Laurie Carswell’s Paper Collages Give Old Materials New Meaning
The Austin artist layers books, magazines and wallpaper samples into dreamlike scenes inspired by the city’s natural landscape
From across the room, Laurie Carswell’s collages look like paintings. Up close, they reveal layer upon layer of cut and torn paper built from years of discarded material, with little words, secrets and moments of wonder hidden inside every rip and edge. A rattlesnake hides in the trees. The Sistine Chapel surfaces inside Barton Springs. A figure in the water dissolves into shimmer and suggestion.
Carswell came to Austin in 2004 from California, drawn by the music, the energy and a brother already planted here. “What really drew me to Austin is the value of the creative arts,” she says. “I just felt it in the air.” She decided to stay, and by 2017 the city had become both home and muse.
Barton Springs, Lady Bird Lake, the trails, bridges, native foliage and people all find their way into her work. She photographs Austin as she walks, collecting moments that later evolve into layered compositions drawn from the city’s natural landscapes.
Carswell works on oversized wood panels, building up scenes entirely from repurposed materials: retired library books, discontinued wallpaper sample books and old magazines. “These are papers that had their time, had their moment and now they’re kind of cast aside,” she says. “I still see so much value in them.” For Carswell, the medium is more than practical — it’s a window into endless creative possibilities. “The paper allows me to layer a world,” she says.
Each piece is glued down individually with a clear acrylic paint, one at a time, in a process she describes as deeply meditative. “There are no mistakes in this art form because you can keep layering forever,” she says. Improvisation is a welcome part of her process, one where she might flip a magazine clipping over and the other side might be exactly what she was looking for. “Sometimes the paper creates the project,” she explains. The goal is always to leave a bit of mystery for the viewer, with hidden moments scattered throughout the piece. “I don’t want to tell the whole story,” she explains. “I want to suggest it.”
Carswell’s work will be on view this summer at Verdant Gallery from Aug. 22 to Sept. 26. She will also lead a weekend paper art workshop at The Contemporary Austin Art School at Laguna Gloria on Sept. 12–13, sharing her practice of shaping paper into vivid, dimensional scenes.