New Work: The Case of The Wandering Organ

The Case of The Wandering Organ
16" x 20"
painted paper collage on matboard

I think I have spent too much time watching Perry Mason and reading Nancy Drew! The piece above is based on several different ideas that came together. Here they are in no particular order. Tell me what you think.

Quite a few years ago I had an acquaintance tell me that they had been to their naturopath for a particular problem. The practitioner noted that my friend's organs were out of alignment. The naturopath proceeded to realign and move her organs back into place. (For the record, I did ask my own doctor about this. It isn't possible of course for your organs to "move around" on their own. They are "fixed" in place by all sorts of things-muscle, tendons, ligaments blood vessels, etc. They are of course responsive to our own movements such as our breathing but in general, your liver is not going to end up right next to your bladder.) 

So, that was one thing on my mind. The memory was prompted by something I had read concerning the location of the soul in our bodies. Where does the soul reside? Through the ages there has been much speculation: the heart, the liver, the brain, etc. Where does your soul live (and the subsequent question of what happens to it when you die)? I am a literal person so all of a sudden I pictured organs and your soul taking a trip through your body, willy nilly, not anchored to any other part of your anatomy. 

Ultimately though, while making the piece, I reflected on just how astonishing it is that we exist at all, given all of the things that must come together in order for us to live, wandering body parts notwithstanding. So many things can (and do) go wrong. To say that the generation of life is a complex process is a whopper of an understatement. All of the events that must happen so that any creature can be born is really beyond my comprehension. There is no way I could make a piece of art that expresses my amazement at what it really means for us all to be alive (and to be dead as well). Instead, I will settle for putting together shapes and colors and telling myself a few stories as I go along. It's all I can do. 

Thanks for reading,
Libby
Feel free to send me an email:
libbyfife@ymail.com