Meet Olivia Bartels.

March 28, 2021. Interview conducted by Arielle Longo.

Radiance. 1/2

We had the pleasure of interviewing Olivia Bartels (@livvys_art_), a 19 year old collage artist based in Ontario. We got to discuss the message behind her powerful collages about celebrating her femininity and the beauty of women.

Arielle: You mentioned that your work is about celebrating your femininity and the beauty of women. How would you describe femininity?

Olivia: Femininity is tricky to define since it looks different for everyone and it’s more of a stereotypical term created by society, but I will answer this from my personal experience as a woman. When I was young I was such a girly-girl; I loved everything pink and I wanted to be a princess. There was a short time in my life that I became embarrassed of how “feminine” I was. Thankfully, I have come to a point where I have realised that this is nothing to be embarrassed of.

Furthermore, I have really begun to express my feminine nature in my art by incorporating fashion, flowers, women, and various shades of pink. What brought me to that shift in thinking was realising the beauty in the traits that make up the female aura. These traits include being brilliant, self-assured, serene, caring, beautiful, strong, and gracious. For a more specific example: women have this desire to take something plain and turn it into something pretty. Some say that women are emotional, but I think they are emotionally intelligent and compassionate. Realising how valuable these characteristics of women are, helped me to accept my “girly-girl” side as positive.

Who are your biggest influences (whether that be an artist, role model, etc.)?

Although I am a huge fan of many of the classic artists, my collages were mainly inspired by other collage instagram artists that I have been following for years. Firefly Fiphie (@fireflyfiphie) is the first artist that inspired me to pursue collages and art journals, especially making women the centre of the work. For better days (@for.better.days) is an artist that inspired me to start moving towards using more magazine pictures in my collages as opposed to hand drawings and solid coloured papers. I find old vintage photographs so inspiring as well. Every time I go to an antique shop, I am sure to pick some up. I have always loved nature which leads me to including bees and florals in a lot of my art.

Radiance. 2/2

Flesh.

Your piece "Flesh" seems to touch upon a very important topic. Could you elaborate on what you aimed your work to say?

Flesh was made to portray the message, that as a society, we tend to get so focused on what the outside of our body looks like, that we forget what our body is. By that I mean, we forget that our body is made up of muscles, organs, flesh and bones that keep us standing, moving and breathing. I think that if everyone started to think more about all the wonderful things our bodies do for us, we would love them more. To convey this message I included a diagram of human torso; which has a strong contrast next to a torso of a model. I also included small phrases from an anatomy book such as “becoming lost in the cellular tissue”, and “the deep cervical fascia”.These texts further push the idea of looking at the body from an anatomical perspective.

Do you have a favourite piece of yours? If so, which one, and why is it your favourite?

My favourite pieces is Radiance. This piece was a turning point for my art; I really found my style while making this collage. In the past, I did much simpler collages and art journals. This piece really brought up the complexity and details in my collages. This collage quite nicely captured the female aura that I have been trying to portray. The subjects seem joyful and confident, with bursts of colours and florals around them, that represents an aura of femininity.

How long does it usually take for you to complete a piece?

It typically takes me about 3-7 hours to make a collage, depending on the complexity and layering of the piece. The most time consuming part is creating the layout. I usually plan the entire collage before I glue anything down. Once I’ve finished that, I take a photo of it, take all the pieces off the paper and glue them down. Typically I spread out the work over 2-3 nights.

Bright mind. 1/2

Bright mind. 2/2