I’m inspired by collage artist Allison Diaz.  She’s a recent college grad from CA, whose process includes cutting old black and white portraits from magazines into diamond shapes, which are then rearranged.  Her collage series ‘Haunted Mirrors’ explores human perception and the rare neurological condition known as “face blindness.” She describes her current work as exploring ideas of shifting perspectives, identity and perception of reality. The result is, indeed, haunting. The breakdown of human faces in her work is disorienting and at times unnerving.  The viewer is put into the shoes of a prosopagnosia sufferer and forced to see the world through a different set of eyes.  Even deeper still, this breakdown of reality is further exaggerated by her fusion of masculinity and femininity in the works. The pieces themselves are complex in their varying shades of soft greys, blacks, and whites.  You can view more of her work on Bows & Arrows, the Sacramento-based gallery at which she is currently located.  Diaz’s work is of interest to me due to her method-based approach and use of repetition–aspects of art that fascinate and inspire me. The monochrome palatte also appeals to my own aesthetic.  Overall, her work is intriguing and unmistakably human.

 

 

Images via http://allisondiaz.blogspot.com