ARTIST OF THE MONTH
NINA FRASER @ninafraserartist
December 2023
“Cybernetics was defined in 1948 by Norbert Wiener as “the science of control and communication, in the animal and the machine” - basically, the theory of messages. As a reaction to an ever rapidly mutating technological world, the work in this series explores communication systems, from internal feedback loops within artistic practice and decision making strategies, to external ones. Observing how the printed image acts as one channel of communication, the analogue practice of collage operates as an inquiry into how this system is structured and interpreted, and how it shapes individual thoughts and actions.”
Presenting the work of art as a complex dynamic system, Nina demonstrates her artistic strategy through the daily creation of 21 collages, laying out the process open to analysis.
ANNA KIRBY @annakirby.collage
November 2023
Anna Kirby is a community college English instructor living in North Carolina, USA. She is a published poet who now channels her creativity into collage format. She makes her collages using second-hand books, scissors, and glue dots. Her work expresses the complex emotions surrounding child loss and infertility. She is inspired by the harmony of complementary colors.
CAITLIN FLOOD-MOLYNEUX @floodmolyneuxart
October 2023
Caitlin Flood-Molyneux is an award-winning contemporary Welsh Artist. Their artistic practice investigates the relationship between pop culture imagery and the way in which we attach emotion and memory to images and use this to narrate their subjective experiences of hardship. The work is both deeply personal and universal, as it charts key moments of their life; a private and enigmatic visual story with which Flood-Molyneux invites the viewer to forge their own connection. Caitlin has exhibited across the UK, Hong Kong and New York. Recently Flood-Molyneux exhibited along side Madonna x Steven Meisel at Christie’s Auction House in London for Christie’s Late Pride Event.
ROGER GREGORY @rogergregoryartist
September 2023
My work is an exploration of what I see, hear and feel daily as I try to get through that daily grind we call living.
It’s achieved using surreal environments from my imagination and the fantastical dream states experienced to order to bring something different to the table.
I do this through the medium of collage or mixed media. Questioning society and my held opinions, often in a subtle or even a disguised manner.
RAYASTRE @rayastre_
August 2023
The Collages are all transparent and made of 19th century prints of etchings, transferred to cellotape. The process of transfer is fully done by hand- careful washing of the paper, so the ink is left attached to the transparent tape. This manual process is time consuming, but necessary in my creative process. Often parts of the print are erased in this process. For me this adds to the quality. I always like degenerated objects, art, music, better than when they would have been perfect, as new. The rawness, the feel of the work is equally important as the content.
Rayastre is an Indonesian artist and musician currently residing in India. His inspiration lies in mysticism and transcendental experiences through meditation and entheogens which he communicates through his art. He is active as musician and visual artist since 1987 and has published 130 music titles on vinyl LP, often combined with original art. Rayastre is also the art-director of avant-garde publisher Astres d’Or.
ASHLEY REAKS @ashleyreaks
July 2023
Homesick Part 2 (The Emotional Wilderness Of Childhood) - Collage 25 x 25 cm. 'Home' or the lack of it features a lot in my work. I was kicked out of home at 15 after suffering years of abuse at the hands of my narcissistic and sadistic father, and have had 81 addresses in the subsequent 40 years. The top three figures at the top left of the image are me (aged 7, when the abuse began), my dad and my mum as they looked at that time. Behind all appearances we're all (emotionally) starving to death in the bleak and loveless environment of the bricks and mortar of 'home' , and to some degree we're all prisoners there. Some haven't been so lucky as to have survived and their bodies are strewn on the ground. An expressionless crowd looks on, disinterested and indifferent to the suffering in front of their eyes. The main two characters seem to be the abusive father figure, whose gas mask suggests all kinds of unspeakable punishments, and the obedient 'death child' and/or 'willing victim' who in spite of being terrified, goes along with his abuser's demands, partly to keep himself 'safe' and partly due to the 'Stockholm syndrome' effects of trauma bonding, where the victim feels trust and affection towards his captor, as it's all he's ever known.
CHRISTIAN COLLINS @bluespectralmonkey
June 2023
Gratitude and greetings to all from the very messy collage laboratory! I’m honored to be the very first artist of the month! I felt I should write a little bit explaining my passion for collage art… And I like, combining lots of words as well ha ha.
As a voracious infovore and enthusiast of the visual, collage offers me endless adaptability and specialization of concept and novelty. A trailblazer of countless magazine mountains since 1998, I still prefer to express my visions strictly with paper by hand. I’ve an insatiable zeal for categorization and a genetic affinity for artistic abilities.
My hyperspecialized pallette of vibrant optical artifacts are both the inspiration and instruments of my photographic imagination, surgically reconstructed with collectible confetti. My neoteric, lavish and indelibly distinct collages are a meticulous duality of psychotropic jazzy pizzazz and dizzyingly cerebral, explicit and allegorical symbology. Keen peepers will spy a covert subtext evident behind the dazzling iconographic bonanza, a subliminal mythology, an optimistic atlas of patience, and a steadfast memoir of phenomenology. I hope my art inspires you to be the architects of your dreams!
Christian C Collins — Portland OR
For more content from my life as a polymath, check the linktree in my bio for extra art, merch, music and more! Plus ulterior updates from the omniscient incognito masterminds of my executive function, Orange Brain Unlimited.
The arist of the month will be reached out to personally by staff upon consideration. Artists can be nominated by email to photosynthesiscollagemagazine@gmail.com . If you would like to nominate an artist, please send us their name, why you are nominating them, and a portfolio and/or instagram handle. Please indicate in the subject line that it is a nomination.
Portfolios should showcase 75% or more collage art. Instagram accounts that are mainly selfies, photography, family photos, or non-collage mediums of artwork will be dismissed at this time. Portfolios with other types of artwork are accepted, so long as there is evidence that the artist is primarily a collage artist and the work is current.
Chosen artists will be displayed perpetually unless the artist requests a removal. Photosynthesis Magazine reserves the right to remove any artist at their sole descretion.