My sister left behind quite a collection of mostly empty sketchbooks. Two springs ago, right after her death, I decided to use one for the collage project being run by Acey. I may have posted many of these pix before but I found this draft post and decided to share.
To make the paper weaving, I glued the tops of the vertical strips, then wove the horizontals. I tacked the horizontals with glue here and there.
You might wonder: why James Franco?
Well I liked his naked form against that charcoal background but also, young(ish) men often show up in my collages. Earlier in life, I’d have said they were explorations of my male side, but since having two sons they feel like attempts to understand what it means to come of age as a man in the 2000’s.
Below are a bunch more. The second one is one of two Tarot cards that I’ve made: The Fool. Number Zero of the Major Arcana.
For info on this collage project see Acey’s blog sparklinglotusink (if it’s still there)
For more SoulCollage cards of mine, go to Flickr on sidebar and open the SoulCollage album (if it’s still there). Or, track the SoulCollage and collage tags here.
I’ve noticed missing photos in older blog posts and am having trouble getting any sort of useful answers from WordPress. They suggest, knowing nothing, that it’s usually the user’s fault. And I’m certain it’s the platform’s fault. Just another goddamned thing to figure out, ya know?
Maybe I saw one of the weavings… maybe. You are so prolific and these all are so fresh, though I guess they are “old”. Telling. So insightful of life and the various experiences loss. I’m not taken so much with the woven paper – though it’s really well done of course – but I am impaled by most of the others. Those soldiers marching back along the top of the book: wow. the horizontal boy. boyhood. I have no kids, but having taught art at a boys’s school I can feel these.Did I ever tell you I read parts of Gilgamesh for my art students to draw images from? The woman walking away outside the Louvre. The hung human with the swan. The very large young child flying. jeeeeeezuz. It’s like seeing those truths seemingly impossible to describe.
The collages really help me express so much of what is unknowable about the boys’ futures. Or at least my feelings about that.
experiences *of* loss
Love all your collage work!
Thanks so much Jen. Sometimes I knock them because producing them has an obsessive quality …
Ugh … blogs
I’ve been writing that quite a bit recently jn response to issues across the various platforms … but WordPress has been a particular irritant of late as Don can’t comment from his iPad without having to go through so many steps … at this point he’s decided it’s not worth it
I assumed the broken images in your mouse making tutorial were “my fault” … so sorry to hear it’s a bigger issue than that … sigh
okay, on to the important stuff … thank you for the throwback to Acey’s collage challenge … it seems like more than two years ago, but of course the pandemic has warped time beyond all reckoning
your young men are as mysterious as the collages inspired by them … I am, as ever, awed by how prolific you are … feeling out of my depth in any attempt to do more than just respond viscerally, let alone formulate a literal response
Your collages are fascinating. You are many faceted! I have broken photos too… just seems like so much effort to go through and do cleanup. Sometimes I try to fix them if I run across them. Hassle.