Francesca Alexia Fanciulli
PROJECT COLLAGE
CREATIVE PROCESS
I really love to play with my cropped characters and combine them in many different roles before finding the perfect momentum and the perfect synthesis to my deeper feelings or beliefs.
The combination that allows me to speak without words in an extremely powerful way.
Letting my subconscious eyes be the windows through I look at reality, the creative process usually follows two different schemes:
On one hand, it starts from cutouts of interesting images, the ones that push to emerge from the overloaded collection of any printed media, which take a meaning when they meet each other. Much like the “sei personaggi in cerca d’autore” by the master of theatre Pirandello. In this case, it is the latent power of the images that is revealing and finds its ways to manifest.
I can define it as a magical meditative process.
On the other hand, it starts either from a project that is commissioned. reflects a personal interest, or different deepenings that pop in my mind and continue to develop into mood boards of images and background before finding the balance that best reflects the idea.
Mood boards are part of my daily in fashion and are the perfect mental organization for my job.
My stories let the observer wonder what happened before and after the represented frame of the chronicle.
I sometimes feel like the photography director of a theatre play or of a big budget movie production.
CHARACTERS and MATERIALS
As my characters can be hidden everywhere like talented actors waiting to be discovered, I cannot avoid to explore every paper material that cross my way and I pick it up from every corner of the world.
I enjoy the physical search of images and the textures of different papers. I use traditional paper materials like magazine and newspapers clippings, flyers and advertising, personal photos and drawings. Old art books, auction catalogues, and flea markets books are the best to engrave on for quality.
It’s part of my vision to mix art characters with reality; it’s part of my usual day dreaming and fantasies.
Another recurring characters of my stories are flowers, that are the utmost representation of love for me.
STAGE and BACKGROUNDS
I started my collage journey using solid coloured pieces of paper as backgrounds to emphasize the images. Although I continue to use them, I have also discovered the wonder of decorated paper such as wrapping paper and wallpaper with patterns that create an ideal contrast with my stories, adding an even more surrealistic mood.
Moreover, I enjoy using landscapes photographic backgrounds, or patchwork of them, to add scenery to my plan. The stage.
Sometimes I mix different techniques adding my own paintings, ink drawings or metal leaves details. I also create pieces of the scenography with fretwork paper silhouettes and metal leaves or glitters.
What I love the most is the contrast of patterns and metallic touches, to mix and match colours and materials like in a fashion project.
PROPS and TOOLS
I make handmade collages, so scissors and glue are my best friends.
I have also found over the years different types of cutters that help me to tailor more precisely my characters and paper engraving. Of course sometime I simply use my hands to rip the paper.
Brushes, colors, ink, and metal leaves are oftentimes essential to work.
Even if it is amusing at times to don’t have the boundaries that printed paper impose, I usually don’t do digital collages, unless requested by commission. I prefer rather to intervene on mine’s digitally that creates one from scratch.
LOGO
You can see different things in my logo, but never a directly immediate reference to my initials FAF.
If you look carefully, you can see them! Ah! There they are!
Shaping also the most obvious W.
But also… yes! A hieroglyphic woman with her skirt, her long arms and her omniscient eye.
Here it is! My logo is the perfect synthesis of my work.
You need to look carefully and you will be able to find the meaning or more that one.
The stories and the characters’ interactions, and, who knows, also a reference to what you are experiencing.
