Corlie Le Clec’h

Minimalist, Introspective & Poetic. Read about Coralie Le Clec'h and her journey through collage art.

Coralie's art captured me as it is genuinely a style I seriously appreciate and rarely ever see. My heart instantly gravitates towards any type of surrealism and I love Coralie's use of weird and wonderful imagery. I feel like we connect with collage art differently and more intimately than most forms of illustrated expression because of the DIY, rough and cut nature of it yet Coralie's take on it seems so sleek.

I had the amazing opportunity to ask her a few questions:

What does art mean to you and why did you start it?

"Art is a way of expressing myself and it started as a way of creating beauty to surround myself in. I spontaneously began to create collages when I was a teenager without knowing that was an artistic practice in itself."

Would you say where you grew up has an impact on your art style at all if so, how?

"Yes definitely! I grew up by the sea and as a child I was really mesmerized by the beauty of the sea, fascinated by the reflects of the sun upon it, about the colors of the landscape too and maybe about the immensity and mystery it conveys. Then my family and I as a student and a grown-up, moved a lot from different places so I guess I kept this kind of curiosity and fascination for my environment intact. My direct environment and nature are a constant source of inspiration for me."

Everyone gets influenced by something, where did your main source of inspiration come from?

"Over the years, collage became a vital expression, nourished by my studies in journalism, cinema anthropology, herbalism, and by my journeys in Latin America. My work stems from diverse influences ranging from film, music, literature and from everyday life to surrealism. My collages are an exploration of human consciousness with a special focus on the female figure. Analog formats, digital and also animation, allow me to create visual poems towards introspection, which seek to generate emotions, sensations and explore the experience of life itself as a human."

What is it about collage art that drew you to it?

"Collage is a wonderful type of art because it’s really accessible for everyone. You don’t need any kind of fancy stuff to play with images and create a new story from the original pictures you’ve got. Also collage is a kind of therapy like any other art form I guess, a way to access your subconscious and to learn more about yourself. I consider this art practice as a true journey! And to be completely honest I’m not as comfortable with drawing so it’s pretty convenient for me to create stories from paper pieces."

Do you have an overall goal at all? Anything you really want to do or inspire with your art?

“I would love to feel the freedom to create all I want, breaking the barriers we build upon the way.”

Living in South America; were there any differences in the art styles from France and is there one you specifically love and why?

I was really fascinated by the colors in South America. Colors are everywhere on the walls, in the streets, on the peoples’ clothes. It contrasts so much with the French society that every time I came back from Latin America I felt the world here was grey. I’m not really attracted by the “art world”, or should I say the art in Museum. I like when art is in the streets and in Latin America I’ve felt art was belonging to the streets and was closer from the people who walks them.

I see a lot of your earlier work was monochrome with little bursts of colour. Are there reasons behind the use of your colours now?

"Haha yes thanks for noticing! I was working with black and white images because I’m kind of fascinated by the contrasts of these photographs from another time. Lately I’ve found new material and magazines of the sixties that inspired me a lot because of the color they actually use in the photograph. So I started to want to work with more colors and also new shapes! I’m really attracted to abstract art but as I always nourish my collage like a personal diary. I found it more difficult to build images without a human figure. The starting point of my collages are always a human figure. And when I just try to make an abstract artwork, I have the feeling it apparently don’t mean nothing! Haha, l I’m not saying abstract art is not meaningful, It’s just that I like to tell stories that works only with shapes and colors, it's still a new territory to explore for me!"

When you make art, do you have a mission in mind? Something you like to focus on, a message/meaning or is it mainly quite free?

"I don’t know if it’s a mission but I’m driven by my curiosity for human and for this life we are all experimenting. And I guess I hope my reflections can reach someone else so we can connect through this kind of enigma of existence. And as I seek my inner peace, I hope this will help others to find it."

I am from England, are there any artists from the UK that you admire the work of, maybe even inspired you at all? 

"One of my fuels in life is music and the UK has so many bands I would definitely put in the soundtrack of my life if it was a movie! There is so many to list them from but the few I have in mind here: Electrelane, The Clash, Aphex Twin, The Cure, Depech Mode, The Stranglers, The Zombies, Foals, Bat for Lashes, Fleetwood Mac, Bowie… There is just so many that the list could go on and on!"

If you could, could you please share one of your favourite pieces and why it is?

I’m the kind of person who cannot chose a “favorite one” because I like so much things and a lot of different ones and  I’m really curious I like to keep moving forward and not staying stuck in one piece. Of course I’m attached to some artwork more than others and in peculiar the artworks that have a magical twist and starts to live their own life.
This happened for example with: “Is my emptiness full of stars?” because it turned to be a magical one and so many people have had a reaction toward this piece. I couldn’t believe it! I think it’s what we are looking forward as a creative: to create some link with other persons.

Is there anything new coming up that you would like to promote?

"I’m pretty busy with the company we have created with my sister so unfortunately I’ve not so much space for my art practice as I would like to have. But I’m really glad because after many attempts I finally found a local art printer with whom we managed to print versions of
my original collages that are up to what I expected! So now some beautiful art prints are also available on my online shop."

FOLLOW CORALIE LE CLEC’H ON INSTAGRAM HERE AND PURCHASE FROM HER STORE HERE