Arturo H. Medrano‘s collages are old school cut and paste compositions that are set squarely in the realm of literature, cinema and punk, the aesthetic lying somewhere between Bauhaus and the English conceptual artist, John Stezaker.
Most of his images are derived from old Life magazines, nature and science journals, punk zines and sleeve designs as well as book cover and poster designers who use collage techniques such as Hans Hillmann, Linder Sterling and Andrzej Klimowski. Here’s what he has to say about his technique:
One of the reasons I like collage as an artistic process is because it explores the Surrealist concept of psychic automatism and lets your subconscious do the work. Just flipping through the source and finding juxtapositions based on feeling instead of a thought out meaning is what appeals to me. I’m also pretty messy and unorganized which I think helps in discovering random and unique juxtapositions. I like Andre Breton’s concept of convulsive beauty, which is what I try to achieve with most of my work even if it may not always be successful.