“I really liked the hand.”, 2021
Introducing Julian aka Little Water Bearer, Jersey City, NJ
/DRI:M/ARTZ: Hi Julian, tell me about yourself.
Julian aka Little Water Bearer: Hi my name is Julian and I am a 6-year-old collage artist in Jersey City and I like to make collages so much.
DA: Tell me about your collage art.
LWB: So about my collage art—I love to make collages. I even find some mail and cut stuff out. I love making collages. The first start of making collages is by Jasmine and Jasmine inspires me by making collages. When I make my collages I love to use eyes and hands and I really love to do this. Usually I cut pictures out of magazines.
Click to Expand
Julian's Collages, 2021
DA: What materials do you use to make your collages?
LWB: So what I use is glue and paper and any kind of material. I use scissors to cut out like certain images that inspire me. I love making collages.
DA: Choose a collage you made. How would you describe it to someone who can’t see it?
LWB: In this collage that you can't see, I did amazing stuff by putting a bunch of eyes and one big eye with a hat and an elbow—it's really interesting. I put a shoe on the bottom and it really inspired me. So there's another collage that I super duper love and it's with stars and a painting that has trees, and another painting and another painting, dancers too, and another painting and fireworks. And it's really interesting and I love making collages so much. At the center of the collage are dancers and there are big dancers dancing. Above the dancers there are more dancers and above those dancers there are stars in a painting and a bunch of other stars and I really love it. I found this Broadway playbill and I found these stars and I wanted to keep them and then I put them in this collage. It’s really interesting.
“I liked the dancers. I wanted them to have stars.”, 2021
DA: Where do you get your ideas? Tell me what inspires you.
LWB: So when I get a magazine out of the mail, the magazine inspires me and I really love it. Then when I look inside the magazine, I see a bunch of different stuff and then I cut the pieces out and put them together to make it beautiful and interesting. And that's it.
DA: You create Surrealist collages. Surrealism is like a dream world. Do you remember a dream you had that felt like one of your collages? If yes, can you describe it?
LWB: So I have a Surrealism collage. There's a collage that really does look like a dream, and it's where a moon is right beside an eye and there are two bookshelves apart. It really reminds me of a dream that I had. I did have a dream once and it was where I was walking on a beach and I saw two bookshelves and an eye looking at me. And the moon was so bright then I woke up. I loved the dream.
Click to Expand
Julian's Collages, 2021
DA: You like to collect things. Tell me about your collection.
LWB: What I love to collect is stamps and stamps are my most favorite thing to collect. I also collect a bunch of other things like rocks, sticks, and even coins. But what I love to talk about right now is my stamps. Ah, what I love about my stamps is that they have beautiful, different colors on them and sometimes they even might have the stripes on them. I really love to play with them.
DA: What is your favorite object in your collection? Where did you find it?
LWB: So I have a big collection of seashells and there's one big, precious one that I really, really, really love—it’s so interesting. The shell is a little gray on the inside and it’s white on most of the outside. I really love it. I found it at Liberty State Park. It's a park that I kind of always go to and it's a really nice park. What I find interesting about seashells is what they used to be like—when that one crab grows a shell and then they walk and then they go away then they leave the shell behind and then they grow a new one and then it's left on the shore. Then I find it. It's so interesting.
Click to Expand
Julian's Process and Collection of Shells, Rocks, Coins, & Stamps
DA: Do you have a favorite collage artist?
LWB: So my favorite collage artist is Jasmine Romero, and I really love her art and her art inspires me so much. And how I know her so much is that my mommy is friends with Jasmine and that's how I met her. One time she gave a collage to us and that's how I first started making the first collage ever and then I made a bunch of other collages and now I have lots of them. More than thirty. What I love most about her art is that her art is really, really, really inspiring and I love her art so much. I even made one that kind of looks like hers.
DA: Who would you want to make a collage with if I set up a dream collaboration?
LWB: Now, the person I really, really want to work with is Jasmine. I want to work with her because her art inspires me.
“This is a new collage I just made that I wanted to share with you. Small people are walking on a rainbow road in the grass. They are small like the butterflies. What inspired me to make this collage is springtime.”, 2021
DA: Is there anything else you want to tell me and share with your fans?
LWB: So what I want to tell my fans is that I save pieces of magazines that are just junk but then I use the magazine to make a piece of art and that’s what I want my fans to know.
About the Collagist
Julian creates Surrealist collages from discarded magazines and sometimes mail. He started collaging at age 5 when he was inspired by a collage purchased from a family friend. As an avid collector, collaging is the perfect artistic expression for him. It is his way of honoring the things he finds that most people consider junk and would throw away.
From a young age Julian has been unusually interested in collecting rocks, seashells, sticks, and leaves. He started collecting coins about a year ago and also collects stamps, taking great care in soaking and removing the stamp from every piece of mail received. Other unusual collections of his include junk mail, cardboard, rubber bands, and "thank you" stickers from the grocery store.
Instagram | littlewaterbearer
*This Interview was conducted using WhatsApp Voice Messaging and translated into text via Apowersoft