There is too much emphasis on what is wrong in the world. I choose to look elsewhere. To glue together what deserves to be preserved: the stars, nature with infinite colors, meaningful patterns, wild love, and communities that support each other.
Collage, for me, is total freedom. I can stick anything: old cards, photos, drawings, fabric scraps, recycled paper. I use fragments of tangible reality to create a new universe where colors, textures, and cultural symbols blend and dance together, forming new narratives, creating impromptu connections in time and space—vibrant, poetic, and positive.
If you think there’s no political message in this, you’re wrong. It’s a choice.
I am inspired by each country where I live, always meeting different people who share their knowledge and culture with me. I use art to create connections, to give voice to what I learn from them. When Quechua women in the Amazon teach me how to make paper from bananas, or a Vietnamese driver tells me his story while riding his motorcycle through rice fields—that’s what I mean.
When something beautiful emerges from my experiments, I feel victorious. This proves that time, geography and culture are not barriers to coexistence and peace. In contrasts the most powerful stories are born.
Dréa is a nomadic collagist, born in Canada.
Creating is an adventure, it’s youth and freedom.
– Simone de Beauvoir, The Force of Things