Cynthia Frigon uses the vivid colors, patterns, and textures of magazine and calendar artwork to substitute for pigment and brush strokes in her collages. She uses personal photos taken at various times and locations as her inspiration. The images she creates with only paper, scissors, and glue can appear hauntingly real from a distance, and only up close can one see the individual pieces—almost non sequiturs—that make up the larger piece.

Traditionally she has been a closet artist, preferring to use her art to document and decorate her daily life, but in 2012, she began exhibiting modestly by joining ART Station in Stone Mountain, GA, and entering her pieces in member juried shows. The credibility and confidence she gained allowed her to enroll in an arts incubator program and to enter her works in various art exhibits in and around Atlanta. During the summer of 2013, she had her first solo exhibition. She also won Best of Show at the 2013 Decatur Fine Arts Exhibition, and one of her collages was purchased by the City of Decatur. Currently, she is a 2013 award winner for the National Collage Society’s online juried exhibit. Now part of the Stone Mountain Village Artists, her studio, Key of C, is located on Main Street in Stone Mountain Village, GA.

Becoming an artist is Cynthia’s third career. She has a Master of Arts Degree in English and has most recently taught writing at the college level, as well as having taught literature and drama at the high school level. Prior to becoming a teacher, she was a technical writer, editor, and middle manager in healthcare information systems. Cynthia survived her corporate years by taking art classes around Atlanta—watercolor, acrylic, pastel, drawing, composition, color theory, abstract art—at community art centers. The idea of “painting” with cut magazine ads literally came to her in a dream that has changed her life . . . .

I create fine art from reused images and repurposed paper. With recycled magazine advertisements, scissors, and glue, I create visual representations of places I’ve been and items I’ve seen. By focusing on the interconnectedness of the patterns, colors, and shapes of each cut piece, I approach a collage as a puzzle designed to slowly reveal a larger message.

Too often people obsess over one event or consequence in their lives, instead of seeing how it fits into the totality of their experiences. As in life, one could concentrate too closely on any one piece of my collage, thus hindering the ability to view the total image, that big picture. Art judges and critics often point out that my collages look good both up close and at a distance; if so, then I have been successful at presenting my view of life through my art.