Cut + Paste + Enter + Vote

The Museum of Photographic Arts has announced a public contest to encourage viewers to channel their creativity in the style of mixed-media artist Holly Roberts.

Earlier this month, MOPA opened an exhibition of Roberts' work called "Unusual Suspects: Paintings and Photographs by Holly Roberts." Known for her imaginative collages of animals and human figures, Roberts combines photographs and painting to create surprising visuals: a tree branch becomes a human torso, a human head becomes the head of a serpent.

She writes in her blog, "After I photograph I always try to thank whatever it is that I've taken a photo of, whether it be living or dead, animate or inanimate.  It's a gift to me, plain and simple, that I hope to honor by making that initial photo mean something that's more than what it was."

Holly Roberts, Big Girl, 2009, photographic mixed media
© Holly Roberts; courtesy of Modernbook Gallery, San Francisco

The Cut + Paste contest encourages artists of all skill levels to use photographs and other visual media to create a Roberts-inspired photo collage – either by hand or digitally—and submit the final product via the MOPA website. Website visitors will then be invited to vote on the entries.

Prizes include MOPA membership, MOPA swag, and a collection of photo books from the MOPA gift shop. The ten collages with the most votes will be displayed in MOPA’s gallery on a digital picture frame. The contest ends on March 30, 2012.

--Maren Dougherty