Cheryl Molnar has lived in New York for most of her life. Born and bred on Long Island, the young collage artist currently lives and works in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Fascinated by the shifts and alterations constantly happening to the urban locales in which she lives, Molnar creates intricate, powerful collages that capture tenuous moments of architectural change. We interviewed Molnar via e-mail about gentrification, her unique choice of artistic medium, and an intriguing future project on the rapidly-changing Williamsburg/Greenpoint waterfront.

You grew up on Long Island and currently live in Brooklyn. How have the places you’ve lived influenced your work, and what draws you to depict them?

I have always been sensitive to my surroundings. Growing up in a working-class neighborhood on Long Island, I spent time in a place that was engineered to provide young families with the “American Dream” — new (at the time) ranch houses, “modern” appliances, a small patch of green space and a driveway. But the structures and goods, manufactured to supply this dream, were generally poorly constructed, impersonal and generic. This “assembly line” production not only prevented neighborhoods from developing any lasting character but did not integrate itself into the natural surroundings. This disregard for nature deeply affected me and is one of the central themes in my work.