It’s Guest Blog Wednesday featuring Monica Carvalho!
Today, I would like to invite you to a journey through the surreal photomontages I create to confuse people…
All the photos I use in my compositions are from my own portfolio (holidays, trips, family, friends, myself), except from a few space images I took from Google (like planet Earth and galaxies). My method of work is quite random; I have all these pictures I took and I try to combine them in a cool, surreal way. I especially love creating images that distort the actual sizes of things, for instance my miniature mum waterskiing in a coffee cup…
…and my cousin skateboarding on a miniature Switzerland (where I’m from).
I also love playing with the materiality of things, i.e. my white towel becomes the foamy waves of a seashore…
The real world appears finite to me, whereas the surreal world is infinite, has so much more potential, is so much more fascinating!
My ultimate aim is to create the perfect optical illusion. I have to say I would not be able to do it without Adobe Photoshop, which I have been learning how to use throughout the years.
In the process of creating my photomontages, I have absolutely no idea how the final composition will be read. My work is open to all interpretations. Like I said before, I almost randomly juxtapose images; and my aim is to create an illusion, not necessarily a feeling. But I love how people feel something different for each image. I am often asked why I choose such random titles for my artworks; and the answer is to confuse people even more. I believe it doesn’t make sense to give a descriptive title to a surreal artwork, because the latter means something different for every single person.
You can see more of Monica’s work at MofArt.wordpress.com, and follow her on Instagram and Twitter.