Behind the Creation

I didn’t begin with a name or a mythology. She simply became. A woman caught somewhere between artifact and deity. Marble, but still watching. Surrounded by objects that belong to different systems of meaning. Things humans have used for centuries to understand death, beauty, fate, violence, nature, and whatever might exist beyond us.

The red planet behind her became important as I worked. It is enormous and impossible, almost threatening, but she doesn't turn toward it. She remains composed beneath a sky that has become completely irrational. I think that became the center of her for me: the world can become enormous around a woman without making her small.

The skull isn't there simply as death. The flower isn't simply life. The dagger isn't simply violence. I wanted those things crowded together because our symbols become much less obedient when they're placed beside one another. Beauty can exist beside brutality. Something dead can be preserved. Something ancient can still feel alive. A weapon can become ceremonial. A flower can be dangerous.

And then there is the paper itself. I wanted her to look assembled rather than painted into existence. Torn edges, old print, fragments, stains, diagrams, pieces that don't perfectly belong together. She is constructed from remnants.

Maybe that's ultimately what she means to me.

We inherit fragments—of people, histories, bodies, beliefs, losses, places we've lived, things we've survived—and somehow make a self from them. There is no clean edge where one piece ends and another begins.

She looks like an ancient goddess, but I don't think she is one.

I think she is what remains after the gods are gone.

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All of my collages are created with intention during specific moon cycles and positions. I am also more than happy and completely open to creating collages on commission during a particular period for you!

WANING GIBBOUS IN GEMINI.