Our local library started a Creative Group and in our first session we were introduced to collage. Although I’ve been doing art most of my life, collage is something I’ve had great curiosity about but never quite delved into. This was fun and this one which I’ve titled “Swimmers” is a bit of a conundrum for me, as I don’t really understand it. Then again, that’s true for a lot of my art. Sometimes I know instantly as they emerge on the canvas what they mean to me, and other times it takes years before the meaning is clear.
The title “Swimmers” felt right because of the fish, but also because I was listening to a song titled “Swimmers” by Zero 7 over and over as I created this work. Music has a huge impact on my art and I usually can’t create without it. It’s common practice for me to hear a song that deeply speaks to the way I feel, even if I don’t know how to describe the way I feel in words, and then I play the song on repeat as I paint or create a work of art in another medium. This is something I’ve been doing all my adult life.
The first part of this collage that came together is the body with the white dress, the orange flower, and the face which sits above the neck so there’s a space between the head and neck. This kind of makes sense to me with how I’ve felt since the strokes. My head isn’t the same. I added the white circle above which is a drawing by Galileo of the solar system. Made sense to me again, as I often feel very spacey and a bit disconnected.
I’ll continue working with collage as I think they’re powerful, as powerful as any other creative medium in showing me something that needed to be expressed but that I wasn’t sure was there.