ROBERT BRISSETTE
What I Do
The inspiration for my collages came from a college English professor, who gave an assignment to research what was going on in the world on the day we were born and write an essay about it. The concept struck a chord, and when my first daughter was born I made a framed collage that featured headlines, photos, current movie ads, sports scores, quotes and the like to reflect what the world looked like on that day. I did another for my second daughter.
I made a collage when my second daughter was born a few years later, following the same design scheme by featuring headlines, Broadway play listings, movies, baseball box score, crossword puzzle and select real estate listings in NYC to create a snapshot of what was going on in the world that day. It hangs proudly on her bedroom wall all these years later.
This is the very first collage I made to commemorate the birth of my first daughter. It's an eye-catching photo-journal that she cherishes to this very day.
Friends were duly impressed and very complimentary - they wished they had ones made for each of their kids - and suggested I make them as gifts. So I began creating upscale, artistic pieces for birthdays, bar/bat mitzvahs, weddings and anniversaries. They also make great house-warming gifts.
I put a great deal of time and effort into crafting each collage to completely personalize according to someone's personality, career choices, individual accomplishments, lifestyle interests, nicknames and anything else about them, with the birth announcement, mitzvah invitation or photo as the centerpiece. Deluxe scrapbook art provides eye-catching color, texture and visual icons about a person's lifestyle.
It's very rewarding to see the reaction when I deliver a completed piece. The "WOW!!" factor is really incredible. There's nothing quite like a personalized, commemorative gift that lasts for years and captures the spirit of a special occasion in words, artwork and thematic images.
Why give another ordinary gift, or phone it in with a faceless gift certificate, when you can have something truly special made to order?