Sundry

Sullen

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Sundry Sullen

Sundry Sullen’s collages feel unearthed from a secret archive of desire, then reassembled into something stranger and more seductive. Crowded with torn faces, half-legible text, and fragments of fashion, they resemble advertisements for a world that never existed. Somewhere between punk zines, spiritual diagrams, and late-night revelations, his work binds chaos and order with glue sticks and intuition, a bit messy, uncanny, and oddly beautiful.

In the Words of the Artist

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I primarily work in collage, using found imagery. In the past, I’ve explored mixed media, found object installations, street art, and vintage-style photography. My work is usually shaped by whatever I’m moving through mentally, emotionally, or spiritually, and can become an act of transformation. I’m also interested in that moment when chaos becomes organized, meaningful, and visually captivating.

Collage is where freedom and form collide. It serves as both a mirror and a vehicle for my inner transformation. It allows me to express and transmute my mental, emotional, and spiritual state, while also reflecting on it. It’s about learning to let go and trusting in something greater. A never-ending process of discovery.

As I look back over the years, my work has consistently been tied to an ongoing exploration of spiritual awakening, deeper emotional states, complex intellectual questions, and sometimes political undercurrents. I love the abstract, the strange and uncanny, and imagery that evokes something otherworldly.

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It usually starts with an emotion, and then a desire to use collage as a way to move through it. I’ll search for images and colors that spark a sense of intrigue, awe, or wonder. I tend to look for hidden gems in the scraps, torn leftovers, and textures that feel worn or aged. Sometimes I flip a piece over to glue it and realize the back is more interesting than the front. I like to remind myself that nothing is sacred. I'll layer, rip, cover, and rearrange until the composition coalesces into a kind of visual harmony.

The process can feel like solving a riddle or putting together a puzzle. Sometimes I’ll be really focused and nuanced, and other times I’ll tell myself “no thought” and let intuition take over. In the end, the process is all about discovery: happy accidents, unexpected twists and turns, outcomes I could have never planned for. And, while each piece stands on its own, it usually ends up as part of a series. Until it runs its course, and a new pattern emerges.

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Vintage books and magazines from the 1950s to the 1990s (though I’ve recently started sourcing from modern fashion magazines). I usually find my material at thrift stores or antique malls. I’ve also gathered objects from these places and incorporated them into installations.

In the 90s, as a teen, I was drawn to the handmade DIY art within the punk scene. In the early 2000s, as I was finishing design school, I discovered a handful of blog communities filled with collage artists, illustrators, and graphic designers. I was inspired by artists like Edward Recife (Misprinted Type), Thomas Schostok (THS), and Vincent Pacheco (Mudchicken), among many others. Through what felt like a divine appointment, Vincent and I unknowingly ended up working at rival web design firms in Los Angeles. Early on, we crossed paths and became close friends and art collaborators for over two decades. The work we created together was deeply spiritual. We reveled in the ongoing discovery that art could be a vehicle for inner transformation and transcendence. Although that friendship ended, it still influences the way I work today.

I suspect collage will evolve in mind-bending ways, whether through the scale of physical objects, unique interactions with the natural world, or the integration of AI and emerging technologies.

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About the Artist

Sundry Sullen is the artist name of acupuncturist, holistic healer, and former graphic designer John Finnell. His work draws on both timeworn and contemporary imagery to explore emotion, transformation, and transcendence. From these fragments he creates otherworldly forms of beauty where order and fracture coexist, inviting reflection and mystery along the shifting boundaries of self and no-self.

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