The Canada Collection

These mixed media collages are three-dimensional works, built up from paint chips, vintage hand-written letters, copies of textile fragments, scraps of brightly coloured paint palettes and black ink drawings.  The collection originally appeared in 2015, in a solo Exhibition by Shelley in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Shelley likes building up surfaces, starting with a cardboard structure, and then adding elements until they take on an architectural quality, giving the viewer a peek down a hidden corner of colour, a hallway of intrigue, typography, textiles and pattern to tell its story. Her use of materials is deliberately humble because "I want to illustrate that art can be made with simple materials and still create magic".

Collages are composed of cardboard and paper, mounted on bright white acid-free illustration board, which extends beyond the collage by a few inches, leaving a white border all around.  Many of the original collages are sold, but those remaining are shown here together with those available as prints only.