Tape transfer using magazines and packing tape
8 x 8 in.
Kellette Elliott
Kellette Elliott is a Portland-based analog collagist whose practice is rooted in autobiography, memory, and the navigation of chronic pain. Working with fragments drawn from vintage magazines and books, she constructs intimate narratives where figures, birds, and flowers recur as symbolic stand-ins for self, loss, and resilience. Through both her studio practice and her teaching, Elliott treats collage as a site of storytelling, connection, and community.
In the Words of the Artist
Tape transfer using magazines and packing tape
6 x 11 in.
My creative practice is autobiographical. I tell stories of my childhood, my present. I create art for myself first as a way to manage memories, pain, joy, and everything in between. The main subject can be a boy, an animal, a child, but almost always they represent me. Collage means community. Collage means expression. I have met the most beautiful people in my life through collage. I love to teach collage, collage amongst peers, and learn from fellow collagists. I want to share my stories and connect with others.
Almost always, my work is about myself unless I am intentionally making a collage for someone else or I feel the need to tell someone else’s story. I tell stories of my childhood with 3 brothers, the passing of my mother, and my battle with chronic pain. This is how I tell my story.
I see collage as more of a healing ritual and communication tool when it comes to my chronic pain and memories. When I sit down to collage, my pain escapes me. I am fully invested in my work, and I am free of the pain. Sometimes getting to the point of sitting can be a challenge in itself, but when I can, collage is so healing. I also have discomfort in talking about my pain, so my collages are a way to tell what’s going on without having to literally tell those that care about me.
Tape transfer on metal using magazines and packing tape
6 x 6 in.
I am very organized. I have folders of pulls in drawers ranging from “women’s heads” to “people looking away”, “black and white objects” to “birds.” I typically enter my art studio in my home and have a story to tell with images. I typically start by looking through a magazine that I haven’t gone through yet to get my mind excited, making pulls of things I may use in the future. I then start to work on my story. Most often, I start with the subject, so I leaf through the folder that fits the brief, for instance, “a woman looking sad or distressed.”
The emotion is important, so I go through my “women’s heads” folder, finding the expression that fits best. I then decide on a style. Do I want to tell a story through a transfer? Do I want her interacting with others? Do I want symbols to represent my feelings? Then, typically, the background comes in the last step. How can I pull this whole story together? What kind of imagery or paper will help tell my story?
I then cut everything with my Xacto knife, piece it all together without adhesive. I take a photo. If all looks good, I grab my spray adhesive and spray the backs of each piece, then put the puzzle back together-using my photograph as a reference so everything is in its perfect spot. I then immediately scan my work at a high resolution for archiving purposes. I send that scan to my phone to post to social media channels to share with the world.
Tape transfer using magazines and packing tape
7 x 7 in.
Tape transfer process using magazines, found papers, and packing tape
5 x 5 in.
Right now, I am fixated on women’s heads, specifically not smiling. Faces that represent how I am feeling while dealing with chronic pain. I really love using birds in my work, they represent my desire to fly–to be free of pain. So birds are always on my list to collect. Flowers as well. I tend to use flowers a lot in my work, representing power. When it comes to art tools/materials, I also need my self-healing cutting mat, X-Acto knife with #11 blade, my Holbein multimedia sketchbook, 3M packing tape, 3M spray adhesive, and lots of vintage magazines.
My practice is nostalgic. I like to use vintage imagery to tell my stories. I love the saturation of color in vintage magazines. I feel vintage resources capture the essence of my stories. I have always had a fascination with big bands and swing dancing. I actually performed in a jazz band and was a competitive swing dancer in my 20s. We had a big band from outside New York play at my wedding. I loved hearing stories from my grandparents and parents of their childhood, looking through old photographs. I was exposed to the 1920s-1950s heavily by them and television. I often imagine what it would be like to live in those times. The closest I’ll come to it is by telling my story with imagery from those periods.
Tape transfer using magazines and packing tape
6 x 6 in.
Teaching is the truest art form that defines me. I have been teaching for over 20 years, and it brings me the most joy. I originally did not like teaching collage for the first part of my career because I couldn’t connect with it. I like clean lines, strong balance of space, and much of the collage I saw was quite busy. But after heavy research, I started to see the wide spectrum of collage and I started to appreciate it more.
When I teach, I first show my students my work. I tell them how I tell my story through subject matter, color palette, and composition. In the school classroom, I would then show them many other collagists I respect that make work different than mine, but still express themselves through the medium. It’s important for them to know how vast collage can be. I then instruct my students to think about a story in their lives, whether it’s from their childhood or yesterday. Something that really makes them feel. Then find a subject matter that represents that feeling. It doesn’t have to look like you, it’s just representing you. Then find the space your subject lives in. Is it chaotic? Is it natural? Is it abstract or representative? Then bring those two worlds together.
Tape transfer using magazines and found papers and packing tape
11 x 14 in.
About the Artist
Kellette Elliott is an analog collage artist and art educator based in Portland, Oregon. She enjoys cutting and pasting collages that create a sense of nostalgia for the viewer, using vintage magazines and books. Kellette has created over 1200 collages in the last seven years and finds them to be a sense of therapy and relaxation.
Kellette’s work has appeared in Contemporary Collage Magazine, Playboy Magazine, Kolaj Magazine, Poetry Foundation Magazine, The New Statesman Magazine, along with numerous album and book covers nationally and internationally. She has worked in the greeting card industry as well as a contract artist for Pretend Podcast. Kellette has also been featured in many collage books, including Cutting Chaos, Collage Care, and Corporeal Gestures. Lastly, Kellette has shown her collage work in galleries and museums around the world, ranging from Spain to Australia, India to New York City. Creating art is her passion.
For Your Viewing Pleasure
What to watch, read, and experience, as curated by the Collé team.
JUSTIN TUTTLE is an artist and designer based in Portland, Oregon, whose practice moves fluidly between analog, digital, and three-dimensional processes. Rooted in personal memory, everyday interactions, and the experience of living in Western society, his work seeks to spark awareness, critical thought, and meaningful dialogue.
KATIE PRICE & ASH are a Portland-based family that get up to intergenerational collage antics. Katie has been doing collage as an art practice since 2021. Ash has been making and collecting paper treasures since they learned how to wield scissors.
TEMPLETON ELLIOTT (aka Mostly.Collage) works within the world of found imagery, reassembling cut paper, vintage prints, and text into layered compositions that hover between nostalgia and the uncanny.
CHERIE SAVOIE TINTARY has been exhibiting art for nearly twenty years, moving from analog photography to analog collage in 2020. Her work has been widely published, and when not in the studio, she enjoys baking and spending time with her husband, Lee, and their tiny dog, Dolly.
CLIVE KNIGHTS is a collage artist and printmaker based in Portland, Oregon, whose work blends architectural thinking, metaphor, and a deep engagement with fragments. Drawing on education in architecture and philosophy, he creates pieces that explore shared meaning through texture, juxtaposition, and the unseen spaces.
Out and About
What to watch, read, and experience, as curated by the Collé team.
▼ READ
PATHOSFORMELN #1 (FASHION) by Michalis Pichler
This publication presents a sequence of collages titled Illustrations for the Society of the Spectacle drawn from the field of fashion. Its editorial gathers a range of pathos formulas spanning art history, fashion, statesmen, progress, sports, figures seen from behind, the Archive Peter Piller, and Christianity.
▼ READ
Man Ray: When Objects Dream at The Met, Sept 14–Feb 1, 2026
This is the first show to frame Man Ray's rayographs within his wider practice of the 1910s–20s. Featuring 60 rayographs and 100 other works, it underscores their central role in his radical vision. The exhibition reveals how Man Ray turned everyday objects into dreamlike forms that bridged Dada and Surrealism.
▼ LISTEN
Thief by Threshold
This album from 2024 isn’t polite. It doesn’t ask for permission. It slips into the room like a thief at 3 a.m., carrying with it the grime of late-night streets, and the smell of smoke and sweat. It’s rough and alive, the kind of thing that makes you want another drink, another story, another hour in the night.
