New Work: February and March 2023 Part 1

Cisco Bound
16" x 20" collage on matboard

The above piece was started in February and was inspired by that car image. It reminded me of a clown car only with flapper girls. As often happens, I had several thoughts about the car and the girls, seemingly unrelated but actually tied together. The image reminded me of that movie Thelma and Louise (which I actually never saw). I did read the synopsis though and I did remember that they drove themselves off of a cliff at the end of the movie. At the same time, somehow my mind made a leap to a desert scene and I remembered that Bugs Bunny cartoon with the dopey turkey vulture (the one who doesn't want to leave the nest). The vulture reminded me of death and I tied that together in my mind with the girls in the car in the movie, driving off of the cliff in the desert. I decided the girls in the car in the collage were on a road trip and along the way they encounter the vulture and eventually drive themselves off of a cliff. I know. Ridiculous but it's how my mind works. Being serious for a moment, I wonder really if anyone is ever beyond redemption. In the movie, one of the women shoots one of the male characters, sort of in self defense/retribution for attempted assault. Could the women have avoided that cliff and still received justice from the law? I guess that depends hence my question about redemption and by extrapolation, who gets treated favorably in the face of the law? Anyway, that's the story.

Artistically, creatively, for the piece I tried out some new ideas. First, the landscape format. Very uncomfortable at first but effective in trying to present a kind of "scene" or "story". Second, I worked on perspective. Specifically, the girls upfront coupled with the shot of the town was something I really wanted to try. I think that multiple perspectives in one piece are just fine, somehow. This isn't a traditional painting with a regular one point perspective and it's not a flat scene either. I enjoy the different scales of all of the different objects. And I really wanted to include a kind of "totem" which is what I did at the right. Hopefully, no one comes after me for cultural appropriation or cultural commodification. Lastly, the border I used is actually a collage of images that I made and then printed out. I used strips of that printed paper to create the borders.

I love the low tech nature of these collages. I am practically operating with tin cans and a string here, using hands on cut and paste methods and a very simple computer program and a printer. I use glue, a knife, and paste. It is so appealingly low key that I can barely suppress my delight each time things work. I do use my smart phone to take the photos and I do rely on my computer for processing them. But I always operate as if the power is out. Meaning, I always have a back up non electronic way  to make some sort of art. Anyone can be creative with papers, pencils and pens, scissors and glue. Just basic stuff here.

There is a second part to this post which discusses a separate body of work that I have going. I will be writing that one shortly.
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As always, thank you for reading. I encourage you to send an email with any questions or comments.
Libby
libbyfife@ymail.com