Sometimes, plans go awry. This collage… Well, it was intended as an 8″ x 10″ work, so the support I started with was 8.5″ x 11″.
But, as I kept working, it grew.
The collage elements include images leftover from a piece I worked on, yesterday.
The woman at the top of the art is Sharon Stone. Her comment about roles for women – that they’re aren’t any between ages 40 and 60 – resonated with me. Ageism continues to thrive, as do labels, especially for women. That 40-to-60 age can be especially troublesome.
(I see the recent raves about how great/young Selma Hayek looks in a swimsuit, at age 53, and wonder, “Yes, she looks great, but are we defining ‘beauty’ as ‘looks like she’s 30’? and why is her age part of the headline? Why not say ‘Selma Hayek Has Style’ and leave it at that?”)
So, the “you’re READY” phrase and “She’s back” are about rebellion against compartmentalization – by age, race, gender, and so on.
The elevator buttons reference rising up.
The image of the woman at the lower left is deliberately torn, as all of us try to navigate a challenging time. Right now (January 2021), I think so many people are confused and somewhat overwhelmed, compartmentalizing is even easier.
It’s a way to put people into categories instead of finding time to understand them as individuals.
What’s resulting is a fractured society, defined by labels that can separate us.
And then there’s how the collage spilled off the lower edge of the support. In a way, that’s part of the artistic message, as well. It was unintended, but… well, many of us are “playing it by ear” right now. If the results aren’t tidy, at least they’re authentic.
Materials: torn images from magazines, Yes paste, and a poster board support.
The photo shows my worktable, with cotton swabs for applying small bits of adhesive, my Speedball brayer for smoothing each piece as its applied, the collage itself (on a kitchen cutting board I like for collage work), and my reading glasses for seeing details.
Some related art journaling and collage articles you may enjoy:
Torn-Paper Collages – How-to video (a 2010 video – some info outdated)
Adding Collage Layers in Your Artists Journals
You can see more of my best collages in the Gallery section of this website, and at my Eibhlin.com website.
(My real name is Eibhlin, pronounced “Eileen.” I’d adopted the “Aisling D’Art” pen name in the 1990s, when few women were online, and it seemed prudent to protect my privacy. Then, when the Aisling name became associated with the art journaling movement, I kept using it.)
