Contemporary Collage: A Q&A With Hope Kroll
By John Vochatzer
If you’re a collage artist or have paid any attention to the wide world of collage in the past 15 years, then the chances are you’re familiar with the work of Hope Kroll, and if not, you definitely should be. Preceding the enormous boom in popularity that collage saw in the 2010s, Hope’s work help paved the way for what the medium is now—particularly the rise of this sub-genre of “anatomical collage” that makes use of vintage medical illustrations often combined with 1800s natural history illustrations and other equally antiquated content. I first came across Hope’s work when I was newly discovering the magical universe of collage myself, and I can proudly count her as one of my earliest and most prominent influences.
A few years before the advent of Instagram, the late 2000s was a liminal stage for artists and the internet—we had not quite reached this hyperconnected, almost hive-mind state we’re now immersed in, and seeking out and finding new artists that moved you still had a special thrill to it that I fear may be becoming more and more exclusive to generations prior. Some might say it was a period that saw the last breaths of what could be considered an underground for more fringe art mediums such as collage. When I first came across Hope’s work, circa 2007 via a website dedicated exclusively to collage, I had at the time seen nothing like it and was immediately enchanted. For working with such outdated material, there was a sensitivity and ingenuity to it that has always felt wholly original and contemporary. And I think this is illustrated by the fact that she is one of the few collagists out there who’s work has thoroughly made it’s way into the world of fine art—a world usually reserved for painters and sculptors which generally looks down on collage as more of a craft or a “lesser” medium.
Along with continuing to work with almost exclusively vintage imagery, Hope also maintains a strong emphasis on doing things by hand, and doing them the hard way—yet still constantly succeeds in creating game changing works of art that to this day remain a step ahead of the rest. Her more recent work employs gatorboard (a high quality foam board) to transform the collages into these layered 3-dimensional masterpieces the likes of which (to my knowledge) have never been done before. Her “Beaded Squirrels” series likewise pushes her work further into the realm of mixed media assemblage, but still remains true to collage at it’s core by using things like old wallpapers, blue prints, and hand written letters.
“Beaded Squirrels 1” mixed media assemblage by Hope, 2022. Part of the exhibit Constant Variables.
Accompanied by our mutual friend, oil painter Jessica Hess, we are tremendously honored to be currently showing some of these newer and more experimental works by Hope in our exhibit “Constant Variables” that runs through the rest of August, 2022. There are few figures who I can think of that have had as solid of an impact on collage art as she has, and for an artist staying true to the old fashioned way of doing things, there’s no one I’m more confident in being able to look forward to seeing what new ways they find to continuously innovate the medium. Thank you Hope!
Interview
Hey Hope! Can you tell us about how and when you first got into making collage art? And what were the early days as a collage artist like for you?
“Act of War,” hand-cut paper collage. 2000
I have been incorporating collage elements in my work as early as 1988 while at the University of Illinois obtaining my BFA. I began by ripping up my etchings and proofs and gluing them into my oil paintings. At the same time, I was creating compositions for my etchings by tearing up and rearranging my drawings. Later in Graduate school, I would make a patchwork canvas from the blank pages of books for my book sculptures, which I’ll talk about further in your second question. I sealed these creations in epoxy resin and after a serious health issue with my lung I decided to give it up and find a completely nontoxic way to express myself. I had a vast collection of sketchbooks filled with ideas for my book sculptures which were xeroxes from mostly medical and children’s books and looked to these for inspiration. I then decided to start taking apart my collection of books for the images they contained rather than for their covers. Act of War was the very first collage I made in 2000 by simply putting one image on a single blank page from a book. I liked what I saw and was hooked. For many years I restricted myself to the size of books, whether I was working with the paper or the book cover. Many years later I would go back to creating larger surfaces to work on by joining blank pages again as well as utilizing the book covers. Soon after I started making collages, I started to lift my images off the page with foam core and to create increasingly larger and more complex three-dimensional collages.
“Battling Your Nerves,” hand-cut paper collage. 2002
In 1998 my husband and I moved from San Francisco to the countryside of Paso Robles. I was new to the area, did not know many people and wasn’t aware of other artists in my community at that time. Like Jess Hess whom I am showing alongside of at Moth Belly for Constant Variables, I don’t drive, so I can say my early years as a collage artist were quite isolated. I was working on my own with few outside influences. I did not have a website until 2007, which is also when I joined Facebook and discovered collage groups and other like-minded people. 2007 is when I started to seriously show my work, so for 7 years I was essentially a hermit making collages.
I just found out that you were educated at SFAI (RIP) here in San Francisco in the nineties. What kind of work were you doing in your student years, prior to making collages?
“It’s All In Your Mind,” mixed media piece with resin, books, and ink. 1995
It’s unfortunate that SFAI has come to an end… but I’m not going to discuss that here because that’s a whole other interview. As I mentioned above, I was making resin book sculptures. I started with single hardcover books, opening them up and drawing and writing on them. I made larger ones by piecing together blank pages to create a paper canvas. The paper was layered and built up with resin onto a backing made of book covers, so they were entirely made from books. I would sometimes stack pages until they reached a foot off the wall. I used to write my thoughts and quasi-poetry on the paper alongside the drawings. The drawings and words at first were very loosely done with watercolors and there was more of an overall expressionistic tone.
“Tender Prey,” mixed media piece with books, resin, and ink. 1992
It was not until after I graduated that I began to add book covers to the front and body of my constructions. Gradually, I started to arrange the book covers and pages into various configurations. For example, I would join covers together to create frames around my drawings or I would cut through the covers to open a window into the books. I would combine these two approaches as well and have half of the frame book covers and the other half stacked pages. I was still writing quite a bit on my work but now it was more tightly controlled as were the drawings. That habit of writing and drawing also carried over to my early collages. At that time, I was right out of school and was still showing under my maiden name, Epstein at both the William Sawyer Gallery and Southern Exposure Gallery.
Over the years I’ve noticed quite a few recurring themes in your art, specifically you do a lot of work revolving around anatomy and natural history, as well as lots of mechanical work featuring gears and machinery and such. And the two are often intertwined. What are your motives and inspirations behind the types of imagery you choose to work with?
In the beginning most of my collages were steeped in medical imagery. I had always been fascinated with medicine and at one time envisioned myself as a surgeon. I was in art school at a young age and one of the oil paintings I did when was 12 or so was of an open-heart surgery. The insides weren’t shown, only the many surgical tools sticking out of the body like flowers, and the doctors and their bloody gloves. I wish I still had that painting, but in my many moves from Illinois and around CA most of my early works from childhood were either lost or destroyed. I used to hang out at the USF medical library which was only a few blocks from where my husband Gary and I lived. It was there that I gathered most of images for my book sculptures. Naturally, medical themes showed up often in my collages.
“The Bicameral Mind,” 3D mixed media piece with hand-cut paper collage and vintage photos. 2017
Mechanical imagery crept into my work from the medical books like prosthetic devices, tubes, old and new surgical instruments, gurneys, old timey medical beds etc. Through my acquisition of encyclopedias and dictionaries I came upon prints of typewriters, printing presses, farm machinery, car parts, etc. I then discovered trade catalogs of valves, gears, and chain links. The material and images are what inspire me. I like the movement wheels and cogs lend to a composition. The body is essentially a machine and I worked with that idea for many of my collages. The body machine, and heads surround by cogs and machine parts appear frequently throughout my 22 years of collaging.
“Portrait of Kay II", 3D hand-cut paper collage with vintage photo. 2018
And of course, I include all the Audubon birds and animals. How could I resist them? And like the human bodies I often intertwined animal parts with mechanical elements.
Being a collage artist myself, this is probably the question I’m asked more than any others, but I’m gonna ask it anyways: Where do you get your material? And what’s the acquisition process like for you?
Hope’s home studio, in Paso Robles, CA.
I source from the usual places thrift stores, antique stores, online and frequently people give me material. Just recently, a friend gave me an entire box of sheet music from the 20s through the 50s. Now that would not have been something I would have sought out, but it certainly gives me different material to work with.
One of the more recent developments in your work has been using gatorboard to build the collages into these sorta 3-dimensional assemblage pieces. Where did the idea for this come from? And what’s the process like?
For a while now I have been wanting to incorporate my other skills and obsessions. I have also been wanting to free myself from the constraints of a traditional frame and the Plexiglass. I had worked with the scroll saw earlier when I was transitioning from book sculptures to collage. Back then I was cutting out words, cursive and paper elements on wood. I loved the long hours I spent with the machine. I created these quirky wood and paper sculptures and wanted to bring that back into my work.
“Chain Links” 3D collage on gatorboard, 2022. Part of the exhibit Constant Variables.
I worked on foam core as I need a strong stable base for my complex three-dimensional collages, and as I started to work larger, I moved to using gator board which is much firmer. Gary had found me these fantastic trade catalogs with enormous chain links in them with multiple three-page fold outs. I glued down all these links onto gator board and cut them out on the scroll saw, boxes and boxes of them I cut out, and he sanded. I did the same with giant Audubon birds as well. I did this about 6 years ago but wasn’t certain how I was going to present them. I knew I wanted to go big, but should I put them on wood or some other base? I just was not ready to pull the trigger, so I boxed up all the chain links and birds up and set them aside for when I was ready. Besides, at that time they were way to “precious” to me and I was hesitant to “waste” them with experimentation as these are original materials and not necessarily replaceable. I took them out last year and started playing with them again and forced myself to start gluing them down and making decisions. I kept the first two large assemblages Aviary and Chain Links in the more traditional rectangular shape and then decided to go more free form with the squirrel pieces.
An even more recent turn in your work has been these “Beaded Squirrel” assemblages featured in the Constant Variables exhibit. These have plenty of collage elements in them, but also feature other techniques like beading and painting. Can you tell us a little bit about these new works?
I have been wanting to include my other passions like beading for some time. I love seed beads; the tiniest beads you can work with. I use them to make jewelry or French beaded flower arrangements. I love anything that involves working with small materials and enjoy the long hours it takes to create a single flower. I enjoy putting the beads on the wire one by one even though I could easily buy a handheld machine that could to that for me faster, but just really enjoy the process. I added the painted stencils to give color and visual movement and the squirrels are always whimsical to work with. They add another level of motion that keeps the eye moving around the piece. The circles also add to the movement.
“Beaded Squirrels 3” mixed media assemblage, 2022. Part of the exhibit Constant Variables.
Who were some of your early inspirations when you first got into the world of collage? .
I was inspired by Max Ernst and Joseph Cornell. I was very much caught up in creating a surrealistic atmosphere in my collages and was heavily influenced by Ernst’s book “Une Semaine De Bonte.” But not all my influences are other collage artists. My earliest inspiration as I said were Leonardo Da Vinci’s medical drawing and his various killing and flying machines. Bosch and Bruegel I admire for the shear weirdness. Frida Kahlo inspired some of my “medical” collages. Mary Shelly’s Prometheus Bound both book and the classic movie based on the book also were inspirations. And as I stated before collage was always a technique, I had in my wheelhouse and has followed me through many iterations of my art.
“Rocking Horse Winner,” 3D hand-cut paper collage. 2010
With the advent of Instagram, it seems like collage art really started to boom for a while and it led to a whole new generation of collagists. How do you feel about the widespread popularization of collage
“Go Fish,” 3D hand-cut paper collage. 2021
Well of course I think it’s wonderful that the art of collage is more widespread and being taken more seriously. The medium has been around for over a hundred years, so it’s not a new concept, but magazines dedicated to Collage Like Kolaj Magazine, Contemporary Collage Magazine and Cut Me Up give the medium more gravitas. Shows themed entirely about collage are worldwide events and I think that’s a good thing.
What would you like to see more of in the world of collage? And what are you tired of seeing?
What would I like to see more of? ???? I don’t know how to answer that. That’s quite an expansive question but I am tired of seeing things popping out of people’s heads, rib cages and hearts with flowers coming out of them.
Commissioned collage, 3D hand-cut paper. 2022.
I’m curious if you’ve been paying attention to any of this AI art that’s been taking over the internet recently, specifically the stuff people have been making with Midjourney. I almost feel like it’s a relative of collage art, only with the creative decision making several times more removed from the artist. What are your thoughts on it?
Shot from Hope’s home studio in Paso Robles, CA.
Wait hold on let me go look it up because I have no idea what you are taking about….. hmmmm trying to wrap my head around it but I really don’t know enough about this technology to make a comment either way. I have never used it. Is it related to collage? Maybe?…. Remotely? I’m a very hands-on person and sitting in front of a screen making art has zero appeal for me. I want to feel the paper, beads, board and use my scissors and matte knife, I need to use my hands.
Where do you see the future of collage art going? Do you see it evolving and changing with our ever-growing relationship with technology?
“Hunting Season,” 3D hand-cut paper collage. 2020
I’m not certain what the future holds for collage. I am analog and always will be so don’t really think much about digital art or tech art and where that is heading, I’m not saying it’s bad or anything. I see lot of great digital art out there, but it’s just not for me or for my way of working. People will always be painting, sculpting etc. by hand and I don’t necessarily think it’s going to be any different for collagists.
What’s next for you? And what new directions would you like to be taking your work?
Well original material, especially the vintage kind like I use, mainly books are getting harder and harder to find. That’s another reason I’m reinventing myself. I will probably have to start including scanned or photo enlarged imagery at some point. I’m thinking I might want to introduce actual beaded flowers or other beaded items into the assemblages along with fabric and wallpaper. I recently did a commission for a collector who wanted me to transform a particular medical book. I incorporated the book cover and glued layers of pages from the book as part of frame/pedestal which was a throwback to my book sculptures. I really enjoyed the work and plan to begin adding book covers in a bold way back into my assemblages/collages. More scroll work is in my future as well. But I am not at all abandoning working with my cuticle scissors. In amongst the compositions will be my traditional way of creating collages. And I never refuse strictly paper collage commissions. I had to recreate myself once before out of necessity because of health concerns now I’m recreating myself by embracing all my past accomplishes and techniques and bringing them together to create something I’ve never done before. The possibilities are endless.
“Aviary,” 3D collage on gatorboard, 2022. Part of the exhibit Constant Variables.
