Here's my interview with Tracy, the fantastic Vancouver, BC artist behind
Living Feral:, the etsy shop where she sells her work.
1) Your images look like they come from old magazines. Do you have a favorite source? Where do you find them?
Yes, I use pieces I cut from vintage magazines, and occasionally books. I prefer material from the 60s and 70s (nothing more recent) because I like the imagery and colors and print quality from that period. I usually find them scouting around thrift stores (one of my favorite activities). I use pretty much anything I can get my hands on, as it’s getting harder to find older materials - particularly magazines, since so many people throw them out.
2) Your titles are fantastic! How do you come up with them?
Thanks! I wish I had a magic formula, because it sometimes takes me longer to come up with the title than the collage (and I work pretty slowly anyway). Then I sit with the piece and play with word combinations until I find the one that makes the most sense to me. Other times though, I start with a word or phrase – a thought I’m having about something, or a fragment of text that’s stuck with me for years – and that will inform the title. Often I’ll work without any set ideas, and the title will come in a flash. My collage “alice and the rabbit – the later years” was like that. I really wanted to use the image of the woman, and the rabbit worked its way into the composition, and then the title just popped.
3)How long have you been making collages? Do you create in other mediums or styles?
I started making the collages again this past spring, though I’ve made them on and off over the years. For a while I was making little books of collages, and I’d like to do that again. I also currently work with photography and drawing, I really like to sew, and I occasionally paint. In the past I’ve enjoyed etching, and I often incorporated collage techniques into that work.
4) I'm really drawn to your collages, especially the following images: "Farewells are Difficult", "She Addressed Herself to the Dark Hearts...", "For Many Years She Fished..." and "Alice and the Rabbit". My grandmom, Alice looked alot like the woman in "Alice"!
I think it’s a lovely bit of serendipity about your grandmom and the woman in “Alice.” I hope she retained a sense of adventure in her later years!
5)Your work recollects retro sci fi book covers (to me). Are you a fan of sci fi or the art covers?
That’s so interesting! Now that you say it I can really see the connection - especially with the sense of the human in the familiar/yet unfamiliar landscape. I’ve always been interested in science, and my dad’s always been a big science fiction fan, so that’s probably where it comes from.
The Arts Crawl in Fairmount is Sunday, April 17th, from 2-6 pm and I will be at 2014 and 2015 Fairmount Ave. with two shows: one of Philly Street Bikes at Fairmount Bicycles and the other, Walk into the Woods at Wellpoint Oriental Medicine. The whole exent is amazing with street performances, artist demos, bike rentals, free food and drinks, free Thai massage and Acupuncture demos. The whole hood is filled with art, over 70 artists and all the shops are open. It's a great neighborhood atmosphere.
Orange Bike and Shadow, Franklin Institute, Philadelphia
Greyhound Station, Chinatown, Philadelphia
Red and Blue Bikes, Chinatown, Philadelphia
The show opens tonight at Wellpoint and I'm very excited. The images include waterfalls, creeks, trails, and rocks from Bushkill, Dingmans Ferry, the Wissahickon, the Adirondacks and Ithaca. If you know any hikers, campers, outdoors folks, environmentalists, geologists, biologists, bring them along!
I think my work appeals to a particular crowd of folks who can see the beauty in some lichen on a rock surface and the peacefullness of water in a creek.
Bookmark it now! I'll be getting pieces up there soon! 
