Natalie Armstrong
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AQ Issue IV artist Natalie Armstrong is a mixed media collage artist from Metairie, Louisiana. Armstrong began her art journey in 2022, naming her business, !Fifi Gi! Storied Collage Art, after her two young, wild, and wonderful daughters, Gigi and Phoebe. She uses both digital and traditional analog techniques in her work, which is very female-centric, and enjoys not only the act of creating but also the process of hunting for and endlessly manipulating images in what she terms a “joyful obsession.”
She is interested in the maximalist aesthetic of “more is more” and is greatly influenced by the classic pin-up portraits of artists such as Pearl Frush, Joyce Ballantyne, Alberto Vargas, Gil Elvgren, and more. She enjoys incorporating those elements into her work in a way that expands, reframes, and relocates their stories from her own perspective into what she calls “playfully contradictory re-imaginings.” She notes, “I believe people are a collection of the tiniest of details, often conflicting, that come together in the most intricate and beautiful ways to tell their stories. I love the unique opportunity collage affords to find and interpret these tiny details, piecing them together to create a story.”
Her work has been exhibited at The Art Alley Marketplace, Creative At Work Gallery, Downtown Monroe Main Street, Louisiana Peach Fest, The Red River Revel Art Festival, Druid City Arts Festival, and Time Traveler’s Vintage Expo, with upcoming shows at The Agora Borealis and The Region 8 Gallery in February 2025.
https://fifigicollageart.com
What inspired you to become an artist, and how did you decide to commit to this path?
My childhood spent painting with my grandmother, Gigi, in New Orleans—recreating Betty Boop imagery and Clementine Hunter paintings on fallen roof shingles with glitter, acrylics, and glue in her 100-year-old house on Jackson Ave, surrounded by Louis Icart prints—had and has such an enormous effect on my art aesthetic today. She was playful, irreverent, ambivalent, wild, and carefree, which is how I often see my own work.
I did not, though, become a visual artist until later in life. After getting sober in 2013 and then with the birth of my first child in 2018, I decided I was ready to pursue a career path in the arts. Fully committing to this path was a gradual process, influenced by supportive family, friends, mentors, and an unwavering desire to create and communicate through art.
Could you share the story or concept behind your recent work?
One of my most recent pieces, titled Frida de las Adelitas, is not only an homage and love letter to one of my favorite artists, Frida Kahlo, but also to the Mexican female soldaderas, also known as adelitas, who broke barriers and defied gender norms by taking up arms during the Mexican Revolution in the early 20th century to help Mexico break free from the oppressive regime of Porfirio Díaz.
In this imagined reality, Frida is re-imagined as an adelita and rests atop a nest of veins interwoven with and emblematic not only of the struggle and sacrifice of her compatriots but also mirroring the raw emotion she captured in her self-portraits. It is a reflection of the pain and strength that define both her own and her compatriots’ lives and revolutionary spirit.
I felt really challenged with the piece as I wanted to adequately honor Frida and reflect her work but also honor these amazingly courageous women and Mexican history, which is also uniquely tied to my own ancestral history.
What was the most challenging part of your path so far? How are you navigating this obstacle?
Honestly, the most challenging aspect of my artistic journey thus far has been trying to juggle the many hats one must wear not only as an artist but also as a business owner and mother. Trying to find the time to create, manage social media and marketing, apply to shows, update websites, catalog and package inventory, and then pick the kids up from school on time and get them to and from their activities in the evenings can definitely be a challenge.
I really just try my best to be present in whatever I am doing in that moment and to put my kids first. I know the time I have with them while they’re young like this is fleeting, so I really just want to enjoy them in this beautiful, messy stage of life we’re in.
What role does experimentation and exploration play in your artistic practice?
Experimentation and exploration are definitely at the core of my artistic practice as a mixed media collage artist. Each piece starts as an exploration of how different found images can be blended, manipulated, and then interact in a way that conveys meaning.
The process of gathering what usually ends up being hundreds of pages of images for a piece and then altering them just so, is itself an act of exploration.
Do you have any start or stop rituals before creating?
Before I begin a piece, I generally like to have a mind map of concepts, words, and/or images I want to find. Sometimes I’ll even have a rough sketch of the direction I’d like the piece to take. I do like to have something concrete in front of me before I begin image hunting, but I also try to remain open to changes and unexpected inspiration along the way.
What message do you hope your art conveys to the world?
Joy. The best compliment I’ve ever gotten has been watching someone see my work and smile to themselves.
I don’t believe my art is earth-shattering or supremely life-changing or even really deep most of the time, and that’s okay. I think I was so self-conscious of that fact, especially when I started trying more to position myself in the “art world.” The world I have created with my art is fun, playful, light, sometimes ironic, ambivalent, contradictory, and joyful, like my grandmother.
Share a mantra or favorite quote that keeps you going.
I like so many quotes, but one I keep coming back to is by David Lynch when he says, “This whole world is wild at heart and weird on top.” It reminds me to never take myself too seriously, to not hold back, and to strive to be fearlessly playful in my work.
