Marlise Keith refused to fix her boyfriend's boxer shorts. It wasn't a feminist gesture, or even because she didn't know how to; but rather because she wanted to chop them into small pieces for a collage. She probably could have found scraps elsewhere to form the clouds, but she likes using unexpected materials. Part of the thrill is putting them together; seeing how mundane, overlooked or throwaway items can be transformed."I like the idea of making high art out of trash."Carpentry tools and a part of her master's degree have found their way into her collages. Of the more offbeat materials she's used in the works she shared at her solo exhibition, Difficult Things, at the Worldart Gallery, Cape Town, are the green plastic dividers used for packaging sushi.This stylised motif is part of a collage which includes a headless cowboy, a cat with irregular eyes and mesh onion bags."The challenge is making everything work together," says Keith.Her tiny studio in Clovelly is brimming with a cornucopia of items that wouldn't ordinarily be worth collecting. She scours all sorts of places to find them; including those budget shops, where you can pick up anything for under R5.She doesn't have a message or statement in mind when she begins to make a collage - she's guided by her intuition and dark sense of humour. The results are surreal 2D creations on Belgian linen framed by embroidery hoops, lending each composition a circular boundary.This, like everything about Keith's work, wasn't intentional."I didn't want to waste time having frames made, so I just went to the nearest fabric shop and found the hoops."She's aware of the link between craft art and feminism, but she says that her work is not motivated by any gender theme.An adept illustrator, she includes her hand drawings in her collages but is not exactly a crafter - she taught herself embroidery by watching YouTube clips.She challenges the craft-like appearance via these strange surreal, dark and twisted scenes - hybrid creatures, lines and textures. The collage mode is a result of her reluctance to make art from scratch.It's not that Keith is lazy."I am very impatient. I just want to get it over with."She also experiences migraines for days. "I never know how long it will last, so I don't have time to mess around."Collaging means she can put works together quickly.The Japanese connection also remains constant.Aside from the sushi dividers, the confluence of cutesy motifs with a dark edge is also inspired by popular culture from that country. The flatness too.Part of the charm of Keith's work is her humour, the playfulness of the medium and the pervasive sense of ambiguity which keeps you guessing.Contact Keith at marlise@marlisekeith.com..