Written by Margaux Villard

Matt Wisniewski is a computer science student at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York who makes up whimsical collages.

The autodidact artist experiments various combinations and lets himself be guided to see what paste up works best. “I spend some time experimenting with quick combinations of portraits and textures. Once I find something that catches my eye I clean it up and elaborate a bit more if I think it’s possible or necessary.”

The spontaneity in his work and his creative process is remarkable. Everything seems to be effortless, the images match one another so smoothly that it seems to have always been this way, even if the polishing part is actually what makes the substance and the subject merge so symbiotically.

The texture he manages to connote by the associations he makes up is also a interesting component of his work. Either grainy, smooth or rough all the types of surfaces that can be found in the wild itself are brilliantly suggested and rendered beautifully.

The final images are otherworldly and reminiscent of a dreamy haze: natural elements are pasted on portraits, or compose the outfits of the characters and depict all in all a natural beauty which is the focal point of his work. Indeed, no statements are intended through his work, he wants to inspire people to create their own things, and “brighten people’s days”, which also leaves the door open for us to possibly imagine the story behind the characters, read whatever we want into his works, or if like him we just want to enjoy the “beauty of nature” and its “pretty things”.