“It’s more of a compulsion than anything,” says John Lucatorta about creating his fascinating collages using salvaged materials from the ReBuilding Center (RBC). He creates vibrant cutouts of animals and clip-art-like images of everyday objects. He describes how he started doing collages as a child through “[torturing his] parents cutting up phone books and mail," and he continues to keep the same energy in the work he does today. In creating his collages Lucatorta says that he “likes to start with a vision” of a piece and appreciates the challenge of intimidating projects the most.
One of his collages features a giraffe on a background of reclaimed lumber running frame by frame with more paper cut out each time to reveal its skeleton. View a stop-animation of the project coming to life here.
Giraffes - John Lucatorta
Another is an image of an airplane set on a reclaimed window with the phrase “without the dark we’d never see the stars” included with other graphic cutouts.
Airplane - John Lucatorta
Along with the ReBuilding Center materials, Lucatorta uses paper and “anything that’s flat and can be cut out" for his work. He uses salvaged materials for the depth and dimension they give to 2D collage.
Spectrum Collage - John Lucatorta
You can contact John Lucatorta at john@lucatorta.com or find him on Tumblr.