Photographic collages by Ysabel LeMay

The work of Austin, Texas-based visual artist Ysabel LeMay can be summed up simply: W.O.W. It stands for ‘Wonderful Other Worlds’, which she creates through the process of hypercollage. Her digitally composed panoramas of natural splendor, the real world remixed to paradisal perfection, are so vividly realized that one feels drawn to step into them. Traveling extensively, LeMay shoots plants, animals and the elements, constantly replenishing her visual catalog of the living world. While her technique is high-tech, LeMay’s hypercollage process is instinctual and organic, allowing each piece to dictate its own destiny. From a single, simple starting point — an image, a color, an emotion — she follows a meticulous process. First isolating and extracting elements of her photos, LeMay then weaves these together into intricate compositions of resplendent beauty.

Ysabel LeMay. Sanctum, 2011