Seeking the Creative: Natasha Saccardi, Collage Artist

Love at first sight 2014 Analog collage. CREDIT: Natasha Saccardi

How would you describe your art in 3 words?

Passionate, dreamy, celestial.

Natasha Saccardi, Spring Analog collage — Spring Analog collage. CREDIT: Natasha Saccardi

If a picture tells a thousand words, Natasha Saccardi’s collages tell millions. Living in San Rafael, California, Natasha began collaging while in high school and soon found her voice in vibrant surrealist artworks that intertwine bodies with space and nature. Now, at 21, she juxtaposes starkly colored images with stunning precision and skill. Though her process is irregular, Natasha spends long blocks of time engulfing herself in a time-consuming, immersive, and hands-on process that involves finding images, deciding where to cut, and fitting them together to create something new. She calls the process “meditative,” finding inspiration and rhythm for her work in the music she plays while creating. The results are stunning: collages with smooth finishes and balanced compositions, bursting with imagination. Through her art, Natasha’s primary goal is to express her innermost emotions through a medium clearer than words, and she is well on her way to reaching it.

Where/how do you gather inspiration?

I gather inspiration mostly from the music I put on while I create. I prefer instrumental music as I don’t like words getting put into my head influencing what I am putting into my work. I prefer to go with the emotions that come from what I hear or where I’m at in my life. I also gather a lot of inspiration from nature. When I’m feeling artistically blocked and can’t come to create anything the best solution for me is to go out in nature whether that’s hiking in the hills, or taking in the vastness of the ocean. Of course, I am also inspired by other artists and their particular works. One of my biggest inspirations is a painter near where I’m from in Sausalito. His name is Daniel Merriam, and he makes incredibly detailed whimsical paintings that reignited my imagination and kept me open to worlds beyond which I know.

What do you hope audiences retain from your work?

I hope that the audiences can at the very least enjoy the aesthetics of my work. I do put a lot of my own emotions and experiences in my work so if that translates and touches anyone else I’d be happy.