Amanda Seiler is a Rio de Janeiro-based artist with a background in jewelry design, graphic design, and concept art for motion graphics. Her work uses a wide range of techniques, including mixed-media, Digital art, and acrylic painting. These mediums allow for an exploration of the ever-growing possibilities in Collage compositions.
STATEMENT
What if we could rearrange pieces of what we saw, mix them with images we love, and add a splash of what inspires us?
My digital art is an attempt to do just that.
We often see things that bring such contentment that we take it with us. A sea shell, a flower, a feather. Other times, our imagination plucks a detail from our memories and slips it into a new experience. How we arrange and combine objects or new and past experiences redefines the story that they tell. It may even redefine attributed values and influence emotional responses. As well as creating new stories, past narratives become open to new interpretations.
In her digital collages, Amanda Seiler combines personal photos and extensively researched images. She meticulously selects and edits hundreds of elements that she layers and arranges to generate highly detailed surreal compositions.
Composed entirely of 2D images in Photoshop, a play of light and shadow gives the end result an almost 3D quality.
Amanda’s work contrasts nature with familiar cultural references as context for observations on societal habits and values. Borrowing from Fairy tales, Pop culture, and classic symbolic genres, Amanda’s works show saturated and surreal environments rich in texture and mood.
INSPIRATION
My artwork is primarily inspired by my experience with nature and the passage of time. Our perception of time and the value we assign to it has been distorted. We freeze moments in photos or objects in an attempt to forget that nothing is permanent. We treasure a golden clock, often forgetting to fill the time it keeps.
While nature gives us wrinkles, time gives us wisdom. Time passes, and nature shows it in decay and regrowth. It can’t be undone, but what comes from it brings new perceptions, new experiences, and memories that can be revisited only in your imagination.
DETAILS
How each series begins varies. At times, it begins with images that attract me and seem to have something in common and other times, the series begins with a story or concept, and I research images accordingly.
EXAMPLES;
TALES - This series began when I realized that a number of street art photos I had taken reminded me of figures in well-known children's stories.
VANUS VAS - The still-life-themed series began with a desire to revisit the Vanitas Genre of the early 17th century in a way that would highlight today's relationship with time, nature, and possession. I found that Jeweled flowers fit perfectly to portray the subject and retain a classical style, and so I began an extensive search for high-resolution images of floral jewelry.
PROCESS
My Digital work uses a complex process of digital imaging. Each project comprises dozens or more selected images meticulously pieced together to tell a story. Building up an image takes patience. Carefully Developing the lighting, shadows, color, and other visual effects harmonizes the individual elements, making it look realistic and seamless. It also gives the volume and mood that creates depth and brings it to life.
By selecting images that carry nuance and reference and mixing them together, we can merge ideas, giving them new meaning. Each composition is a result of arranging them in a way that tells a story or evokes an emotion.
