The saying 'one man's trash is another man's treasure' rings true for Toronto-based artist Selina Yung, whose analog collages are transformed entirely out of discarded and recycled materials. Her vendor booth 'Clever Clippings' at Pride is splayed with cutout magazine shreds, newspaper clippings, and plastic that has been upcycled into intricate creations that veil its prior simplicity, featuring everything from a landscape of St. Lawrence Market to bits-and-pieces of the iconic umbrella scene from 'My Neighbour Totoro.'
"All my work is actually paper collages," said Selina Yung, founder of Clever Clippings. "So it's taking things that people throw away and then carving them out to create art."
The energy of the streets for Pride's annual celebrations is busy and alive. Yung sees it as a reminder that the love of the arts is ever-present in the city, and she's come to recognize how that energy complements her art's core philosophy and her lingering moral belief that guides each of her creations:
"If we all deserve a second chance, why shouldn't these discarded images get a second life?"
For Yung, it's a principle she lives by when observing the world around her; the belief that no one or anything should ever be written off just because it's been discarded, overlooked, or judged by its initial surface state. Yung's style of repurposing discarded materials to embrace their quirks and unify them to breathe new life into art is what she believes is mirrored in Pride: ultimately, a celebration of oneself and humanity. That philosophy is precisely what she credits as to what led her to fall in love with analog collages: an art form defined by assembling diverse materials into a unified composition.
"I feel like people echo that message," she said. "They might feel rejected from the community or by some other person in the world. But they found their own circle, and they found their own worth."
Yung has officially been running Clever Clippings since 2021, but she admits that her path to embracing artistry as a full-time career did not come easily. She spent a decade as an accountant, a career path she acknowledges as the more ‘respectable’ choice, one meant to carry forward her family's Chinese lineage, but not a choice sustained by her own dreams. At a certain point, she found herself burnt out trying to live up to the dreams and hopes of her parents, yet her own fears were reaffirmed by their doubt.
"Doing art full-time is a scary thought," Yung said. "A stable paycheque is much more secure."
At certain points in her corporate finance career, Yung struggled with deep depressive states and symptoms that felt impossible to confront on her own. Art became the solace that kept her afloat through her evenings, weekends, and any spare time, when she would spend hours cutting and collaging miscellaneous pieces from her mailbox, posters, and flyers into creations based on her comfort childhood films and television series. Gradually, then suddenly, she began to recognize that art is what fulfilled a childhood dream that had been pushed to the side.
"Art actually saved me," Yung said. "I've been doing art full-time, and I'm so happy now."
Once she recognized where her true happiness lies, she began to listen to the tiny voice in her head urging her to pursue art to the fullest extent, and for once, she was free to explore her own version of fulfillment. Yung doesn't romanticize the jump from corporate life to the arts, advising that other artists looking to make a living off their passions ensure they have funds to fall back on, as failure can be an inevitable part of any new season of life.
"Save your money first before you take any steps," she said. "If you fail, you have to be able to carry that mistake and move forward from there. And there's nothing wrong with failing — at least you tried. But prepare yourself."
She takes a page from her younger self for today's art inspiration, looking back to her years spent die-hard fangirling for Sailor Moon and Studio Ghibli. She has begun to embrace the self-proclaimed nerdy fandoms to her heart's content with art that complements their more mature fans, spanning across anime, comics, and pop culture. Yung hopes her work helps others revisit their fondest childhood memories through pieces designed to spark joy. That work has since found an audience through her Instagram, markets, and galleries like Toronto's Outdoor Art Festival. Today, she is proud to say her work has even been seen by Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow.
Her work is sold online at cleverclippings.com, and Clever Clippings will appear this summer at the Washington Festival, the Sunday Variety Market, and the Kensington Flea Market. Follow along on Instagram.
