Mixed media collage on book cover
13 x 8 in.
Cait Elizabeth
Cait Elizabeth makes collages on used hardcover books—paper scraps, vintage cookbooks, things she finds cute. Born in England, now based in Dallas, her layered works pair sweetness with underlying rage: animals, plants, and pretty colors with something broken just beneath the surface.
In the Words of the Artist
Mixed media collage on book cover
8.5 x 5.5 in.
I’m quite chaotic. My desk is a mess. There are books and scraps all over the floor, and also like trash, bubble wrap, and boxes that I think are a cool colour or have fun text on them. I sit in the middle of everything and collect things based on how precious I think they are.
I only make things on the hardcovers of books, too. An artist friend gifted me a huge box of them because she didn’t like to use them, and it was the greatest gift I’ve ever received, and I have a child. Layering is really important to me because that’s what makes the depth in collage. I try to add as many different points of interest as I can, take some away, rip some up, paste something over what I’ve been working on, and scribble on things. It’s playing, really. Playing around till the composition has balance.
Mixed media collage on book cover
8.5 x 6 in.
I don’t take myself seriously. I have a very simple view of art. Collage is accessible. Collage is fun because it involves colours and ripping things up. I like going to find cookbooks at estate sales because a picture of a cake in a collage is cute. My definition of collage is play. Mess. Chaos. Cuteness! It’s important to be irreverent with art. Make it, ruin it a little.
Identity dilemma, I think, and probably some rage, like the rage all women feel. I think you’ll see this in the destruction or damage done to some of my collages. I’ve always loved to combine a sweet aesthetic like animals, plants, and pretty colours with an underlying fracture. Of course, sometimes it’s just a picture of a hamster because I liked the hamster picture.
Mixed media collage on book cover
7.5 x 5.5 in.
Mixed media collage on book cover
10.25 x 7 in.
I always look for vintage books. Children’s books and nature, especially. The illustrations from a book made in the 60s will always be superior to something you can find now. I love cookbooks too, and they often contain people's handwritten notes. One time, I found a bag of cards that had been collected by the homeowner. And they were all about her son. Cards from Mother's Day, graduations, or birthday cards to him. Those pieces of the past are so interesting to collect and reuse. I don’t just rip things up carelessly; I really do think about the people who owned these things and how they have now somehow ended up with me.
I think my thoughts have to go with my art because I’m obsessed with people knowing me. I grew up using websites like LiveJournal and Tumblr, and I was always attached to the blogging aspect. It’s more subtle than Instagram, where you post your whole day, for example, it's just like “this is what I've been thinking over the course of a month”. “Here's a terrible feeling I had today”. I’m a “I want to be understood and then left alone” type of person. I need to say something.
I don’t know if writing personal things adds to my art or takes away from it. Maybe people get to know me more, and that turns them away from my art or makes them want to know why I’m creating things. I think it's fine either way. Calling my substack, don't waste your time, was me trying to be smart, I guess. Like, don't waste your time on me, but also don’t waste your time on earth. These are two contradictory messages to myself.
Mixed media collage on book cover
8.5 x 5.5 in.
I don’t know if Instagram was ever alive for artists. It’s like a place where you have to sell yourself. I hate the idea of having to do certain things to make your work popular. Like you have to make a reel now? But maybe I’m naive about how success in art is achieved. I think Instagram works well to promote your work, connect with other artists, and also allows you to find opportunities. I don’t feel like it's an emotionally fulfilling place, though. Social media itself is a wasteland, even if it has become necessary and useful.
Mixed media collage on book cover
4 x 6 in.
About the Artist
Cait is a collage artist based in Dallas, Texas. She is known for her layered works, crafted from the found papers she collects. Her raw and authentic pieces incorporate handmade textures that explore the complexities of human emotions. Her work has been featured in Wilder Collage and Cut Me Up Magazine, as well as locally at the Lewisville Grand Theater and The Eclectika.
For Your Viewing Pleasure
What to watch, read, and experience, as curated by the Collé team.
MIKE CLOUD is a Chicago-based painter and associate professor at Northwestern University whose mixed-media work examines painting's role amid contemporary systems of reproduction, symbolism, and social meaning. He holds an MFA from Yale and a BFA from the University of Illinois–Chicago. His work is held in collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
ARYANA MINAI (b. 1994, Los Angeles) creates paper-based sculptures and wall works exploring architecture, migration, labor, and Iranian-American diasporic experience. Pulping found materials in her studio, she embosses salvaged bricks, textile woodblocks, and architectural fragments into handmade paper. She holds an MFA from Yale School of Art.
REYNIER LEYVA NOVO (b. 1983, Havana) is a Cuban conceptual artist working across the Americas whose practice mines historical archives, official documents, and data to produce formally minimalist, politically charged work. His research-driven installations interrogate ideology, power, and collective memory. His work is held at the Hirshhorn, Walker Art Center, and Pérez Art Museum Miami.
AKI SASAMOTO (b. 1980, Kanagawa, Japan) is a New York-based artist working across performance, sculpture, dance, and video. Her installations, built from altered found objects, become stages for improvised performances that collapse the mundane and the strange. She was included in the 59th Venice Biennale and is a recipient of the Calder Prize.
AKI GOTO (b. 1978, Tokyo) is a multimedia artist living in the Hudson Valley whose practice spans drawing, painting, video, textile, sound, and performance. Rooted in an ongoing project called NOW, her work blends subconscious imagery, parenthood, and the natural world into a singular daily practice.
Out and About
What to watch, read, and experience, as curated by the Collé team.
▼ VISIT
John Stezaker – Raft
Stezaker will be having a solo exhibition at GRAY Chicago, opening on March 28 and on view until June 13, 2026. Titled Raft, the exhibition features a new series of landscape works that mend together two images from the artist’s vast archive to create a single, uncanny composition.
▼ READ
In the Garden of the Surreal
Rachel Garrahan traces Schiaparelli's Surrealist collaborations — Dalí, Leonor Fini, a lobster, a burning dress — reframing her couture as art that the movement's men never quite managed.
▼ LISTEN
Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) 2004 Remaster
This 1974 album finds Eno bridging glam's exit and post-punk's arrival, espionage narratives, Phil Manzanera's alien guitar, and strangely beautiful pop music for the studio.
