This collage is not actually from this most recent set, it's from the batch before that. I tend to work in batches. I also work collaboratively sometimes - as in the case of the mail art collages with Lynne or with Lynne, Mike & Brian...a project I mentioned here before which is being wrapped up now. As I write this they are possibly even right this moment being scanned in Wisconsin. Soon they'll be ready for book form (that's the plan anyway) and then for exhibit, first in Wisconsin, in a special building...oh man, my memory is so bad right now...possibly a building dedicated to the book arts, something Mike is involved in. Yikes.
Anyway, when I work alone, we better stick to what I know right now, I work in big batches. I'll start 40 collages on blank chipboard and start to build the layers over time. In the prior 6 months or more I'll have probably been writing in a very concentrated way, a combination of journal writing, poetry and lame attempts at fiction, I'll go to writing group and I'll meet with Shannon in the mornings for a daily writing session, as we have been doing for the last one and a half years? I can't remember because this is a bad memory morning for anything involving anyone other than myself. But we'll usually have cereal and tea first and talk about how we're going to revolutionize the world with some techniques that employ Pokemon analogies as the only adequate means for conveying these uber powerful techniques. So, shhh, if you overhear us talking about Pokemon you'll know we're actually talking about our secret revolution. The other day I ate an ant that had snuck its way into my cereal. I'm still recovering from this. But I digress. I heavily digress.
This collage, pictured above, has one green butterfly wing and one moth wing, something I probably found at the flea market. Bear with me as I'm about to digress again. The other week my favorite little flea market boy found a moth and pinched the wings off of it, while still alive, and watched its body squirming and trying to fly - wingless - and I just didn't know what to do. I know boys are boys but I said to him what if I came along and ripped your arms off, for fun, that wouldn't be cool now would it? And last night two friends who are psychologists said isn't that lack of empathy, ripping the wings off of live moths, like the early indications of a Charles Manson type personality?
Suddenly I was very, very frightened. I've always had trouble reading men (for mate selection) and in the past have been attracted to the bad ones and maybe I'm taking it to a new level - spotting them when they are little boys even, bonding with them, unconsciously intervening with my superhero levels of codependent aid and support?
No, let us think happy thoughts this morning.
So, the collage, pictured above, has beautiful butterfly and moth wings which were obtained only after they each had died a natural and peaceful death, and on the right side is some paper that is made from apples, and underneath the paper made from apples are some medium format photos I took with my old Rolleiflex SLR of Ben's garden, a wonderful oasis of a place here in Santa Fe.
Happy thoughts, happy thoughts to you all this morning.
