceiling for art. People will likely only buy one microwave and only get another when they seek to replace it. Art, however, is different. Just because one person bought a print from you already doesn’t mean they won’t buy another one in the future. In fact, the more they grow to appreciate your art and yourself as an artist, the more they will be more inclined to continue to purchase your newest prints and originals. This is because there is always room to feel more. There is always space for more art.

Prints are a great way to sell your work and increase your audience’s geographic range. People also like custom stuff, i.e. commissions. But most of all, if you persist in making art that is authentic to you, that makes YOU genuinely excited, other people will like it and invest in it too. Art collectors don’t invest in a piece solely because of its aesthetics; what stands out the most is the story of the artist behind that piece and what they (either the artist or consumer) were doing and feeling at that moment in time that the piece was created or discovered. Social media and crafting visual narratives to accompany posting your art online is a perfect place to start. Become a great storyteller, and the sales will follow.

“Become a great storyteller, and the sales will follow.”

How do you find inspiration and what are those inspirations?

When I was in the final interview rounds with Indeed to be their brand ambassador on tour with MIKA, I was asked by the musical artist himself to describe myself with one word and one word only. I started forming a complete sentence and was quickly hushed good-naturedly and reminded to only say one word. I pondered for a moment and ultimately settled on inspiration.

MIKA was actually perplexed for a moment, as he was expecting me to use an adjective or something likewise to describe myself. With the other candidates, he had a good idea of what they were expressing when they said their chosen word, likely words such as ‘kind’ or ‘resourceful.’ But for me, he honestly did not know what precisely I meant by the noun — inspiration. He laughed and said he would have to break his own rule and ask for further clarification: “Do you think that you’re inspiring? Do you think that other things are inspiring? Is it something that you have? Is it something that you give to others?”

Though it was entirely on the spot, I found myself easily able to elaborate on what I meant (which surprised me too, since I usually require space and time to respond to such nebulous questions).

And what I finally put words to in that moment was that I thrive off of inspiration. I find inspiration in virtually everything. It might be an easier question to ask what I don’t find inspiration in. I attribute it to being a hypersensitive person brimming with more empathy than is honestly comfortable dealing with most of the time.

I think this is why I am attracted to the tedium of collage, because it is worth it and it is satisfying to me to reuse little tiny pieces of paper that most people wouldn’t spare a second glance at. On these tiny pieces of paper are photos, illustrations, themes, and concepts that sparked something initially. Whatever they were meant to evoke in their initial contexts, I feel inspired visually and aesthetically by them for my own reasons that were informed through my unique lived experiences as a fellow human. I recognize their inherent value when isolated from their starting points, and I feel emotionally moved to give them new life in something wacky, whimsical, and unexpectedly cohesive.

I feel inspired temporally — by the seasons, by nostalgia, by childhood. I feel inspired synesthetically — attributing certain colours and sounds and smells to specific people, places, and things. I feel inspired abstractly — by moods and ideas. And I feel inspired by the classics of course, Renaissance, pre-Raphaelite paintings, Beethoven, botanical illustrations, and archetypes present since the dawn of art.

Environmentally, I feel good knowing that I am forever preserving even the tiniest image in my artwork rather than letting it become litter or landfill-bound. I see a use for everything, and I firmly believe that there is a place for everything too, I just need to create it first.

Who are artists or people who have influenced you?

Practically every artist, visual, musician, or otherwise, that I have appreciated at some point in my life has inspired and influenced me. MIKA was definitely a big influence when I was in middle school, and a lot of his bubbly pop, colourful songs have shaped the vibrancy of my dreams and aspirations today.

Growing up, I had a lot of exposure to British humor and European influences, from the French cooking preferences of my Dad to Monty Python and obsessing over the BBC-reign-on-tumblr era of the mid-2010s. Fantasy has always been my favourite genre, and Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter were some of my childhood staples.

I’ve always been a big fan of Van Gogh and similarly expressive art styles. Textured, tactile art has consistently appealed to me since I am a person who loves to touch and feel things.

How do you get motivated or inspired to push past creative blocks?

Because I am so easily inspired, I am one of the fortunate few who very rarely suffers from creative blocks. This isn’t to say that I don’t have them at all, but my problems are most often on the opposite end of the spectrum: having so much inspiration and so many creative projects in mind (not just exclusive to collage) that it is difficult to know what to focus on first and how to use my time most efficiently.

Whether you are brimming with inspiration or not, I have found that it is often more fruitful to put your energy into doing what is most appealing to you in that moment. My nautical piece Dawn Storm is a good example of this personally. In one of my very first ephemera-hauls, I obtained an old coloured print of a ship; I knew I wanted to create an ocean-themed piece, but I didn’t quite feel as if I had all the elements yet, and so I would always flick past this photo, opting to create other works instead.

With my type of collage, part of the joy is never knowing what imagery you will find and when. This can be equal parts frustrating as it can be exciting if you just know how to channel that energy. Artistically, it is important to follow your intuition and not force a piece if you do not feel as if all of the components are there. In my experience, I am more numerically productive in the amount of finished artworks that I complete (and more intrinsically satisfied) if I work on ones that I feel I have collected the most imagery for.

Over time, I slowly collected imagery for Dawn Storm without really knowing it. Sea imagery washed in like the tide as I grew my collection of books. And three years after having found that initial ship, I suddenly had an intuitive spark alerting me that it was time to begin my oceanic piece. The trigger for this spark? Discovering the cover of ‘Dawn Storm’ by musician BØRNS which made me serendipitously visualize a rough sea.

What’s next for you?

Your guess is as good as mine! I am currently working on balancing my varied creative pursuits and passions with receiving steady income. I am a very passion-driven person, and my projects need dedicated time and attention that doesn’t adhere to a conventional 9-5 working standard. For example, summer is more receptive to mermaiding, whereas art fairs tend to occur in the spring and fall.

I would love to tour with another musician again, as traveling for work is something that I’ve found energizes me. I do freelance content creation and social media management, so it is difficult to predict future gigs without being hired full-time. (If you have something in mind, I encourage clients to contact me for collaborations or other work!)

Collage-wise, I have many goals to expand my community and audience of this nontraditional media. I get asked a lot of the same rudimentary questions online about collaging, so I would absolutely love to create a thorough, online course in the future for my aspiring collagists that gives them the confidence to collage from a hobbyist to professional level. I also have plans for a tarot deck, in-person exhibitions, and the excitement of commissioned work for clients.

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