Jack Azar

One of my life mottos is to inspire others in ways I wish to be inspired myself. My work is a representation of altered reality, harmonizing multiple images to convey an abstract, inexplicable work of art. Magazines are the tools I use to navigate my creativity. I start by flipping through a magazine and examine all the images it contains, and meticulously cut out the images that have ?collage potential? and compose them together ? a process that is left for my instincts to recognize and my hands to follow suit. What one observes usually requires a journey into ourselves to find peace with accepting something we can?t understand. My artwork encourages taking that journey.

On a Thursday afternoon in May 1985, Lebanese-American artist Jack Azar was born in Santa Barbara, California. Raised in the sleepy town of Summerland, Jack lived a modest life in a house too small for his creativity. Being the eldest of three, Jack always found he was different from his family in ways that were obvious through his actions.

While on his bedroom floor back in December 2002, Jack experienced a moment of self-awakening, an already existing reality emerging with the aid of scissors and glue. He would flip through fashion magazines and admire the clothes since, at the time, he was interested in fashion. In this particular moment, he saw the humor of combining two images together, located in two different magazines. The only option for him was to cut them and merge, known today as his artwork medium: collage.

What most people envision when they hear the word ?collage? does no justice when referring to Jack?s artwork. Each one is concocted with familiar, preexisting magazine images. These familiarities combined as a whole exude an altered reality so alluring you cannot help but stare and try to make sense of it.

For the past ten years, Jack?s life has taken him on many paths to becoming a well-rounded, enlightened person and has come to realize his calling as a professional artist. Jack had been accepted to membership with the Santa Barbara Art Association as of March 2011 and works on a weekly basis in his studio to expand his collage repertoire.