A Q&A With Austen Zombres
By John Vochatzer
There’s no shortage of collage artists in the Bay Area. In fact there’s so many if you throw a pair of scissors in any direction you’ll probably hit one. That being said, I can’t think of any artist working in collage here or anywhere in the world right now quite like my friend Austen Zombres. Aside from the fact that 99% of his work is constructed from the abandoned cardboard of 12-pack soda boxes scavenged from the streets, Austen’s style and approach are what truly separate his work from the rest.
For most collage artists including myself, one of the main ingredients in the process is the element of chance. The direction of the work of art is largely determined by the material available. Although this poses a lot of limitations with the medium, I think the spontaneity and collaborative nature of it are what give collage so much appeal to so many. For Austen, however, there is less spontaneity and almost full determination. After years of honing his process and amassing an impressive color palette of collected cardboard, Austen comes at his pieces with a more painterly approach. Instead of letting the material guide the way, he brings his preconceived visions to life with the utmost precision.
The fact that Austen’s work also comes imbued with a strong ecological message is the final element in forming what I consider an overall dynamo of a collagist. In a day and age of planned obsolescence, oceans and rivers choking on landfills, and the most headline-catching art sales being NFTs minted on a blockchain which is needlessly hemorrhaging CO2 into our skies, to re-imagine a second life for all the waste we produce is a powerful and necessary act. Right in time for Earth Month, and on the eve of our next exhibit “Dearly Discarded” featuring Austen as well as other Bay Area artists working with recycled and repurposed materials, I had the pleasure of checking out his workspace and doing a little Q&A about his process and inspirations. Thank you for doing the art that you do, Austen!
Interview
1. Hey Austen! How’d you first get into making collage art?
The first collages I did were with my own darkroom prints around 2005. As I experimented with other mediums, I always found myself finishing the experiments with a collage adaptation. I’d used watercolor, collage, acrylic, photo, mixed media, print, and so on. I slowly realized I could just find the colors I needed. And then eliminated the need for pen.
2. Although you and I both work in collage, our process and source material are on completely different sides of the spectrum. Can you describe your process in making one of your collages? And how do you collect and organize your material?
After 10+ years of collecting a library of recycled colors, I’ve started to work from the angle of a painter; thinking of an idea and then slowly piecing it together. When my collection of colors wasn’t as diverse I would find a color, and build off of it and let the color I had most of lead the way of the piece. Some pieces technically took 12 years to make. If I set out to make a very complex piece of art, I know a range of each color is available to me. As my collection of colors expands, so do the possibilities. It creates a bit of a bottle neck for my flow of ideas. I can think up a thousands things I want to make, but what do I have the colors to actually complete? It’s fun. It’s a challenge.
3. Your process seems to be pretty consistent throughout your work, but your subject matter is quite varied. What collages do you have the most fun on?
I like to break my favorite types of subject matter into these three categories: nature, food, and pop.
Nature: I grew up in Sonoma proper. A small pretty town with secret green waterfalls and wildlife. I was an outside kid.
Food: Worked around food for most of my life. Became a chef and was taught sous chef early on, then chased wine knowledge. The Bay Area has an amazing food culture. Jamaica is also a place that has played a big roll in my life. Food is color and life.
Pop: I don’t like paint strokes. I like comic book contrast and clean lines. It is fun and interesting to strip away the detail I obsess over and provide a clean, vibrant image. How many elements can I take away before an image is no longer the thing that it originally was?
4. What are your biggest challenges as an artist?
Finding large pieces of color. Anything bigger than my hand or longer than my arm, that is one solid color, is rare. Also, finding purple and black. Also gravity and needing to have my pieces lay flat while I work on them. And no breezes.
5. Can you tell me about your incentive behind using recycled materials in your work? How much weight do you think there should be on sustainability and environmental concerns in the art world?
I feel like a modern human with a lot of waste. I’m using my own paper footprint as my source of color. It’s been a very gradual expansion of my collection, but with one major rule: “the item has to have no other use, and will otherwise be discarded.” There is no big message I was trying to send. I was just trying to make art when I was extremely broke. Now, I understand that the amount of waste I’ve kept myself from producing is nuts. I’ve avoided 10 years of paint and brushes and micro-plastic producing containers, and all the while keeping my own paper footprint out of the system as well. Accidentally a small drop in the bucket, but what if thousands of people did this? Or I had a warehouse?
6. I know this is a heated question, but considering the environmentalist nature of your work, what’s your stance on NFTs? (I fuckin’ hate them, FYI)
You mean an EFT? Environmentally Fungible Token? I’m working on a project that will weigh and classify up-cyled art. It will stamp it with the the weight of mass it kept out of dumps, and the amount of emitted co2 stopped. Fuck an NFT.
7. Are there any other artists out there working with recycled materials that you think deserve some recognition?
All the kids in France that sent me their recreations of shoes in my “style,” mostly made of cereal boxes.
8. Do you have any interest in exploring other mediums besides collage?
I may get back into darkroom photo-manipulation when my hands can’t use blades anymore. But I’ve explored most mediums besides glass and metal. This recycled medium provides unique challenges, and seems to be my happy place.
9. We were talking a bit about your exhibit history, and it sounds like you’ve had quite a few shows in SF and the Bay Area. What was your favorite exhibit of yours to date? What made it stand out?
Probably the one you brought up during your visit, “Food Truck”. I told everyone I was having a food truck and filled a U-Haul with food-themed art and parked it in front of a shop in the Tenderloin. We had free pizza. Very 80’s/90’s. It was fun. All my solo shows fill me with anxiety. Group shows are always better.
10. What are your other interests and hobbies besides making art?
Food. I’m a chef at heart, always having fun with new colors and flavors. I’m helping open a Boba Tea shop at the moment. Very flavor-forward, rich, home-style drinks. Homeless outreach programs - tell me where to donate art in my DMs.
11. What’s up next for you? Where do you want to be taking your work?
California green grants. I need a grant written to get that $$$ and a warehouse in San Francisco. Sign up as many corner stores and liquor stores as possible to my tax write-off program. Start collecting enough to do murals and wallpaper and small schwag items for businesses. I would like to be able to hire people and teachers for youth programs, etc. To lessen the load on Recology Center and to provide jobs and accessibility to after-school arts programs. If you’re a California Grant writer, please contact me at AustenZombres@gmail.com
