California based filmmaker, illustrator, and vintage collage artist, Eugenia Loli puts narratives in her collages that kickstarts the viewer’s imagination to interpret her work. I enjoy her work because they are surreal and aesthetically pleasing.
Title: “Soft Kisses, Stinging Bites”
For this piece, the thing that stood out to me the most was that the artist placed a picture of a literal crab on top go the model’s head. Through this use of visual, I liked that the artist used the natural shape of the crab to make it look like a sort of crown, suggesting a “queen” like character. Accompanied by the title, the model putting on lipstick also gave me a message of “deadly beautiful things”. With this, this piece influenced my work through using one of my personal favourite themes because I like the contradiction of pleasant things being harmful.
Title: Inking a New Friendship
I enjoyed the narrative in this story, which majorly inspired by own character creations for my strange encounter. For instance, as the girl in the picture is on a “tiny” boat, it shows a whimsical and childish narrative of the girl going on a fun adventure. As the squid creature hands her flowers, it also shows me a playful but surreal vibe, just enough to make it slightly weird yet digestible. With this, I enjoyed the use of the found images and being able to place theme together and kickstart my imagination of what would happen if I met someone from an underwater world.
