Who are you?
Mel Lineham, Collage Artist from Melbourne, Australia.

Give us brief creative background, how did you come into working with collage?
I've always been creative in some way. Most of it was channelled into a busy career in food and I've worked with mosaic art on and off for the past twenty years. I'd come across collage art before of course, but I saw a piece in a State Library exhibition 5 or 6 years ago and was for some reason instantly besotted by the medium. It was like an epiphany, it was something I just knew I had to do. I wish I could remember who the artist was!

Why collage?
So many reasons! I love the idea of pulling from other stories in order to create a new one. It makes me feel as if the finished artwork has a real history; as if it has many lives, particularly because they are mostly sourced from vintage books. The knowledge that the composite parts were once a part of a different whole really excites me. I also love how the materials themselves inform the outcome, there can be a wonderful randomness to working with collage, where a design can seemingly form on its own.

Describe your practice and workspace. Are you messy or are sorted cut outs your thing? Do you have rituals or particular methods of working?
Messy! Organised chaos? I tend to have a bit of a sitting, where I'll go through and cut out pieces I think have interesting shapes, colours and line from vintage books or removed street posters. These then kind of form a pile on my desk and I'll just sort of shuffle them around and play with different designs. I'll add to and take away from the pile over time until it's morphed into a new pile.

How has your practice evolved?
When I started, I had intricate little cutouts sorted in little plastic boxes, but the aforementioned pile materialised quickly, as did the work becoming much more abstract and more about colour, shape and line rather than subject matter.

Where to next?
I'm not sure, but I have so many ideas! I'm really excited about the idea of working with scale, I'd love to make some really large collages. I'd also like to introduce some mixed media into my work too and wonder if I'd enjoy working with assemblage as much as I do collage.

Who are your favourite artists? Where do your draw inspiration from?
I'm really inspired by the materials themselves - the colours and tones afforded me through vintage publications are a joy to use and can't be found anywhere else. I was mostly inspired by the wonderful Danish artist Betina Miemietz to use street posters which is worlds of fun. I love a lot of 20th century graphic art and draw inspiration from publications like Graphis. Also the work of abstract painters like Helen Frankenthaler, The Colour Field Painters - there's so much 20th century art that I adore. Among the many collage artists I really admire are Fred Free, Vincent La Scala and I love what Antony Densham is doing.

More of Mel’s work can be seen here or visit on Instagram @mel_lineham_collage

Artist Profile: MEL LINEHAM