Cynthia Frigon uses the vivid colors, patterns, and textures of magazine and calendar pages to substitute for pigment and brush strokes in her collages. Her inspiration comes from personal photos taken at various times and locations. The images she creates with only paper, scissors, and glue can appear hauntingly real from a distance, and only up close can one see the individual pieces—almost non sequiturs—that make up the larger piece.

Traditionally she had been a closet artist, preferring to use her art to document and decorate her daily life, but in 2012, she began exhibiting modestly. The credibility and confidence she gained allowed her to enroll in an arts incubator program and to enter her works in various art exhibits in and around Atlanta. In 2013, she had her first solo exhibition at ART Station in Stone Mountain Village, Georgia. She won Best of Show at the 2013 Decatur Fine Arts Exhibition, and two of her collages have been purchased by the City of Decatur. Since 2014 she has served as treasurer of the Atlanta Collage Society.

Becoming an artist is Cynthia’s third career. She has a Master of Arts Degree in English and last taught writing at the college level, as well as having taught literature and drama at the high school level. Prior to becoming a teacher, she was a technical writer, editor, and middle manager in healthcare information systems. Cynthia survived her corporate years by taking art classes around Atlanta—watercolor, acrylic, pastel, drawing, composition, color theory, abstract art. The idea of “painting” with cut magazine pages literally came to her in a dream that has transformed her life.

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