We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mary Mehalick a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Mary, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

My most meaningful and fulfilling project in my career as a collage artist has surprisingly not been a collage that I’ve made, but rather teaching others the joys of collaging through my workshop series called “Collage with Mary”. I genuinely believe that as long as you can wield a pair of scissors, anyone can collage (and even if scissors aren’t possible, there are ways around that!). In my workshops I start by presenting some techniques that attendees can use in their pieces like layering in different ways, tearing, folding, weaving, etc. and then I provide the magazines and other ephemera for folks to use. I walk around providing assistance when requested, but I make sure to guide with the littlest amount of personal influence so that the collage stays authentic to the creator. Many people who come have never thought to try collaging before and it has been so fulfilling to see the creativity blossom in people through this medium that is new to them. Up until this point, the workshops have been held at 3BR Distillery, a locally beloved New Jersey business, but I have begun to branch out to public libraries to teach a wider age range. In 2023, 3BR reached out to me to ask if I would create a collage for their limited-edition summer brandy, and from there we have had a wonderful relationship supporting each other. When they found a surplus of all of their illustrated liquor labels, they asked if I would be interested in holding a collage event with them. I was definitely hesitant at first because I had never tried to “teach” another person how to collage. How do you teach someone something that doesn’t have a real way to be taught? There’s no standard formula like math, nor steps to follow like a paint and sip. No two collages will be the same, especially because I usually only have one copy of each magazine. I had never thought about what exactly I was doing while making my own collages. I began to have to pay attention to the unspoken steps that I seemed to be following. I learned about my own artistic process while trying to convey it to others. The workshops have had such a positive response and many so-called “repeat customers”, which is one of the highest compliments one can give. Everyone deserves to have a place to flex their creative muscles, and I am overjoyed to be able to be the one to provide the space for that.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Mary Mehalick and I am an analogue collage artist from central New Jersey. Analogue collage uses physical materials from sources like magazines, books, flyers, etc., rather than digital collages which are made online. I mostly make collages for myself, but have also had commissions for album covers, gig flyers, promotional materials, and even an alcohol bottle label. My interest in collage has developed only over the past four years or so, but by looking at my hoard of magazines you’d have thought it much longer than that. I started by having collage nights with a friend, making absurd and comical collages which morphed into strange gifts and birthday cards for friends. I am glad that my friends on the receiving end of these pieces have a good sense of humor or else it could have been very alarming to get a ransom note-esque card in the mail. During that time, I was also experimenting with personal writings which I had never done before. It eventually dawned on me to be, perhaps… serious in my collages. I began to make pieces that mirrored the writing I was doing and the scales that were once heavy on the writing side and light on the collage side started tipping. For the past two years I have been primarily collaging and doing less writing because I feel that those two outlets use the same muscles, however I am hoping to develop more of a balance between the two mediums in the future. I have some ideas on how to do that, but now it’s time to implement them. There’s the old saying that I don’t particularly like, which says, “the jack of all trades is the master of none”, but I think the fact that I have so many interests (writing, being a musician, fiber arts, local history, language learning) add depth and dimension to my pieces that would not be present if I had only a sole interest. You don’t have to pick a single craft to be dedicated to. Pull from as many sources as you want! Make your life into your own type of collage!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I’m pivoting now! I would say that I am currently mid-pivot. I was working an admin job at a university where I felt very overworked and underappreciated. I felt creatively stifled with no opportunities for expression or imagination. I took a major risk and decided to quit. I am currently trying to find what my next steps will be. Some artists seem to thrive having a day job that doesn’t use their creativity so that their ideas are always fresh for their personal projects outside of work hours. Others seem to always need to have that creative flow no matter the setting they are in. The admin job taught me that I am in the latter category and that it’s time to find something that is in better alignment with my creative energy. Only time will tell what that ends up being.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

It took me a long time to come to the understanding that collage is a respectable form of art. I still catch myself sometimes belittling what I’ve made because it’s technically, at its core, really just pieces of paper stuck together. Many people in my life are extremely talented fine artists and on group art nights they’re painting gorgeous pieces completely from their own imaginations while I’m in the corner gluing my fingers together. But collage is uniquely in a category of its own. It’s not easy for some people to see a photograph or advertisement that is already established and imagine all the different ways it could be changed and rearranged. You have to see an image by its pieces rather than what the pieces make up, as if seeing a word by the individual letters that form it. Collage is like putting together a puzzle that only makes sense to you.
I started to come to see collage as true art with the help of a professor in undergrad who introduced me to the works of early 20th century German Dada movement artists like Hannah Höch. Hannah Höch was a collage artist and pioneer of the “photomontage”. Although many of her pieces had humorous elements, they also included serious political commentary and societal reflections. Over 100 years later we are still studying and appreciating her works for a multitude of reasons. I needed to see Höch’s collages hung just as high as the paintings of her contemporaries for it to really sink in that they are all deserving of the same level of respect.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://marymehalick.com/

Image Credits

Personal Photo – Mai Alsewaify