A Wise Octopus Is Keeping A Pandora's Jar Screwed Tightly Collage

I am Elena Howard, a London-based mixed media visual artist. I create collages, drawing inspiration (and materials!) from whatever I am reading at the moment. It is a highly intuitive and spontaneous process where I experiment with selecting fragments (words and colours) that I am drawn to, and then combining these with drawn and painted elements, on a prepared surface, to create little poems, shapes, scenes and creatures which reflect themes and topics covered by the source publication(s). I discovered that viewers are drawn to different sets of words which trigger different associations for each person. My collages combine my fascination with the written word and a passion for bold colours. Merging these is my way of transforming the original information and the emotions it triggers into a visual form.