Give it the snip
Lauren paige conrad turns paper and pencil into teeny-tiny scenes.
Tell us a little about yourself, please. I’m a hopeless introvert who prefers unscented everything and loathes wet lettuce. I grew up in a very art-friendly house, peeling rubber cement off tables and over-using permanent markers. But I peaked in year 7 with a ‘most artistic’ superlative. I ended up studying textiles and fashion design, which is where I fell in love with a drafting pencil. Like most people would.
When did you first start making stuff out of paper? About two years ago. I’d just turned 30, had a toddler, and was having a quiet but real self-identity crisis. So, I picked up some paper and started making bad art daily. Really bad art. But it got better.
How does drawing, painting and collage interact in your work? Well I can’t paint, at all. That’s why I love collage: it hides all my bad brush strokes and impatience. After putting down a tonne of gouache and cutting it all up, I use graphite and coloured pencil, but in a very flat way. Then I get to move all the parts around to find the right balance, which is always slightly different from my initial sketch.
What kinds of visual themes tickle you most? Mundane, everyday life. I died a little when I made a paper vegetable brush the other day, in a good way. It’s just so satisfying to recognise the ordinary and say, “Hey, I see you. Thanks for scrubbing the dirt off my potato, tiny brush.”
Are the scenes based on real-life or fantasy spaces? Both. I’m such a quiet observer, so everything around me becomes a visual catalogue. I find it so comforting to draw what I know. But big, roomy kitchens with perfect tiles are an absolute fantasy. Tell us about your tiny collections. Do they belong in a pint-sized paper museum? A Wes Anderson film? I started them as a way to learn my style of illustration – like creating a visual dictionary to pull from. And I’d love for them to live in that format. I have a fantasy of creating a book full of people’s personal collections and spaces. From all neighbourhoods, ages, cultures. I just have to get a big group of strangers to agree to it.
How do you think your art reflects life? The shared spaces between adults and children really sum it up for me. It’s always more orderly than reality, but it’s still a chaotic balance of physical and emotional space.
The level of detail in your work is pretty incredible. Do you have a teensy pair of scissors? No, more like a super-dorky finger-loop X-ACTO knife. I fail horribly at scissors and should not be trusted with them.
How often do you slip up while cutting something out? All the time, but I probably smear glue in inopportune places more often. For paper-cut emergencies, it helps to live with a four-year-old, because you have a very good stash of garish, not-so-sticky band-aids.
What do you have planned for 2019? Book planning: picture books, zines, even little storyboards would be a huge step for me. But don’t tell anyone, I’m terribly nervous (and excited) about it all.
Where can we see more of your work? laurenpaigeconrad.com or on Instagram at @laurenpaigeillustration.