Ingrid Bird, a scientist, passionate about collage
Brome County News: 2025 November, Joan Barnes
Ingrid Bird is a graduate of Dawson College where she studied Med Lab Technology. Between McGill University and University of Western Ontario she spent 15 years as an immunological research technologist. Because her lab work using a microscope reminds her that fibers often look like rough jute under the microscope, she was inspired to do textile art.
She tried various techniques like quilting, decorative knotting, painting and drawing before finally settling on collage.
Ingrid took a year's sabbatical to explore making visual art inspired by the science she practiced. She moved to St. John's, Newfoundland where she worked freelance as an artist in textile art and collage for five years. She never went back to science and the labs. She became employed as a library clerk at Memorial University where she went from circulation to periodicals.
It was at this time that she began doing collage seriously. She was sorting magazines the week the towers fell in New York City. The magazine sorting involved looking at pictures of people falling from buildings and other posted pictures of the horror at that time. It began to get to her and one day she thought, "I have to render this. I can't stand it." So, she began cutting up the expired magazines with the idea of turning them into something cheerier.
Ingrid returned to the province of Quebec in 2006 where she presently works at the Pettes Memorial Library.
Before she began to do a lot of collage Ingrid spent hours going through expired magazines and cutting out colours, shapes or textures that attracted her attention. She has filed this material into containers according to color or texture. "I get my magazines from discards at the library which is very eco-conscious," she says.
Ingrid brought with her into the artistic community the experience of working in the library at Memorial University in Newfoundland but also a scientific way of thinking. My experience with scientists is that they have a precise, methodical way of thinking and doing things. Her method of creating a collage is similar to setting up a scientific experiment.
Along with this approach Ingrid also brought an intelligence, curiosity, creativity, knowledge of literature and an awareness and interest in current events. All of this provided a base for creating some fascinating, original artwork.
Her procedure in making a collage is to first assign herself a simple task such as selecting from her stash of colours one that she will use to cover a small ceramic tile to create a background. At this stage no thinking is involved.
The tiles she uses measure about 6 x 6 or 5 x 8 in size (definitely under 10 x 10.) She is working on quite a small surface. The tile becomes her original work.
The next step is to play and experiment with what to add next. As she adds pieces to make a pleasing composition on her background colour, she eventually sees an idea or image emerging. She may start off abstract and discover something in it that reminds her of a little girl for example. At this point she contemplates the image and adds pieces to convey the nascent idea more vividly.
When she starts doing a collage, she has no idea what will come from her work. Nothing is pre-planned. Everything comes as a surprise. Some pieces she makes and then remakes. Time spent to do them varies. Many hours are spent on one and two weekends on another. She has several on the go at once when she's working on the same colours.
To apply the paper pieces, she uses a method she learned in the lab. She dips the paper fragment into a glue solution and then places it onto the ceramic tile which she heats to speed the drying time. She continues until she has a finished product she's pleased with. She doesn't worry about toxicity of materials. It's environmentally sound.
Because the finished tiles are so small they wouldn't be seen across a room when on display. So, she photographs the original work. enlarges the picture and frames it making pictures that measure about 12 x 18. Her current project is a trial to see what her work looks like when she photographs it, enlarges it and then frames it. The result makes the original work look quite different.
For Ingrid, the fun part is the conclusion where she names the collage. Examples of her titles: Sea Turtle Talks to her Lawyer, Thousand and One Nights, Morning in Mondrianville, How Can We Sleep while our Beds are Burning, Reverend Spooner on his well Boiled Icicle. She enjoys this part of the process very much.
Ingrid describes her work this way: "It's sort of a process of self-discovery. As I'm working, I assign myself an anodyne thing. I'll decide to take dark colours or bright colours or three stripes of colour." She fits things together randomly as she goes. "A lot of current events are being transmuted into these. They're explained like a dream sequence in a way," she explains.
Like all artists Ingrid needs to be careful of the copyright laws. There's a percentage she can use, as long as it's not recognizable.
Things that go through her mind as she works: if COVID had a granny what would she look like or she sees images of people in the Gaza and what they're going through.
Most of her works are collage with the exception of a few sketches.
One day she may do workshops. The work is very satisfying she finds. There is/was a display of her art in the Knowlton Uniprix window during the month of November.