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:
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| 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
All current artwork can be found in my profile at Fine Art America. Thank you for your time and your support.
Contrary to what some people think, being an empath doesn't mean that you can read people's minds. In actuality, it means that you can read people's emotions. This isn't always an easy ability to have, especially when you encounter people who have deep emotional scars of which they are unaware. For this reason, dealing with the world's emotions can be very tiring. However, this ability can also be a gift, both for the empath and for the one emitting the emotion(s). Nothing comforts a person more than having someone who can relate to what they're going through, and as the empath, nothing is more rewarding than knowing that your sensitivity to emotions has helped someone. The trick is to know who appreciates your sensitivity and who exploits it.
Six months after creating my previous mixed media collage, I found myself creating the next one. The difference this time was that I was called upon to make it for someone I didn't know all that well. He was a young guy who I met through the cooperative community in Buffalo. He was a member of the credit union where I worked and I was a member of the food cooperative where he worked, so we got to know each other in small doses by waiting on each other. His demeanor resonated with me because if you stripped away whatever layers of stuff life had dealt him, he seemed to be a genuinely kind, and a fellow sensitive, soul. I naturally gravitate toward people like this because I think the world has an abundance of unkind people. At any rate, at a certain point, his grandfather passed away, and it really hit him. From our brief interactions, I learned who his grandfather was and how much he gave to his family, friends, and community. He touched many people throughout his life, particularly his grandson. It was then that I understood how his grandfather had instilled the qualities of a good person in him. From there, my heart broke, over and over again. So, on the 20th of February 2012, I created:
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| Remembrance |
Unlike my previous work where I began with the background and worked my way forward, with "Remembrance" I began with the centerpiece and worked my out and backward. The figure in the center is a fallen gravestone that I photographed in a cemetery in Binghamton, NY. As I began to think about what to include in this piece, this photograph came to mind as I had always enjoyed it. Everything surrounding the photograph is clippings from magazines, with the background being more of the wallpaper I salvaged from a renovation project.
The contents of "Remembrance" are far less abstract than most of my work, but given the subject matter and the central image I was using, it felt right to create a somewhat traditional memorial for this guy. The theme of the piece, and its title, are self-explanatory. I wrote a few lines on the back of the image (yep, this was another piece of art to serve as a card for someone) to say that it's important to remember because so long as he remembered the good person his grandfather was, the gifts he instilled in him will live on forever. When I gave the card to him, I told him that even though I didn't know him all that well, I made this for him because I was so moved by the honor that he held for his grandfather.
Soon thereafter, he stopped working at the food cooperative, and with me no longer working at the credit union, our interactions are over. I believe that I encountered him when I did so that I could give this gift to him. Honestly, it was a gift for me, too. Not only was it more practice creating artwork, but I learned that simply by empathizing to the degree which I do, I create artwork as a way to dispel emotions that are brewing in this empathic soul of mine. Understanding that exchange, along with this collage to show for it, I can say that, yes, being an empath truly is a gift.
Featured in this post: Remembrance
All current artwork can be found in my profile at Fine Art America. Thank you for your time and your support.
