Txini at work

Txini Elorriaga


I feel I must follow a drive for creating as a means to channel my energy, believing in intangible concepts that lead to invention. I possess a duality, a combination of feminine intuition and the open mind of a child, which can lead to the concept of a new reality; hence I must give way to impulses to expecting the unexpected.

Paper and digital collage can tell stories just like poetry. The challenge is to tell one by using images, colors and composition as a language to build a context and it works! By incorporating uncommon juxtapositions and themes I take you out from the internal world of thought to the external world of manifestations which can certainly lead to some enriching expressions and debates.

My work is both, intimate and contemplative. I do not try to shock; I seek to attract, an invitation to spend some time taking a close look and discovering the details we often overlook. As a result, collage becomes one of my favorite art forms.

On creation, painting work has always been a layered work; somehow this is also the case with collage. My pieces are based on iconographic imagery I come across in photographic material from printed media. The first steps are the selection of the material, the paper characteristics as well as the quality of the images. I am really fond of combining seemingly unrelated images into a new reality that may startle, amuse, provoke …

Most of my pieces involve cutting out. I carefully outline each element so the edges are no longer evident and subsequently I glue them into place. Paper collage may be the humblest language for an artist yet it is immensely rewarding to me.

My work is the result of the deconstruction of paper images through selection, cut type or burn, to finally put together a satisfactory composition which usually takes a long time. I repeatedly apply this process layer by layer to complete it with a paint coating that brings it all together. Finishing the piece with different types of paint is usually the last step prior to framing.

A relatively late approach to graphic design after fine arts studies influenced and led the way to the transformation of my paper collage into a pictorial piece.