whole. arrival. is the last piece in our series. Laura Wetter started the piece, and Mari Lamp finished it. Both collaborators have described their inspiration, process, and reflection of the work below:
Laura: As I thought about what I would want to share with my collaborator, Mari, and with the group, I looked through a series of images that I have been contemplating for some time. The one that stuck with me was a quick snapshot of me holding a head of red-leaf lettuce after going for a swim. I initially took the photo because I was so impressed by the lettuce-which I received in a pre-paid vegetable box subscription-and also because I was feeling rather strong and whole at the time. I feel as if the figure in this piece is offering something to the viewer, forcing a level of participation. I thought about what I could offer to others. And how I could love a deity, a collective of people, or an individual, with all of myself. I thought of the call that Christians have to love God with a "whole" heart. I have never quite understood what this means, or what wholeness, which seems a lot like perfection, is exactly. I find myself not feeling whole, but believing that we are called to become more whole as we progress in our spiritual journeys. At the moment, and perhaps for the rest of my life, I can give you whatever it is I have, which is probably at best a semblance of wholeness without being the thing itself. And so I made the perfectly formed and whole head of lettuce into fragments that loosely tie together. This is part of my attraction to collage-it seems like a way to bring the disparate and disconnected life anecdotes together.
I sketched out the figure and added in other paper scraps, including the patterned paper with cut-out hearts, and a fragment of a photo of a wire fence. I wanted the figure to be bound in, and not fully visible. This is partly an acknowledgement of the canvas size, and I think it also helps to reinforce the fragmentation. The figures offers what she has from the place where she is. Mari responded to my initial work by painting a figure of herself on top of the frame that I had loosely sketched, but had not touched the collage. She made much of the background dark, giving more illusion of deep space than I had intended. I liked what she added, and I responded to her work by adding the parts of the figure that were still unfinished (torso and some edges) and adding more of my body characteristics to the figure. I did this because I thought it would make for a more true collaboration. I also added some outlines that echoed the lettuce leaves to the background, as well as a smear of design to the figure's arm to integrate the background patterned paper. It is tattoo-like but also brings the surface of the canvas into play. These additions add a hint of refrain-a nod to the overlapping patterns we often see in our lives. I handed the piece back to Mari with conclusion that we had each completed a self-portrait, and in so doing we also created the content of collaboration and friendship.
Mari: When Laura gave me the piece, it had collage elements and a pencil-outlined figure. I felt that this was a strong directive: “Paint this figure.” At first, I toyed with the idea of completely altering the canvas, getting rid of the figure. In the end, I decided to do it. I used an image of myself for reference (aware that Laura must have used an image of herself for the initial drawing), and in this way I painted my skin on her body. That process became a powerful symbol to me of our collaboration and how every layer of we. art. had become a combination of our abilities and personalities and baggage.
When I received the canvas for the 2nd time, I decided that I didn't just want to paint on it- I also wanted to contribute to the collage. I added the pink heart as a juxtoposition to the dark heart, and strengthened the line connecting the two. The white paper shards came through more of a process. I knew the piece needed some brightness, and bought several colors of paper for that purpose. After a night of cutting curvy and planty shapes out of paper and arranging them, I decided it wasn't working. I picked up a piece of white copy paper, cut it up at random, and threw the pieces on the canvas. With one or two tweaks, what you see is how they fell. I like how the sharp brightness contrasts with the softer shapes underneath.
I chose the word “arrival” after deliberating for days. I couldn't decide what concept or idea I was trying to capture, probably because I was responding to Laura's initial work. Arrival is about coming to Chicago and being handed many beautiful gifts,
including this project and this friendship.
whole. arrival. is one of thirteen original collaborative pieces created for the we. art. series. To view all of the thirteen pieces, view our previous post, finished. work.
No comments:
Post a Comment