FRAGMENTS OF LIFE - NO. 06.
Fragments of Life No. 06
12.5 x 15.5 inches | Mixed media on wood, walnut floating frame
Several rainy, dreary days this week made for the perfect time to be back in the studio creating and preparing for a couple of events this spring where I’ll be showing some of my work. More details to come soon. For now, my studio floor is covered in bits and pieces of paper, fabric, printed photography from my travels, ribbon, thread, old book pages, gesso, paint, scraps I tore off something months ago and kept because I liked the edge. There’s also a flat lay of “natural curiosities” I assembled from our trip to Olympic National Park this past summer, color palette swoon. It’s really anything I’ve collected over time that I find interesting, and I’ve amassed quite the collection, I might add.
I was just talking to my husband this week, which is honestly an ongoing conversation at this point, about how I might need a studio just for my art supplies. He just looks at me with that expression that says right, of course, that makes perfect sense, even though we both know it probably doesn’t. There are drawers and bins and stacks and little piles that feel both inspiring and slightly concerning. It’s almost, and I say almost to make myself feel better, some sort of art supply addiction, perhaps a slightly out of control collecting habit, although I’m somewhat organized in my gathering and curating.
I don’t keep things randomly, at least that’s what I tell myself. There’s something about fragments of things that always catches my eye and calls my name. A torn photograph from an Italian museum brochure, a scrap of linen from an old project or a jumpsuit where I ripped the seat squatting down, which may or may not be a true story, a page from a book that felt meaningful at the time, a quote or typeface from a magazine or newspaper that I love. I just can’t bring myself to throw them away. They feel like small pieces of a lived life, maybe memories or evidence or texture, a feeling of time and place that spark an idea.
When I start a collage in this ongoing, open ended series, Fragments of Life, I’m not looking for perfection. I’m looking for a conversation between materials, an interaction, a conversation of sorts, between materials. It’s where something worn is juxtaposed with something newer. Where something rough meets something smooth or where an image from years ago is placed next to something I just picked up last week.
Right now the studio looks like a bomb exploded kind of messy, the floor has layers and layers of art supplies and the table is crowded with stacks of supplies too. And honestly, it’s hard to walk around in here. And somewhere in the middle of it all, this is what brings me joy right now… creating… ripping and tearing and cutting and arranging and rearranging and gluing and layering until something clicks into place.
More soon,
xx,
Michel
