Solace: Reconnecting with the Inner Child

Despite creating several collages and receiving positive feedback on them, I was still reluctant to consider myself as an artist, and thus did not carve out adequate time in my life to create. As such, exactly a year passed between my previous collage and my next one. However, early 2013 marked the beginning of an awakening in me. That winter, a time when we tend to look inward, I found myself ruminating on the person I was at age 15. It wasn't clear to me why I was suddenly attuned to that part of my past, but I listened, as it felt like I needed to re-connect with him.

The year I was 15 was a pivotal year in my life, for many reasons, but most importantly, it was the year I had two highly influential teachers-- Madame Bibighaus for French and Mrs. Teague for Art-- in two subjects that had tremendous resonance with me. It was a time of self-discovery, during which I began stepping out on my own, thinking for myself, formulating my own views and beliefs, and not holding any of it back from my family. The response from my father and his family to this initial glimpse into the essence of me was sheer rejection on all counts.While my interest in art wasn't rejected per se, it was not fostered or supported. Then, due to reorganization in the school district, I never had either of those incredible teachers again beyond that year. While I was able to carry on with my love of French, my connection to art, despite how much I enjoyed it, waned for different reasons. This revisiting in 2013 of the person that I was in 1992 gave way to me want to create more art, so on the 13th of February 2013, I completed:

Solace

"Solace" is composed entirely of magazine clippings. Oddly enough, the zen pottery piece was the starting point of this collage, as I had been eying it for quite some time. It just so happened that the Buddha image that I had on hand fit perfectly on top of the pottery piece, so that became his resting place. The rest of the collage was built around those two images with various design elements. The piece was created over the span of a few days because just when I thought I was finished with it, other elements would come to me, so I kept adding them, creating more layers.

Solace is, at age 15, what radiated from my soul through art, if only those around me hadn't tried to stifle the intrinsic essence of who I was. Solace is also, at age 36, what I experienced in 2013 when reconnecting with the spirit of that 15-year-old. Solace is what this piece embodies, and thus, "Solace" is the title it was given. With Valentine's Day coming up, I gave this art card to my partner to commemorate the solace he so often brings me.

Much like the time period that influenced the creation of "Solace", the piece itself is pivotal as it marked a change in my work. Partly by design and partly by chance, this collage has a more complex and intricate composition than my previous works. Upon its "release" this collage elicited more reactions from people than any of my previous work, which reverberated with me in the months that followed. From this, I eventually realized that I must focus on artwork more. While I didn't know it at the time, "Solace" would serve as the bookend to an era in my work by being the final project that doubled as a card for someone. From there, artistically, I had nowhere to go except to allow myself to jump off a cliff... and see where I landed.

Featured in this post: Solace
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