ida ochoteco
Ida Ochoteco was born in Hamburg, Germany, and spent her formative years in the US, Japan, Mexico and Uruguay before taking her Basque-Italo-Uruguayan roots around the world, ultimately settling in New Jersey. Inspired by artists like Piet Mondrian, Joaquín Torres-García and Andy Warhol, she creates abstract collages by recycling paper from magazines, books, catalogs, junk mail, post cards, brochures, gift bags, etc. The pieces are finished with a thin layer of clear resin.
If she were asked to describe her artwork, she would use the word sarambí, a Guarani word meaning “chaos”. In her pieces, colors, textures, and geometrical shapes dance in an “organized mess”. Elements that at first glance look out of place are consciously positioned, deliberately to express her rebellious side.
How and Why I Create Collages
First, I imagine a new project: the colors, textures, and shapes I want to play with. Then I put together all the paper pieces needed and paint a wood panel to serve as the base. The long process of gluing and placing the pieces comes next. Those pieces of paper are like pieces of my own life being put together. Sometimes I place a piece that doesn’t necessarily look like it belongs with the rest, but that’s done deliberately as a way to express my broken side, or to be rebellious, silly, or irreverent.
Putting the pieces of my life together keeps me going, moving forward, and evolving. Just as life has a cheerful side and a gloomy side, there are happy and bright collages, and there are the darker ones. I am a complex person, messy, struggling to fit, and my collages represent that. When immersed in a project, everything around me fades away. There is no past, no present, nor do I think about the future. I’m at peace. There’s no pain. It’s as if I am in another dimension. It’s a great feeling. I don’t want it to end. That’s why since I started doing art, I haven’t stopped, because it takes me to a better place.