Toronto Artist Upcycles Old Magazines to Create New Art

Thierry Levesque is an artist apart. Intelligent, funny and vibrant, this innovative Toronto artist extraordinaire is a breath of fresh air in a downtown art scene that sometimes seems to be drowning in its own self-importance. Thierry doesn’t just make her upcycled art, she lives it and every one of her extraordinary creations is something she has pored over for days. Those unfortunate pieces that just don’t cut the mustard (she’s a perfectionist) never see the light of day (like the one that’s peeping out from behind a movie poster in the hallway). A fantastically nutty combination of dedication, passion and originality make Thierry an artist of the brink of something big.

Thierry’s works are glorious collages of circular paper cut-outs painstakingly glued one by one onto birch ply painting panels and then sealed to give them a lustrous sheen and to ensure that the individual pieces don’t lift. Inspired by the surrealist movement, Thierry takes a large portion of her artistic cues from life, the universe, her sense of humor and everything else.

While each circle is a little tableau, telling its own story, together they form a miasma of color and shapes which, just like clouds, can be interpreted as faces, cats, dragons and just about anything your imagination comes up with. “I spend hours cutting out each circle and then I organize the circles into colors, so there will be a group of blue backgrounds with yellow images or red backgrounds with blue images. When I construct the final picture, I place these colors together so that the final board makes visual sense,” says Thierry.

“Everyone has to be creative to be happy,” she says. “It doesn’t matter is you bake, or dance, or do art—any creative activity is essential to your personal happiness.” Thierry, lover of Lego, thunderstorms, lilacs, English chocolate, hugs, oysters and (of course) circles has made her amazing creation from a variety of publications. One of her first pieces is made entirely from bouquets featured in bridal magazines, another features cut-outs from Archie comics and her latest piece is a collage from the anime series 100 Bullets. She is open to suggestions too; “I’d love to create personal pieces for people,” she says. “I’d love to create personal pieces for people,” she says. “Maybe using personal photographs or a favourite comic and I love being given a theme!”.”

Thierry always has something new in the pipeline and she is working on a National Geographic collage which promises to be big, bold and colorful. Thierry loves recycling the old magazines and comics she gets from friends and family members; “Art is reimagining something or seeing something in a way that no one else has, that’s why I like using recycled materials. And it’s good for the earth!”

Buy them here.

Thierry Levesque is a Toronto artiste extraordinaire. Not only does she create amazing collages from recycled materials, she also hula hoops, runs, dances, and generally makes the earth a better place. You can reach Thierry for personal viewings of her artwork through our contacts page or at [email protected]. Thierry lives in Toronto with her son, Evan Heavenly and a very fat cat. Follow Thierry on Tumblr.